5 language basket ideas to support children's language development

Are you already familiar with language baskets? A language basket is any basket you can find at your home, filled with objects around certain theme. You can use language baskets to expand your child's vocabulary or to help them learn new words. You use language baskets in any language, with children of different ages and levels of language capacity. ​

Simply put a basket with objects inside it within your child’s reach. You can introduce the language basket and name the objects one by one or let your child explore freely and name the objects that are being played with. Especially babies enjoy exploring objects with their hands and mouth which helps develop the fine motor skills needed for language learning. 

When your child begins to understand words, you can ask them to pick and item they already know from the basket, for example” Can you find a dog?”  If the wrong object is pulled you can simply say:” Oh, you found a bear. Let’s try to find a dog!” If the child can’t remember some of the objects, you can name them again.  

If your child can already talk and knows how to point out the objects you are asking them to find, you can encourage them to name familiar objects that they take from the basket. If the child is mispronouncing words, you can gently correct them:” Look a god!”” Yes, you found a DOG.  If your child gets frustrated or upset from being corrected, you can repeat the words correctly the next time you play, the most important thing is to encourage your child to speak and produce words, they will learn the correct pronunciation eventually. 

HOW TO USE A LANGUAGE BASKET

• Find any basket or box at home, even a bag will do fine  
• Put in it some objects that represent a theme that your child is interested in  
• Explore the content of the basket together 

The internet is full of wonderful language baskets ideas, but I have included a few examples that you can quickly put together quickly at your home from objects you probably already have, or that are easily accessible: 

1. A basket with the kitchen utensils is a good first basket for a baby or a child who is interested in cooking. Remember safety: Don’t put in any sharp or dangerous objects.

2. When your child starts to know basic words, you can expand their vocabulary with some more specific words. For example, there are different types of cars and vehicles:  convertible, pick up, crossover, sedan, quad bike, excavator etc.

3. For an older child you can simply make some cuttings from the advertisements and magazines. Here’s some household themed vocabulary. Your child can cut also cut picture out themself and glue them onto a paper and even write the words with an adult. 

4. You can also make nature themed baskets. 

​5. You can probably find different things at home that can be suitable for role play (costumes, funny hats, shoes, accessories etc.) that you can collect them all in a role play basket. Together you can think about what the object is and who it might belong to. Your child can invent their own characters and adult can ask questions about the character.  

Written by:
​Margarita Mikhel-Holmberg

 

JAA KANSSAMME SINUN KIELIKORI-IDEASI! ​Have you used language baskets?
​Share a photo of your own language basket ideas in the comments!