12 printable pictograms to simplify your child's evening routine!
Karine Ross, orthophonisteThis is the second article in a 4-part series to guide you through routines.
The benefits of using pictograms
When some children have difficulty developing oral language, speech therapists sometimes turn to the use of pictograms due to their many advantages. Indeed, pictograms offer a clear visual representation of words, facilitating comprehension for children at the beginning of language acquisition. They make oral language, which is often symbolic, more concrete.
It is also a means of communication that helps these children express their needs, desires, and emotions more easily. For example, they simply point to an image representing "a bed" for the parent to understand that they are falling asleep. This form of non-verbal communication can significantly reduce frustrations related to unmet needs and strengthen the child's sense of competence in communication, despite their linguistic challenges.
For example, when reading a book with the child, you can place pictograms representing different basic emotions nearby (angry, sad, happy). As you read, show the child the pictogram corresponding to the emotion experienced by the character in the story. In this way, the child learns the vocabulary of emotions more concretely and can eventually refer to them more easily when they experience these emotions in daily life. This is also a perfect time to explore Symbolicone books, where each element of the sentence is illustrated by a pictogram!
