Breakfast time is a great opportunity to help your child learn about making decisions. You can chat about what鈥檚 on your plate and give your child the choices that help them learn new words.
As you talk about what鈥檚 ahead for the day, you can start talking to your little one about the breakfast food options you have and start conversations about their decision. At first, they might need encouragement to make a choice, but they鈥檒l soon get involved.
Why offer choices of food?
- When you offer a child a choice, you give them a reason to speak. Rather than asking 'would you like toast?', when you ask 'Would you like toast or a crumpet?', you're more likely to hear words other than yes or no or just get pointing for an answer
- You're encouraging independent thought and decisions
- Mealtimes offer a chance to talk about tastes, textures and smells
How to offer choices at mealtimes
Making choices is a great way for children to practise the words they know for foods, so try offering them a couple of different options at meal times.
You can also use mealtimes to introduce children to lots of different words for tastes and textures.
The more you do this together, the more your child will learn about how to identify what they like and dislike and use the new words they鈥檝e learnt to communicate what they want.
Try letting your little one choose between more than one food 鈥 like jam or just butter on their toast. Say the words as you offer them like, 'Do you want butter or jam?' and wait for their response.
Once they give you a response, encourage their decision making by adding in affirming commentary for example, 'mmm, jam is tasty' or 'it smells nice.'
Image caption, By giving children choices, you are letting them practise making decisions and saying the different words they know.
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