Fun Cookie Categories for Teaching Core Vocabulary and Categorization Skills

Categorization is one of the key skills speech-language pathologists work on with language impaired students. Being able to recognize that animals belong together and that clothes are different is a crucial building block for language development. Some of the first learned categories for children are animals, food, clothes, and vehicles/transportation. 

Once children learn basic categories, they can be further divided into categories such as farm animals, ocean animals, forest animals, for example; Food items can be further divided into fruit, vegetables, and drinks or breakfast, lunch, and dinner food. There are so many ways to categorize, and the more a child knows, the better they are able to compare, contrast, and describe core vocabulary as they get older and their language skills advance. 

As a child's categorization skills advance, vocabulary can be categorized by function or feature. A function is what the item does. For example, a vaccuum cleaner, a broom, and a mop are all items that we use to clean. A feature of a banana is that it is yellow. In this case, the sun, a banana, and a lemon could all be categorized together as things that are yellow. 

When working on categories with children, making activities fun goes a long way! Instead of going through basic flashcards or using worksheets, I have my students put same category items shaped as cookies in labeled cookie jars. Using cookie cut outs keeps my students more stimulated and they enjoy trying to fill up their jars. Check out this activity here: Basic Cookie Categories: Teaching Core Vocabulary and Categorization

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