Listen to the Language at Art Class

By Sherry Artemenko MA, CCC
Speech Language Pathologist

Want more than an art class? Just step into the Creative Castle, an art school for children ages 18 months to 8 years located in Fairfield , Connecticut . The moment your child sits down on the squishy brightly colored patchwork floor, he is showered with rich language to accompany his play, songs and art work.

I was there for “Blue Day” with the 2 ½- 3 ½ year olds. Mr. Scribbles shared his blue toys: scarves to move to music, maracas to shake to the beat of a chugging train, and dolphins that followed the children's directions. Songs and rhymes accompanied the activities, giving the children experience in focusing on sounds, and rhyming, a precursor to reading.

We enjoyed a blue snack of blueberries on a blue tablecloth while listening to The Little Engine that Could who was of course, blue! After reading the story, Holly talked about how the children can try new things, be proud of their accomplishments and smile just like the little blue engine. Reading a story and relating it to your child's experience enhances language development.

Reading Blue Day at Creative Castle , Holly showed pictures of the different “blue” activities to follow. Talking to children about the 2 or 3 things that they will be doing that day, encourages their sequencing of information, especially when you use the words “first”, “next” and “last”. When they bring their art projects home, you can converse about what they did. This encourages memory and conversation.

Children learn language concepts through everyday experience, not flashcards. Certainly they can memorize from a flashcard, but they don't understand the concept. As they leave their Creative Castle class, proudly wearing their blue cowboy hat decorated amply with glue, blue pom poms, feathers and beads, they are far more familiar with the concept of “blue”. While drawing and painting with blue crayons and paints, painting blue fans and creating with blue dough, the children are hearing the language to describe their experience- “stretchy zig zag fan, dipping, splashing, dripping dots like circles” etc. Research shows that children take in more language when we talk about their focus of interest. Follow their eyes, and you will know what to talk about!

In over 25 years of doing speech and language therapy with children, I have used art to extend language by having a child draw or paint something that relates to a story just read. This reinforces the language concepts just learned and gives the child something to take home and talk about with his parents. Research by Marvin and Privratsky (1999) showed that when 4 year old children brought home objects from preschool including their art projects, the children referred to recent school activities significantly more than when they did not. Take advantage of these masterpieces, asking open ended questions of your little artist and don't forget to listen.

Sherry Artemenko is the founder of Play on Words LLC, in Southport , CT , working with typically developing as well as special needs children to enhance language. She can be contacted at 203-259-6161, sherry@playonwords.com . www.playonwords.com

Creative Castle art school for children is located at 715 Post Road in Fairfield , Connecticut . Holly Maybruck the Director/Owner can be contacted at 203-226-5090. www.CreativeCastle.net