Mealtimes

Name the food and other items on the table such as plates, knives and forks.

• Don't forget the doing words e.g. eating, cutting, chopping, sitting
• Talk about describing words such as colours, tastes, sizes and shapes

Categories

• Pick something on your plate and name the category, e.g. 'peas are vegetables'
• See if your child can find another vegetable. If they can do this then ask them to think of some more things from that category

Offer choices

• Offer your child choices (e.g. what they want to drink, which plate they want to use, or if there is a choice of what they would like to eat) - 'milk or juice?', 'red plate or blue plate?'
• Show them what you are offering at the same time as you name them
• Accept them looking or pointing at them making a choice as well as using words

Follow instructions

• Ask your child to find things that you name - e.g. 'show me the fork'
• If this is too hard then pick up your own fork and ask them to find one that's the same
• If it's too easy then ask them to find 2 or 3 things in order!
• You could also ask them to find things by description, e.g. 'can you find something green/crunchy/round?'