CONCEPT DEVLOPMENT

Hi, a warm welcomeJJJJ

“Don’t wait for change, create it”

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A concept is a mental representation, image or idea of concrete (objects) and abstract stuff/Information (emotions and colors). Children understand most of the concepts very naturally by listening to adults, observing peers and siblings and when given opportunity learning by doing. Most of the time about “concept development” is confused with “skill development”. A skill is the ability to do a task (ex; using spoon to eat, tying shoes). When it comes to autistic children understanding abstract concepts are very difficult that’s the reason they struggle with language and emotional skills. We are here to understand how to plan/set up program for enriching concept formation to our challenging kids.

Steps in concept development:

Simple to complex: always start a concept from the scratch/bottom line. Initially introduce the concept in a simple format and as the child understands increase complexity. For ex; teaching the concept of an apple, first introduce apple word to the child by showing a real apple then make it complex by showing picture of an apple and asking the child to find an apple from the group of different pictures etc

Known to unknown:  when you are planning to teach a new concept keep it in mind what the child knows and start from that.  Proceed from what he knows to what you want to teach in the related area. This gives an idea to the child what he is going to learn. For ex; for teaching to coin words, start with the phonetic sounds and teach him to coin words with the help of phonetic sounds, which the is already mastered.

Concrete to abstract: plan strategy more meaning fully by teaching abstract concepts by using concrete examples. This gives the child an idea of reference when understanding concrete concepts like colors and emotions. For ex; for training the child to identify red color show him the real apple by saying apple is red, this association helps your child to master the concept of red. Concrete concepts are real and children have opportunity to manipulate and explore while understanding the abstract concepts.

Whole to part: make sure you plan to precede concept from the whole to part. It’s always easy to understand the whole concept before the child pays attention to the minor details. For ex; tech the child the concept  a tree(whole)  by showing the real tree or the picture of a tree, once he masters in identifying the tree slowly progress by teaching the parts of the tree like root, leaves, stem(parts) etc

Stages of concept development:

Acquisition: in this stage the children learn the concept

Maintenance: able to perform the learned concept whenever you ask him with 90% accuracy

Generalization: learning becomes permanent and generalizes the learned concept to all the novel situations

That’s all for today!!!!! Take care