Patterned activities and teaching action words/verbs:

The verb is the central point of a basic sentence structure so must be taught. The verbs chosen for teaching should be verbs that take objects (e.g. throw ball/  eat cookie/ pour water) so that the basic actor action object sentence structure can emerge. As the initial step in teaching verbs in a patterned activity, the child would be given a range of objects and directed to do the action.  For example, there could be a basketball hoop,  The adult would be in the role of giving an object and directing: “throw.”  The child’s role would be to throw the object into the hoop.  Initially, the child would be in the role of doing the action.  With success, the roles could be switched by changing seats and the child would give the object and direct the action.  Through the pattern, the child learns the meaning of the word as he must enact the action and when the roles are switched, he practices saying the action to direct.