Enhancing communication abilities in children through language stimulation

What is it about?

The current investigation examines whether using clay as a tool during language stimulation improves communicative abilities across vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics in children aged 3-5. Pre- and post-stimulation assessments examined growth in vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics. Findings revealed significant improvement in these three areas pre- to post-test for children in the clay group relative to children in a control, toy-based language stimulation program.

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Why is it important?

Clay-based language stimulation, that integrates conversation, play, and multisensory feedback, bolsters children’s vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics more than traditional play-based language stimulation with toys. A language-to-action link is created whereby children form associations between adults’ auditory feedback of labeling children’s objects and actions, visual feedback of mapping input onto target objects, as well as tactile feedback and motor action of creating the target objects through clay (e.g., pizza dough, toppings, and sauce). The current study demonstrated improvement in typically developing children's communicative abilities across vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics. A future study should be conducted to examine whether clay as a tool during language stimulation may benefit children with language delays and disorders.