Flashcards are an excellent learning tool for children at all ages. They can achieve a vital function by adding clarity to communication or they can be a fun way to help with expression.
There are a vast amount of flashcards on the market for various different topics and they are often reasonably priced. But what if you want something a bit more specific to help your child understand their world? How can you make a regular learning tool feel relevant and engaging for your child?
Engaging with toys
We have a selection of animal toys and created flashcards as a prompt for each of them. The animal flashcards have been beneficial to teach my son about different animals as well as being a fun game.
Engaging with people
I had expected my son to meet family and friends fairly regularly, however due to covid related issues this hasn’t happened and he forgets people if he hasn’t seen them in a few months. Flashcards have been a really fun way to talk to my son about things that are important to his world.
Engaging with the world around us
We often pick out the animals from the flashcards that we will see on a trip. If we go to the riverside we will make sure we have the duck, goose and swan flashcards with us. We will talk about walking to the river and what we might see to encourage conversation and expectation.
Traditionally flashcards are recommended for children from 18 months, however I’ve found that my son has enjoyed interacting with them well as early as 11 months. He can recognise some of the more common creatures we see and talk about them. I am hoping that we will use flashcards more and more as time goes on. The next step will be to help encourage him to say a few more specific words. We will do this by repetition and the visual aid of flashcards.
Fun flashcard themes:
- People
- Animals
- Feelings
- Food
- Colours
- Places
Creating your own flashcards
We created flashcards by printing and laminating illustrations we developed, however you can use photographs or magazine pictures to create your own flashcards.
Flashcards have been fun to create as well as use, and we will be able to develop more flashcards as needed to help my son understand the world around him.
Heather & Heidi 