See Also:
Secret Code
Secret Code is a fun and interesting way to develop awareness of language concepts. Written language is based on the idea that you can represent (first) concrete objects, then actions, then feelings, then thoughts using symbols. This is much easier to do with objects, somewhat more difficult with actions, and especially hard with feelings and thoughts.
Your child will need to dedicate some space in a notebook to this activity, or better yet, make it fun by providing her with a small ‘secret code book’. In this book, the child will create a dictionary of secret code ‘symbols’. They should begin by identifying 10 objects and five verbs that are important in their daily lives. These should be listed out in a book and the child should pick or design a symbol to represent the nouns and verbs. Repeat this exercise weekly until you have a dictionary of 150 words or so. Have the child ‘write’ short stories using the secret code.
If you have good success with this activity, you might want to try loading it by adding feelings and thoughts/concepts to the dictionary.
Note, you may wish to combine this activity with ‘Visual/Auditory Verbal Program‘.
