What is the most important word in your child’s vocabulary? The word they are most interested in and has the most meaning and value to them? If you guessed their name, you are so correct! With repeated exposure, little ones who are unable to print their names can begin to identify and learn their names in print. Also, our children’s names are one of the most powerful contexts we have for providing systemic instructions in alphabet and letter sounds.

For our little ones learning how to recognize, spell, and write their names requires lots of practice, especially for those with lengthy names. Practising names for little ones should not just be writing names over and over again, but as parents and educators, it is up to us to find creative, hands-on and fun ways to help them do so.

Why is name recognition important?

Name recognition helps our little ones to feel important, builds concepts of print and also helps our little ones to understand that words have meaning.

Did you know there are three stages to name recognition?

Stage 1: Recognition

The first step in the process of teaching your child his/her name is recognition. You can provide your little one with repeated exposure in and around the home by labelling personal items and intentionally pointing out their name to them repeatedly. When your child sees their name daily, they will begin to identify the shapes of the letters in their name—especially the initial letter.

Items you can label with your child’s name:

• Books
• Toys
• Snack containers 
• Clothes
• Personal items 

Stage 2: Spelling Their Names

When your little one is confident in identifying his/her name, the next step is to practise spelling their name orally daily.

Stage 3: Writing

When your little one can confidently identify their name and spell it, they can move on to writing their name. When our little ones are at this stage, we can give them repeated opportunities to write their names. My girls are now writing their names, so whenever we are doing activities, I encourage them to spell and write their names on them.

Here is a simple craft my girls and I did when they were learning to spell their names.

Rainbow chickpeas name recognition craft

What you will need to recreate this activity:

• Construction paper
• Glue
• Chickpeas ( I used coloured chickpeas from a sensory invitation to play.)
• Marker 

Chickpeas coloured or uncoloured will do. However, colouring chickpeas is a pretty simple project!

How I coloured my chickpeas

What you will need:

• Dried Chickpeas 
• Acrylic paint
• Ziplock bags
• Trays for drying the coloured chickpeas (I used a backing tin to put my chickpeas to dry.)

Step 1: Add the amount of chickpeas you want to colour, for example, in red, to a Ziplock bag. (I added around three handfuls.)

Step 2: Squirt your red acrylic paint into your Ziploc bag and seal it. Allow your little ones to shake the bags until all your chickpeas are red. I just added paint to the Ziplock bag until all the chickpeas were covered in red paint.

Step 3: Place your chickpeas on a tray to dry. You can leave them in the Ziploc bag, but chickpeas have a tendency to stick together.

Step 5: repeat all the above steps in order to make the other colour chickpeas

This activity is also great for working on:

• Fine motor skills
• Concentration 
• Counting letters that are in a name
• Reviewing letters and their corresponding sounds

How to put this activity together:

Use your marker to write your child’s name on a paper of your choice. Make the letters big and bold so that your little ones have space to work with the chunky chickpeas that require a strong grip to hold and place them.

Put your chickpeas in a container for your little ones. Grab your glue, and this simple activity is ready for your little ones to complete.

We do hope you find this activity useful.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by sending us a message or visiting us @learning.stepbystep on Instagram, Learning Step By Step on Facebook and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for educational resources that will help you and your littles on their learning journey as they continue to Learn Step By Step!

Thank you for being here!

Kimberlee and the Learning Step By Step Team.

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