FM.J.116 SORTS COLOURS, CHOICE OF 4

As we said at the beginning of this sequence, your child may be able to sort colours before he can select them, so it is a good idea to assess this item even if your child has not yet scored plus on FM.J.115.

How to Assess

Materials: 4 coloured dishes and 12 coloured objects, 3 of each colour.

Method: Place the dishes on the table, with the coloured objects in a pile to one side. Have a few turns at placing objects yourself, to demonstrate the activity. Tell your child what you are doing: ‘Look, I’m putting blue with blue, and red with red, and . . .’ Then say ‘You do that’, and move a short distance away. You can encourage your child with smiles from time to time, but do not give any extra information or help.

Score plus if your child completes the sorting activity, placing at least 11 of the 12 objects correctly.

How to Teach

Start by giving your child only a few objects to sort at a time. Assure him that you will come back very soon to look. Praise him warmly if he has completed the task you set him; if not, repeat your directions and move away again.

Make your directions (after the first one) as general and brief as possible. ‘Do some more’ or ‘Have you finished yet?’ are good reminders, without giving undue attention for tarrying.

Gradually increase the number of objects you give your child.

If your child will soon start school, you could teach him a way to signal that he has finished, using words or gestures depending on his language ability.

Playtime and Round-the-house Activities

Colour sorting can and should be practised with a range of materials in different places. Paste coloured shapes on boxes or buckets and let your child sort his large toys by colour. Let him sort the washing by colour (though this may mean some resorting for you afterwards!). Perhaps he could sort out the flowers you are going to arrange, or his crayons, or the pieces of paper and fabric on his pasting tray.

Remembering and Extending

Once your child has mastered sorting 4 colours, you could increase the number of colours or introduce some different ones.

A harder activity is to sort the colours without providing coloured dishes or boxes as a guide.