6.4

Understanding functions of body parts

Why is this important?
Understanding the functions of body parts follows on from understanding
the functions of objects. It allows children to reflect on their own behaviour
and essentially on what they need to do

(e.g. ‘listen’ involves using our ears and ‘look’ using our eyes).

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What to do
• Draw a picture of the child (or encourage the child to do this).
• Suggest body parts that need to be added (e.g. hands, legs, ears).
• When the child has finished, ask questions relating to the functions of the various body parts, e.g.
★ ‘What can we do with our hands?’
■ Clap, wave, hold things.
★ ‘What do we do with our ears?’
■ Listen, hear, wear earrings.
• Find pictures of people performing the different actions and make a scrapbook
(e.g. put a picture of hands in the middle of a piece of paper and draw/cut
out/print out pictures of people waving, holding knife and fork, throwing a ball).