September 18, 2026
“Go Away!”
Kids Say the Darndest Things
Recently, at a daycare where I see one of my little friends with language delays, the director told me he is telling everyone to “go away!” The director and his teachers were confused by his constant use of the phrase. Since he only has a handful of single words, everyone was puzzled and a little hurt by his command.
As we sat down with his class for story time, out came the book “Big Green Monster” by Ed Emberley. Guess what we figured out? He was saying a gestalt from the book! We all had a good laugh about it and there was visible relief on the teachers’ faces. Mystery solved! My friend was not intentionally telling everyone to go away but was responding to the heightened emotion and inflection used when the book was read. It is also a phrase that is used eight times throughout the pages, nine times if you include the book title.
My friend is a stage 1 gestalt language processor and books are a great way to help him build his inventory of phrases. Books that have repetitive phrases that are delivered by the reader with emotion and inflection can help our little friends learn to build communication. I have written about other predicable books in these blog posts “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?” and Predictable Books and Why Kids Love Them.
Enjoy using books in your sessions to build communication skills. Such fun!