Expressive Language

Difficulties with expressive language can be complex. You may notice your child has difficulties in many different areas, such as putting words together to make a sentence, using accurate word endings such as verb tenses and plurals, vocabulary development or sequencing ideas to explain something or make a story.

This section includes relevant resources and advice to support the development of spoken language skills. 

General advice for all activities supporting expressive language:

• Gain the child’s full attention before giving an instruction
• Make the activities fun and include motivating subjects when introducing new concepts
• Activities should be completed little and often e.g., at least daily for 5-10 minutes
• Strategies can be used regularly during everyday routines
• Use objects and visuals to support learning
• Model the use of the target language yourself in practical situations and throughout the daily routine
• Once the child is confident at understanding/using the concepts in structured activities, move on to generalising the skill to spontaneous language

• QExpressive Language Development

  In most cases, children’s language development follows a predictable sequence. Children develop language milestones at different rates. These are generally the typical ages and stages of expressive language development that we expect to see as children develop.

  How grammar develops

  STAGE 1 (9 months-1 year)

  During this stage, babies will use approximately 50 single words in a similar way to sentences. This may be referred to something called “Holophrases” which are words that are used for a variety of functions such as commands, statements, questions and exclamations

  Example: produces labels for familiar things: food, toys, animals, body parts, clothing’s, vehicles and household objects

  STAGE 2: (1;6 months – 2 years)

  During this stage, babies will use about 200 words to form 2-word sentences. They will be able to use words in the correct order to express a variety of functions such as questions or statements

  Example: adjective and noun “red shoes”

  STAGE 3: (2 years – 2;6 months)

  During this stage, children will use simple 3-word sentences with correct word order. They will also be able to use a range of structures to convey a variety of function question, commands and statements

  Examples: 3-word questions: “What you doing?” “where man gone?”

  Word endings develop at this stage and beyond, there can be some differences in the order, however, this should all be present by the end of stage 5.

  Examples: “ing” for running and jumping.
                     Regular plurals (girls, toys)
                     Simple regular past tense (I walked home)

  STAGE 4: (2;6 – 3 years)

  During this stage, children use 4+ words within a simple sentence structure. Consolidates and develops further word endings from stage 3.

  Example: mummy’s cooking the dinner now

  STAGE 5: (3 years-3;6 months)

  Joins simple sentences (single clauses) to form compound and complex sentences.

  Examples: connects clauses to make compound sentences using “and”, “then” and “but”

  STAGE 6: (3;6 months – 4;6 months)

  During this stage, children begin to develop more fluent use of sentence structures

  Example; Reduction in most errors such as pronouns “her doing it”
  

  STAGE 7: (beyond 4 years and 6 months)

  During this stage, a range of grammatical processes continue to develop.

  Example; joins multiple ideas using more complex sentences e.g. The cat’s stuck on the roof and the man’s going up a ladder to rescue it.
  

  How children move from single words to combining words

  Children can only begin to combine words once they have the vocabulary to be able to do so. Children first learn nouns (names of people, places or objects). To form sentences we use words that describe actions, positions, and characteristics.

  Children also require:

  • Social words (hello, bye bye)
  • Requesting words (please, more, again)
  • Verbs (pull, run, eat, sleep)
  • Early pronouns (mine, me, you)
  • Prepositions/location words (in, out, off)
  • Adjectives and adverbs (small, cold, slow)

  Be sure to use words to describe the things you see and do together. This way your child will hear a good range of words in everyday conversations.

  The following are examples typical first words. Children can communicate a range of needs using these single words. These first words will be combined to develop more complex ideas.

  Single word level

  • People’s names: Mama, Mary, Mickey
  • Food and drinks: Banana, juice
  • Social words: Hi, bye-bye, thank you
  • Animals: Doggy, kitty
  • Toys: Ball, swing
  • Vehicles: Car, trike
  • A daily living activity: Bath, eat
  • Clothing: Shoe, hat
  • Body parts: Head, tummy
  • Descriptive word: Hot, big, outside
  • Actions: Go, up

  Placing words in categories (combining words)

  Another way to think about these words is to place them into categories based on their meaning. These categories are the foundation for word combinations. Young children use categories of meaning to build their phrases before they use sentences and grammar rules. Here are some examples of groupings using the categories above and other common categories:

  • Agents: People, animals, toy characters
  • Actions: Verbs including daily living activities and play
  • Objects: Food and drinks, vehicles, furniture, clothing, body parts, toys
  • Locations: Some descriptive words like “out” or “outside,” furniture, places
  • Descriptors: Descriptive words like “hot” or “big”
  • Social words: Greetings and other social ritual words like “thank you”

  The words in these categories of meaning can be combined to create new and expanded meaning.

  E.g., a single word like “cookie” expresses meaning that is different from “more cookie” or “my cookie” or “all gone cookie.” There are simple rules about how we combine words. The rules here are based on English word combinations, though other languages often have similar combinations at this phrase level. Here are some of the common rules with the addition of some new semantic categories.

  Phrase level

  • Agent + Action: Daddy go; dog bark; Mickey sing
  • Action + Object: Throw ball; eat cookie; get shoe
  • Object + Location: Dolly bed; cat chair; (garbage) truck outside
  • Action + Location: Put couch; go outside; ride (to) park
  • Modifier + Object: Hot soup; big ball; noisy toy
  • Recurrence + Object or Action: More cereal; more swing; tickle again
  • Negation + Agent, Object or Action: No juice; no Daddy (Daddy’s not home); no bath
  • Social Words + Name: Hi, Mary; Bye-bye, Grandma; Thank you (teacher)

  Rules/patterns for combining three words

  • Agent + Action + Object: Mary threw ball
  • Action + Modifier + Object: Throw big ball
  • Action + Object + Location: Put pillow bed
  • Negative + Action + Location: No go school
  • Action + Recurrence + Object: Want more juice

  Try Modelling and Expanding on what your child says. Repeating what your child says and adding words helps them to develop their talking. Over time, your child will start to use more words together.

• QModelling language

  Children learn speech and language from what they hear around them.  Talk about the things your child is seeing around them, and the actions they are doing.

  Move from asking questions such as “what’s that?” to comments – “look, there’s a butterfly”. This lets your child hear the words they need to use.

  Some children pick up the words they hear easily, some need more careful modelling.

  It is important that when a child makes a mistake that you respond to them with the correct sounds, words or sentences so that they can hear how it should sound.

  Repeat the word or sentence that you think your child is trying to say

  e.g. your child says “tar!”, you can say: “yes it’s a star!”

  e.g. your child says: “swimming, fish, big fish.”, you can say: “yes, the big fish is swimming”.

  Using the right words, clearly, at the time that your child wanted to say them, will help your child to learn the words they need.

  There is no need to ask your child to repeat what you are saying.

  This video made by Barnsley Speech & Language Therapy Service, at the South West Partnership NHS Foundation Trust about how to match and stretch your child’s talking attempts.

• QEarly vocabulary

  Children who have difficulties learning to talk are less likely to ask the names of things or say if they do not understand a word.

  It helps if we teach them new vocabulary by understanding it.

  Strategies that help:

  Avoid asking “what’s that?” - tell them what things are called

  Use repetition. Children need to hear words several times before remembering them

  Say the word slowly and clearly. This gives the child time to hear the sounds in the word

  Teach simple vocabulary first then harder vocabulary.

  Start with everyday things like:

  • Food
  • Clothing
  • Household items
  • Toys
  • Animals

  Vocabulary is not just names, it includes:

  • The names for objects (nouns) e.g. dog, tree, table, apple
  • Action words (verbs) e.g. drink, eat, walk, push
  • Describing words (adjectives and adverbs) e.g. wet, round, quickly, red,
  • The name of the category it belongs to, parts of things, what you do with it or where you find it.

  Teach words in meaningful ways:

  • In practical situations e.g. “peel” when peeling a banana
  • Put words into simple sentences so that the child learns how to fit words together e.g. “peel it; you have to peel your banana”
  • Give explanations about the word e.g. “peeling is when you take a layer off something” “you can peel other things too like an orange”
  • Create the need for the child to use the vocabulary i.e. don’t automatically peel the banana for them, wait to see if they ask
• QVocabulary activities

  Talk about the characteristics of the objects	e.g. What it looks like? What is it similar to? Where do you find it? What sound does the word start with? How many beats/syllables are in the word?
  Category Naming:	Give three or four items belonging to the same category (e.g. drum, flute, guitar and piano) and then ask the child to identify the category. You can then reverse this naming game and give the category first, then have the child name three or four items belonging to that category. To make this activity more challenging you ask the child to name as many items as possible in one minute. Write down their answers and try to beat their previous score each time you practice.
  Antonyms:	Naming opposites. Choose a word and try to come up with the opposite of that word.
  Synonyms:	Naming words that have the same, or almost the same meaning. This activity tends to be more difficult than naming opposites. However, it is a great practise tool for strengthening word retrieval skills. For more of a challenge, try to name two synonyms for each word.
  Fill in the Blank:	Say a familiar phrase and leave the last word out. Try to supply the missing word. When phrases become mastered you can move on to sentences.
  Similarities:	Choose two words within a category and describe how they are the same. For example: How are a car and a bus the same? This activity encourages the child to think about word associations. This cognitive ability can be used as a strategy to aid in word retrieval.
  Differences:	This activity tends to be more challenging than describing similarities between words. Using the same example as above: How are a car and a bus different? This exercise encourages the child to remember specific details that make similar objects different from one another.
  Odd one out game:	The child is presented with three or four items and one of the pictures / object / written words is from a different category. The child must identify the odd one out and discuss why. Encourage the child to use category words e.g. banana, apple, cherry and carrots we would like the child to identify that the first three are types of fruit and carrots are a type of vegetable.
  Sorting games:	Cut up pictures relating to two different categories e.g. fruit and vegetables. The child then sorts the pictures into the correct category.
  Word association games:	The child is given a word and has to think of an associated word. For example: pilot goes with….(plane), taxi goes with…..(driver).
  Sentence completion:	for example “a banana is something you eat, lemonade is something you…… (drink), a duck lives in a pond, a horse lives in a…….(stable)”.

   

  Barnsley Speech & Language Therapy Service, at the South West Partnership NHS Foundation Trust have two helpful videos on how to support vocabulary development; Word Webs and Defining and exploring words,  https://www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk/barnsley-childrens-speech-language-therapy-service/how-to-videos/language-and-vocabulary/

• QWord finding difficulties

  In our memories words are stored in a ‘memory bank’. Children with WFD know what items are called, but cannot retrieve the correct word easily from the ‘memory bank’ when they want it. This results in the ‘tip of the tongue’ feeling that we all get from time to time.

  Children with reduced vocabulary / WFD may:

  • Use non-specific terms e.g. ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘thing’ etc
  • Disrupted flow of speech due to hesitations, backtracking, repetitions and circumlocutions (where the child talks all the way round a target word because they can’t remember it)
  • Inaccurate productions of the target word i.e. giving a word related in sound e.g. ‘cloud’ for ‘clown’ or giving the name of a related item e.g. ‘knife for ‘scissors’
  • Use a description instead of the target word e.g. ‘temperature thing’ for thermometer
  • A child with WFD may say they can’t remember a word, this is often accompanied by signs of frustration

  Strategies to Support Vocabulary/Word Finding Difficulties

  There are several strategies that can be helpful when teaching new vocabulary or facilitating word retrieval skills.

  • Let the child hear new words many times in different ways / situations
  • Avoid presenting word definitions immediately yourself – this places the child in a passive role and means lasting learning is less likely to occur. Encourage the child to predict or guess what a word might mean on the basis of its use in context
  • Relate new words to things the child already knows to encourage connections between new and previous knowledge g. “you’re right it is an instrument that looks a bit like a guitar, it’s called a violin”
  • Help the child incorporate new words into their expressive vocabulary by setting up tasks where they use the words in a meaningful way. E.g. If teaching the target words sink/float the child could be asked to describe what is happening during an appropriate experiment– “the brick is sinking”.
  • Words are often stored in categories so teaching vocabulary in this way helps children to make sense of new vocabulary and understand it more easily.
  • It may help to start a vocabulary wordbook divided into topics and write down new words that are taught in each lesson. The words can then be reinforced at home and the book can be a good revision aid.

  How can you help?

  Reduce demands

  • Avoid asking questions that require a one word answer especially if the word might be difficult for the child to remember
  • Asks questions that just need a yes/no answer e.g. “is Paris the capital of France?”
  • Give choices e.g. “is a table made from wood or plastic?”
  • Encourage the child to describe the object/talk around the subject

  Talk around the word

  Encourage the child to think of association links to the word

  • What category does it belong to?
  • What does it do?
  • Where would you find it?
  • When would you use it?
  • What does it look like? – size, shape ,colour, texture
  • What sound does it begin with?
  • How any syllables does the word have?

  Phonemic / Semantic Cues

  Children who have WFD may need support accessing and retrieving words.  It is important for children to retrieve the word independently rather than an adult naming it and then they can form their own retrieval pathway for accessing the word. Cues are simply giving someone a hint or clue as to what the missing word might be. Cues can only be used if you know the word the child is trying to retrieve.

  • Phonemic Cues: These cues use sounds. For example, if the missing word is soup you could cue that word by making an extended "S" sound, “It starts with Sssssss”.
  • Semantic Cues: Try using category For example, if the missing word is horse, you could cue that word by saying, "It's a farm animal." “It says neigh”. Give examples of what the object is used for e.g. if the missing word is hammer, you could say, "It is used to hit nails."

  Try to find out which type of cues help your child the most.

• QSequencing

  The ability to sequence ideas is an important skill which is used in both spoken and written tasks. We use sequencing skills to give news, describe an event and tell stories.

  • Use the terms first, next, and then, last so that the child becomes familiar with these concepts
  • Model the use of  first, next, and then, last in practical situations and throughout the daily routine e.g. “you’re last in the line” “first tidy up, then stand by the door”
  • Once the child is confident at understanding/using the concepts in practical situations move on to using pictures to sequence a story/event

  Activities

  Everyday activities choose some everyday sequencing activities and encourage the child to carry them out e.g.:

  • Making a cup of juice
  • Making a sandwich
  • Drawing a person
  • Play sequences - making a railway track, making pretend meals in the home corner
  • Dressing for P.E
  • Any activity where a sequence of actions is required

  Comment on what the child is doing as they are carrying out the activity. Give the child a turn at talking about what they are doing.

  Silly me! Carry out an activity but pretend that you have forgotten how to do it or do silly things e.g. leave the juice bottle on while making a drink, carry out the activity in the wrong order. Give the child an opportunity to tell you how to do the activity/what you did wrong. Model the use of first, next, and then, last.

  Picture sequences

  Once the child understands the concepts first, next, and then, last in practical situations move onto using pictures. Use 2 or 3 pictures/photographs initially and gradually build this up.

  Start by using simple everyday picture sequences and then move onto activities which are less common. Talk about each picture in a random order and place the pictures in a vertical line on the table.

  Ask the child to decide which picture comes first, and move the picture to start a new horizontal line.  Encourage the child to choose the next picture in the sequence, and so on.

  Once all the pictures are in the correct order, the child tells the story.

  Repeat the story back to the child using a good model of sentence structure and linking words.

  Story telling

  Start by using familiar repetitive stories or fairy tales e.g. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Red Riding Hood, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, The Gruffalo, Dear Zoo, The Tiger Who Came for Tea

  Initially use a book as a prompt – you can tell the story, or a simplified version if this helps, and then the child re-tells you.

  Talk about the story in terms of who, what, where, when and encourage the child to think about what might happen next.

  Act out plays of the story, using toys or puppets. Encourage the child to make up their own short stories with toys and characters. 

  Re-telling events

  Start by using events that have happened with you, so that you know what happened. Encourage the child to re-tell the event to you or to someone else, give support if needed.

  Encourage the child to tell you about an event e.g. something they did at the weekend. In school, this is sometimes done in group activities where the children share their news with each other.

  Schools can provide opportunities for the child to give a sequence of instructions to other children e.g. during P.E.

  This is a video created by Barnsley Speech & Language Therapy Service, at the South West Partnership NHS Foundation Trust about how to support sequencing.

• QSubject-verb-object sentences

  Subject-verb-object (SVO) sentences are a really good way of developing expressive language skills once early phrases are established. The subject (who is doing it) is followed by the verb (what they’re doing) and then the object (what they are doing it to). For example, “The boy (S) is kicking (V) the ball (O)”, “The dog is drinking the water”, “The elephant is washing the car”.

  Activities to support SVO sentences

  Think about who?

  • Look at photographs and talk about the people/animals in them e.g. family, friends, pets.
  • Read books and talk about the characters.
  • Play with small figures in a dolls house or animals on a farm/zoo, talk about ‘Who is in the…bathroom?’ ‘Who’s in the pond?’ Etc.
  • Look at pictures of animals; ask ‘Who says… roarrr / baa baa / moo etc..?’

  Develop action words and vocabulary

  Teach action words using toys to carry out different actions. You can also talk about what characters are doing in books or on television programmes.

  Build vocabulary by looking at books and objects in the world around you – naming them and talking about them can be really useful. Put them into SVO sentences, for example “the car is driving on the road” and so on.

  Practise SVO sentences with toys

  Use a selection of toys e.g. teddy, doll, sponge, ball, car, book, toy food. Adult to carry out demonstration/play with toys e.g. teddy kicking the ball, teddy reading the book, doll eating the apple, doll washing the car. Model SVO sentences to the child and support the child to say what’s happening. If the child uses just 1-2 words, add 1-2 words to their phrase and repeat this back for them to hear e.g. Child: “Teddy kick”, Adult: “yes, teddy’s kicking ball”. If the child struggles to say anything, provide the words for them to hear.

  Stories

  Share simple stories and talk about what the characters are doing.

• QConnectives

  Connectives are the words that we use to join two ideas together in one sentence. Some examples of connectives are: and, because, then, so, but.

  Activities to develop “and” 

  Holiday Game: Have a selection of pictures/photos/objects that you might pack in your suitcase to go on holiday e.g. clothes, toys, books, bucket, spade, sunglasses. Ask the child which objects they want to “take on holiday”. Initially model the use of “and” then encourage them to use “and” spontaneously. For example “I want to pack my shorts and my cap”, “…..and my ball…..and a spade….and a bucket”.

  Follow the Leader: at first the adult gives the child instructions e.g. “clap your hand and stamp your feet”. Then encourage the child to tell you what to do, making sure they give you 2 and then 3-4 instructions using “and” to join the sentence.

  Story Time: use picture books or a selection of action pictures. Take turns to describe what the people/animals are doing e.g. “the little girl is jumping and the boy is running”, ”the brown dog is dirty and the spotty dog is clean”. If you are using pictures/photos play posting games for example put the cards face down on the table. Take turns to pick up two pictures and describe them using “and”. Then post the pictures in a post box: “I’ve got the boy running and the girl eating”.

  Menu Game: have a selection of real or pretend food/pictures or you could make a menu. Pretend you are in a café/restaurant and take turns to order what you would like to eat/drink: “I would like pizza and orange juice and yoghurt”.

  Sequencing Game: use pictures that tell a story. Encourage the child to put the pictures into the correct order. Talk about what is happening and model and encourage the use of “and” e.g. “the boy fell off his bike and hurt his arm and he started crying”.

  Daily Routines: ask the child to talk about daily routines such as getting ready for school, making a sandwich, getting ready for bed etc. encourage the child to describe what happens using “and” to join their sentences: “I get up and I get dressed”, “I put my pyjamas on and brush my teeth and listen to a story”. As well as daily routines you can ask the child to talk about any visits they’ve been on e.g. to the park/seaside/grandparents.

  Activities to develop “because”

  Ask “Why?” Questions, such as “Why do you like cars? Encourage the child to answer the questions using “because”. Once the child becomes confident at answering “why” questions encourage them to repeat the whole sentence e.g. “I like cars because they’re fast”.

  Why/Because Pictures: your Speech and Language Therapist may provide you with a set of why/because pictures. Use these to encourage the use of “because”. Place the two pictures in front of the child cover one of the pictures and ask the child to describe the uncovered picture then ask “why?” questions e.g. “why is the boy happy?” “…..because it’s his birthday”

  Real Situations: talk about events that happen within the classroom and at home e.g. “Mary is crying because she’s hurt her finger”, “we need to pack up now because it’s dinner time”.

  Silly Me: play silly games or use “what’s wrong?” cards. For example put gloves on your feet, coat on backwards, use a banana to write with and ask “why is this funny?”.

  Activities for harder connectives:

  and then, if, when, but, although, so, before, after

  • Use books/action pictures and describe what is happening. Model/encourage the use of more complex connectives.
  • Write a sentence and then cut up the segments. Encourage the child to re-order the words and re-tell the sentence.
  • Re-tell stories again modelling and encouraging the child to use more difficult joining words.
• QPronouns
  • Sort pictures of boys/girls, men/women (e.g. cut from magazines) into two piles. Label the ‘he’ pile with a picture of a boy and the ‘she’ pile with a picture of a girl. Check understanding by asking the child to point to ‘He is jumping. She is smiling’. Try role reversal in this activity. Get the child to be the teacher and give you instructions of who to point to.
  • Introduce the concepts first, e.g. ‘he is a boy/man (while pointing to a boy/man) and she is a girl (while pointing to a girl/woman). Repeat as many times throughout the games/activities as you think the child needs, in order to learn the concepts.
  • Use pictures of people doing something and give choices, e.g. ‘Is it a girl or is it a boy? Is it he is swimming or she is swimming’.
  • Model pronouns when looking at books and during everyday activities, e.g. ‘She is sleeping, he is running’.
  • Play barrier games – where there is a screen between you and the child, so you can’t see which the picture the child is looking at. Give the child a mix of pictures of people doing things, and ask the child to choose a picture of a boy/girl and then ask them to describe the picture while you draw it. Model the type of sentences you want the child to use, e.g. ‘You could say… she is wearing a hat’.
  • Make a short picture/photo story book together about the child. Then talk about the pictures, e.g. ‘I am boy/girl. I am __ years old. This is my mum. She has long hair. This is my dad. He has brown eyes.
  • Use these same activities to develop ‘they’ when the child is confident with using ‘he’ and ‘she’.
• QRegular and irregular plurals

  Teaching Regular Plurals

  • Start with regular plurals and only move onto irregular forms when regular forms are fully established
  • Explain regular plurals and why they are important. “When there is more than one we add ‘s’ on the end.”
  • Explain to the child that sometimes the extra sound at the end of the word is quiet and soft e.g. cups and that sometimes it is louder and buzzier e.g. cars
  • When the child makes a mistake repeat the child’s sentence back to them using the correct structure e.g. “I got two cup” - “Yes you have two cups”.

  Real Items

  Use no more than six items of things that have regular plural forms, for example, key(s), cup(s), ball(s), sock(s).

  1. Put groups of each of the objects on one table, and single items of each on another table.
  2. Point to each item or group of items and name each, saying for example, “Here are the keys”.
  3. Get the child to respond by indicating (eye/finger/head pointing or gesture) when you ask “Where are the cups?”'
  4. Praise him when he does this correctly.
  5. Then move on to the next item, e.g. 'Where is the key? '

  Letting the child be the ‘teacher’ will allow them to work on their spoken language skills

  Drawing Together

  You will need a pencil and paper to do some rough drawings

  1. Draw some pictures and miss out parts e.g. house without windows, face without eyes or ears, people without heads, fish without tails, a road with no cars etc.)
  2. Ask the child to complete the picture. Ask them to tell you what they have drawn.

  Teaching Irregular Plurals

  Some words don’t follow the pattern of adding an ‘s’ when talking about more than one item, these are called irregular plurals.

  The same activities can be used for regular and irregular plurals however it is important to explain the different patterns irregular plurals can follow:

  • Some words will stay the same when you are talking about more than one e.g. sheep, fish.

  • Some words stay the same but already sound like a plural e.g. trousers, scissors.

  • Some words already end in an ‘s’ sound e.g. horse, dress and we add an extra ‘es’ to make them plural i.e. horses, dresses.

  • Some words end in ‘f’ and when we talk about more than one of these we change the ‘f’ to ‘ves’ e.g. leaf- leaves, scarf- scarves.

  • When some words become plurals we change the vowel sounds e.g. foot-feet, man-men, mouse-mice.

  Work through each pattern and use the activities above to practice using them.

• QRegular and irregular past tense

  You should be certain that the child has an understanding of time concepts e.g. yesterday, this morning, last week.

  Explain irregular past tense word endings and why they are important, i.e. “When we’re talking about things that have happened in the past we sometimes add –ed and sometimes the whole word changes”

  Work on regular past tense pictures first before moving onto irregular past tense.

  When the child makes a mistake with the verb you have been working on, repeat the child’s sentence back to them using the correct structure, e.g. “He jump on it”, “Yes, he jumped on it” or “He rided on it”, “Yes, he rode on it”.

  Teaching Past Tense Verbs

  Action Description

  Look at action picture cards (or look at pictures in books if cards aren’t available e.g. ‘hop’

  1. Ask child to pick a card.
  2. Ask the child to act out the verb on the card.
  3. Ask the child what they just did.

  If a child does not use a correct past tense, for example "I hop", just feed back the correct way of saying it in a conversational way, for example "Oh, you hopped?"

  What have you done Today?

  This activity should ideally be completed in a small group (three-four children). The adult leading the session will need a pen and paper to complete this activity.

  1. Go round each person in the group, including the adults, asking them for two things they have already done that day.
  2. Write each person’s name on the sheet and a key word for each activity they have done along with a very rough picture to help the children remember what each person did.
  3. Each person then takes it in turns to recall what one other person has done today - using the pictures to help them to remember.

  If a child does not use a correct past tense, for example "Jake kick a football", just feed back the correct way of saying it in a conversational way, for example "Oh, Jake kicked a football?"

  Making up a Story

  This activity should ideally be completed in a small group (three-four children). The adult leading the session will need a pen and paper to complete this activity. Cards with possible story characters may be useful (optional).

  1. Explain to the children that you are going to write a surprise story as a group, and that they are going to write a bit each.
  2. Have the first child start the story, but without letting anyone know what they wrote. After a sentence or two, stop them, fold over the paper to hide what they wrote and pass on to the next child.
  3. The last writer ends the story.
  4. Read out the story, a section at a time. Ask the children to think about what has just happened in the story. Remind them to use past tense.

  Lotto

  You can use the pictures in this pack to make lotto boards with pictures of verbs the children have learned recently. Use four-six pictures per board with one board per child. This can be done 1:1 but works well in small groups.

  1. For the first game you can be the caller; for subsequent games a child can have a go.

  1. The caller takes a card. Ask the child to complete this sentence at each turn (using the verb in their picture): “Yesterday, I ...” For example: “Yesterday I rode my bike.”). You could use a question, such as "What did you do yesterday?", "What did Max do yesterday?"
  2. The child who has the picture says they have got it, and they get the card.
  3. Continue until one child has got all their pictures.

  Pairs

  You can use the pictures in this pack to play pairs.

  1. Turn all the cards face down.
  2. Each player takes it in turns to turn over two cards.
  3. For each card they turn over they what is in the picture using a past tense verb e.g. “He ran a race”.
  4. If the cards are the same they keep them, otherwise they turn them back over.
  5. Continue until there are no more cards left. Count up and see who made the most pairs!

  Simon Says

  1. Ask the child to act out one of the verb pictures e.g. “Simon says hop”.
  2. Ask the child what they have just done after each action and encourage them to remember to use the correct past tense for each word.

  Retell a Sequence

  Props to support a sequence of actions you will perform (optional)

  1. Ask the child to describe a sequence that you act out as you are doing it. Include as many verbs as possible in your story but start with only two things in the sequence and build it up. The child should provide the commentary e.g. “You’re looking around” etc.
  2. After the action and commentary has finished, ask the child to tell it again but to talk about what has 'just happened'.

  Encourage the use of the correct past tenses e.g. “First you looked for your friend, then you waved at them”.

• QHomonyms

  Homonyms are two or more words that sound the same but have different meanings.

  There are different types of homonym:

  Homophone: These words sound the same but have different spellings and different meanings, such as “flour” and “flower”, “pair” and “pear” or “right” and “write”.

  Homograph: These words have the same spelling but different meanings. They may or may not sound the same. Examples are: “right” (as in the direction) and “right” (as in correct), or “left” (as in the direction) and “left” (as in gone). A wave in the sea, or a wave goodbye.

  Children can find this confusing and may need support to understand the different meanings.

  It may be helpful to talk through pairs of words and discuss the different meanings. Many children may benefit from pictures to support their understanding of these different meanings and the differences in spellings highlighted for them.

  Listening activities:

  Choose the right picture

  Example: To make a cake you need   (pictures of) flour and flower

  Reading activities:

  Complete the sentence with an appropriate word from the list

  Correct the sentences where the wrong homonym has been used e.g. “the boy had short hare”, “please close the gait”.

• QGeneralising language

  Often a child is able to use new language structures when they are concentrating on them in a specific activity, but it can be harder to remember to use them in conversation.

  Learning to use them all the time is called generalising.

  Generalising takes time and requires lots of repetition and practice.  Here are some things you can do to help.

  Play games to practice using new vocabulary or grammatical features:

  • I went shopping and bought… (items from the target topic e.g. food, home items etc.)

  Offer choices when you notice a mistake.

  e.g.     Child: “I eated an apple”

  Adult:  “you eated it or you ate it?”

  Child:  “I ate it”

  Adult:  “yes, you ate an apple!”

  The above is giving them an example to copy. When they no longer need this, it can be helpful to encourage the child to work towards correcting their own errors, by sometimes presenting it as a question e.g. “you eated the apple?”

  Pretend to misunderstand when they get things wrong – only use this occasionally, and to prompt a skill that you know that they are able to use.

  Make up special looks / gestures to help the child remember.

  e.g.     man/woman signs to prompt the use of pronouns he/she           

  pointing behind you to indicate past tense.

  Use the target structure regularly in conversations putting emphasis on the target words or phrases. Encourage the child to use these throughout the conversation.

  • In the supermarket naming all the fruit and vegetables as you put them in the trolley.
  • Talking about your day and emphasising past tense verbs or pronouns e.g. “We played football and sang songs” or “He went shopping and she read a book”.
  • Ask questions which prompt a response using the target words/structures e.g. to practice prepositions:

  Adult: “where is your lego?”

  Child: “in the box”

   

  Remember: It can become frustrating if a child is trying to tell you something but you’re thinking about how they said it! Try not to draw attention to every mistake – choosing a specific time of day e.g. at a meal time or in a specific class activity works really well. At other times, use modelling instead e.g. if they say “I drawed a house”, you can say “yes, you drew a house”, without correcting or asking for repetition, is still helping them hear the difference.