Slide 1]
Welcome to this video about understanding words, sentences and beyond.
[Slide 2]
By watching this video, you will:
- Gain an overview of how we understand language, that is, words, sentences and beyond
- Know what key words are and how we use them in sentences
- Know how understanding of questions develops
- Know what non-literal language is, and
- Understand how you can help a child or young person who has difficulties in any of these areas.
You can use the markers in the video to skip forward or back to any chapters you need to revisit or want more information on.
For the rest of this video, we will use the terms child or children to refer to children and young people.
[Slide 3]
Children learn to understand the language that they hear before they can use this language to communicate with others. A child’s understanding will usually be ahead of their ability to use spoken language.
As children grow and develop the range of words that they understand will increase, and they will be able to follow longer and more grammatically complex sentences.
Understanding what other people say and mean is a complex process, and involves skills such as attention and listening, understanding vocabulary, verbal reasoning, problem solving, and working memory.
Sometimes Speech and Language Therapists refer to this area as ‘understanding’ and sometimes as ‘receptive language’. Both terms mean how a child understands the words, sentences, and questions that are used with them.
[Slide 4]
A child who has difficulties with understanding may:
• Need words or sentences to be repeated and/or simplified.
• Not respond or give irrelevant responses to questions.
• Only be able to follow parts of instructions.
• Watch others so that they can work out what to do
• Have difficulty understanding changes in routines and expectations.
• Appear quiet, confused, or upset.
• Become frustrated, withdrawn or avoidant.
Not every child with speech and language needs has difficulties with understanding.
[Slide 5]
There may be a variety of reasons why children do not understand what is said.
It could be because:
• the child has limited focus
• They do not know or understand the word or words being said to them
• the sentence being used is too long
• the sentence is not in a logical sequence for them to follow
• OR, all of the above
[Slide 6]
You may have identified a difficulty understanding words, sentences, or beyond, but you are unsure where this difficulty lies.
They could have difficulties understanding:
• The information carrying words in a sentence
• The grammatical features of words and sentences
• Questions
• Information that is inferred, also known as ‘reading between the lines’
• That we do not always mean what we say
We will look at each of these areas in more detail.
[Slide 7]
Many words in a sentence are redundant in common everyday situations. For a word to be classed as an ‘information carrying word’ (sometimes called a ‘key word’) there must be an alternative choice for the child to select.
An information carrying word is a word that carries meaning and has an element of choice.
The context, the equipment available and the language used determines how many key words are in a sentence or instruction.
Games and activities can be set up to control the level of understanding required.
For more information about how you can support a child to understand 1 to 4 information carrying words, please follow the link on the screen which will take you to this section of our website.
[Slide 8]
From an early age, children begin to develop the rules of grammar and knowledge of concepts, and this increases in complexity with age. For example they begin to understand:
• Pronouns, like he/she, his/her, their
• Negatives, using words such as ‘no’ or ‘not’
• Prepositions, like in/on/under/behind/in front/next to
• Comparatives, for example, big/bigger/biggest
• Concepts, which are used to describe a range of ideas including size, colour, number, shape, time and personal qualities
• Regular and irregular plurals
• Past, present and future verb tenses
The more the children hear the grammatical features of words and sentences, the more they understand their meaning, and when and how to use them.
[Slide 9]
A child’s understanding of questions develops from easier questions, which are about the ‘here and now’, like “what’s that?” and “which one do we eat?”, to harder questions, which are beyond the ‘here and now’, like “what does erase mean?” and “why might we use a pencil instead of a pen?”
The different level of questions are often referred to as Blank Levels which come from the Blank model. For more information about the Blank model and how you can support in this area, please click on the link which will take you to this section of our website.
A training workshop on the Blank model is available for booking – please visit the training section of our website for more information.
[Slide 10]
Whilst learning what individual words and grammatical features mean, children also start to understand how we infer information, known as inferencing. This means they are required to deduce or conclude something from what was said, and make logical judgements. This is often referred to as ‘reading between the lines’.
Inferencing is a difficult skill to achieve for many children because it involves complex and abstract skills such as:
- Understanding cause and effect
- Recognising the emotions and motives of other people
- Dealing with a variety of outcomes of a situation
- Accepting the ‘point of view’ of other people
The ability to infer is a core skill to ensure progress through education.
[Slide 11]
Children also have to learn that we do not always mean what we say. We commonly use figurative, or non-literal, or ambiguous language, including idioms and metaphors.
[Slide 12]
Non literal language is used regularly in homes and schools, for example
• “as cool as a cucumber” meaning “calm and relaxed”
• “it’s raining cats and dogs” meaning “it’s raining heavily”
• “hang on a minute”, sometimes used as a request which means wait until I am ready which may not be one minute at all, or sometimes used as an objection, dependent on the tone accompanying it, “hang on a minute!”
We often use this type of language without actually realising, but for some children, this can be tricky, and you will need to be aware that you are using figurative language and explain what you mean.
Understanding of non-literal language is dependent upon age, understanding, and experience. However, if a child struggles to follow simple, concrete language, then figurative language will usually be too complex for them to understand.
[Slide 13]
To help a child with understanding difficulties, you can:
Use visuals
Instructions, questions and explanations should always be supported with visual aids where possible. You can:
ü Use a visual timetable to show the structure of the day or part of the day
ü Use natural gesture, signs, finger points or eye points while speaking to highlight key words or messages
ü Use pictures or real life objects to support what is said
ü Demonstrate wherever possible
ü Write down key points and vocabulary
ü Use visual task plans for school aged children to refer back to, to build independence
[Slide 14]
You can: Simplify your language
ü Use shorter sentences.
ü Use simpler vocabulary, for example, say “mix together” rather than “combine’.
ü Use positive statements, for example, “walk” rather than “don’t run”
ü Avoid using conditional phrases like ‘if’, for example, say “Tom, you are having school dinners”, rather than “If you are having school dinners, please line up at the door”
ü Emphasise the important words within a sentence and repeat key information.
ü Explain figurative language, for example, “pull your socks up”
ü Be explicit with instructions, rather than using inferred language, for example, say “please close the window” rather than “it’s a bit cold in here now”
ü Where possible, pre-teach information that may come up in a school lesson, so the child may be more motivated to attend, and understand the language being used
[Slide 15]
You can: gain attention and slow down:
ü Make sure you have gained the child’s attention, for example, by using their name, before giving an instruction or introducing an activity
ü Slow down your own rate of your speech
ü Pause more often to allow more time for the child to process information
[Slide 16]
You can: Be aware of instructions
ü Say things in the logical order you want the child to do them, for example, say “Put your pyjamas on then brush your teeth” instead of “before you brush your teeth, put your pyjamas on”
ü Break information into smaller chunks.
ü Repeat information as required. Sometimes it helps to rephrase what you have said. Show the child what you mean if necessary, repeating the language as you do so.
[Slide 17]
You can: Consider your questions:
ü Remember questions range in complexity For example, ‘how?’, ‘when?’ and ‘why?’ questions require inferencing skills, which may be particularly challenging to answer.
ü Simplify your questions where possible
ü Give the child enough time to respond to questions; 10 seconds is encouraged.
You can: Check understanding:
Monitor understanding by asking simple questions or looking for clues they have not understood
Ask the child to repeat the key points. This will help you to monitor what they have remembered and understood.
- ü Encourage the child’s attempts to seek clarification. Praise them when they say they have not understood. Provide prompt phrases like “what does that mean?” or “can you repeat the question please?”
For more information on supporting children and young people’s speech and language needs, please visit our website by following the link shown on the screen.
The resources section has lots of useful information and the training section hosts a range of free to access to videos as well bookable workshops.
Our Facebook page contains lots of useful tips for supporting speech, language and communication.
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