What do we mean by spoken language?
Spoken language, also referred to as expressive language, refers to the words and sentences that a child is able to use. When children first start to talk, they will use single words and as their vocabulary develops they begin to join these words together into short phrases and then sentences; these sentences develop in complexity as a child’s language skills develop. Children can have spoken language difficulties in a range of areas, including thinking of the words they want to use (word finding), developing their word joining skills and understanding how to construct sentences, developing their narrative skills and developing the ability to use different grammatical structures. There are many ways that we can help a child who is struggling with their spoken language skills. This section includes a range of relevant resources and advice.
Advice for parents of pre-school children
- Adding language and experience
- Use of choice to encourage early expressive language
- Joining Words
- Helping your child use first words
Activity sheets for working on different areas of spoken language such as concepts, grammar, sequencing and narrative
Concepts
- Activities for developing concepts of size
- Activities for developing concepts of colour
- Activities for developing concepts of space
Grammar
- Activities for developing use of pronouns
- Activities for developing use of plurals
- Activities for developing use of negatives
- Activities for developing use of past tense
- Activities for developing use of joining words (conjunctions)
- Activities for developing use of questions
Sequencing and narrative
