Building understanding

Reading and writing: Combining two words

Primary

Communication and language

﻿Hello, everybody. My name is Rae, and in today's lesson, we're going to be focusing on combining two words together, so colour and an object. I will talk you through, so it's really more for the grownups than it is for the children. I'm going to talk you through how to encourage a child who is perhaps working at a single word level to begin then combining those two words. If your child is already combining two words, a description and an object, then this is excellent practise. I'll show you how to develop these games, focusing on what the child knows first and expanding out from that. The reason why this is such a key skill and so important is that it really does enhance communication and gives the children more opportunities to communicate and interact with you. We use colour and object as the two words to combine in this lesson, because a lot of children who are working on a single word level will already have that vocabulary. So we're starting with what they know rather than trying to introduce new vocabulary at the same time. There are a few hurdles on the road to teaching this skill to a child, so I'll talk you through those hurdles, and I would recommend watching the whole lesson through once before going through that process with your child. So let's take a look at what we may need for the lesson. Okay, let's take a look at things that you may need for this lesson. So I would recommend that you have with you some kind of symbol or sign that will indicate the particular colour that you're going to be working with. It's really difficult for me to prescribe which objects you'll be working with and which colours, because I would really like those items to be whatever is most motivating for your child. If that happens to be trains, then find some trains. If it happens to be balls, then find some balls. You will know best what that will be. So rather than prescribing exactly what is useful, I will talk you through how to choose those objects. And then we know that you're working with the things that are the very, very best for your child. Going back to signs and symbols for colours, it will be really useful to have something with which to reference the colour. I would suggest if you've got coloured paints or coloured pencils, rather than using the bottle of paint or using the pencil, would be to create your own symbol, just a splotch of colour with the word written underneath, and that way we know that we're talking about the colour red, rather than talking about a bottle of paint or a pen or a pencil and making it a bit clearer. So let's take a look at how to prepare the room for when you do do your lesson. Following that, we'll talk about how to choose those objects. Getting the room ready for learning. I would recommend reducing distractions within the room. That might mean closing the curtains so that we can't see the street outside. It may mean turning off a fan. It may mean turning off an overhead light or the television. But as well as preparing the room, we must prepare the children to be ready for learning as well. Some children will require a run around outside first to exercise their hands maybe to begin. Perhaps a snack, perhaps an opportunity to change position, to take splints off, whatever is the best position for them to be learning, you will know that best. Really important to create some interest, that curiosity and anticipation for the child by sharing the resources that you've gathered together, talking about what might happen. Show the excitement. If you model how excited you are to begin, then that will be infectious, and the child will be really interested in the lesson coming up. So press Pause while you get the room ready, make sure that you take the opportunity to prepare yourself as well, and we'll begin very shortly. It's time to begin. So let's get ready. Look, listen, and let's learn together. Here we go. Step one to choosing the correct objects to use for this game is to check what your child knows. You may know this already if it's somebody that you know particularly well. If you're new to teaching this child, definitely do take the time to check for the vocabulary first. First of all, which colours do they know are also really important potentially if you're working with somebody who might have a colorblindness as well. So do they know the colour red? Do they know the colour blue? Do they know the colour yellow? If they only know one, then that is definitely the colour that you're going to be working with. And I would check as well, use the terminology match or find the same, whichever is most familiar to a child so that they can match by colour. So it might be useful, I have my little box of objects. I have got a red basket, and I've gone around my classroom, and I've found the red items. So we have found the same and we've got some bricks. We've got a hair curler, we've got a red pompom, a red shaker, and a couple of different red balls as well. Now I know if I'm taking a child around to find the same, and they pull out red items like this, that I know that they're not finding two pompoms to match together. They're not finding two shakers. What we're finding are things that are the colour red. So that's a really good way of assessing whether or not they understand the colour rather than the fact that I'm asking them to find the same and they look at the shape of an object, or they look at the category of the object that isn't the colour. So that's a really good way to start. And then of course, the objects themselves, do they know the names of them? So if I say find the red brick and the child knows the word red but not brick, then I'm hindering the learning. So it's really good to make sure that they already have the vocabulary that you're going to be using. Ordinarily, we're using items that are really very, very motivating for the child. So you will already know whether they know the word train every time they see a train or a bus, every time they see a bus. So work with what they know already and use those items. Okay, let's take a look at the next step, finding the best words. So if your child shows that they are quite motivated by colour and they are happy with the colour red, and you've done a lot of work with the colour red, then I would isolate the colour and we'll work with red objects. Of course, make sure that they know ball, shaker, brick, pompom, whatever else it is that you've gathered. Or you could do the opposite. You could have a selection of objects, all of which are the same, and then you have them in a number of colours. So I have a tray of teddies here that a colleague has very kindly loaned me. They're all teddies, but they are in red and yellow and blue. I would use this if I know that the child is very confident with identifying colours, and if they knew the word teddy and that this was going to be easier for them. I'm not looking to create a massive challenge with naming objects. The skill that we're practising here is putting those two words together. So don't stretch the vocab. Allow that to be what the child knows. We're practising a new skill. Let's take a look at the next step. If you are using this lesson alongside your child, take a few moments right now just to pause and use those questions that we have just discussed in steps one and two. Let's check that your child knows the key vocabulary that you're going to be using. Use the prompts, "What is this?" If you are checking that they know the name of an object or "What colour?" Or you may prompt them to find the same as in the colour as well, just to check they really do know that. So checking for understanding is critical to know where to start with the child. Take the time now, pause the video and go through it with them. Step three. The next step is to join your child in play, and model combining those two words. If your child is playing with trains, which we've mentioned before, I've got a blue train. Naming the trains might be a challenge actually. The blue train. Try not to use the names. A red train and a green train. So if my child is playing with the trains on a tabletop or on the carpets, I might say green train and send it off along the track. And I might ask for it to come back and I might model if they're pushing it back, green train. If we can then turn it into a game where somebody is requesting something, like a transactional exchange, I send it, you send it back. I might send green train and then say blue train, and see if the child can pick out the blue train and send it back. There we're not asking for the child to verbalise green train or blue train. We are modelling the language, modelling the way that we can put those two words together, but also modelling how we can use it for interaction. That's the key part there is that it becomes a motivating, it's a motivating game that will demonstrate to the child the value of then putting those words together. And hopefully they'll be so interested in the game, so motivated by it, that they will then want to verbalise later on. So do you try avoid using any other words around it. I would say limit your vocabulary almost entirely to object colour and anything that might be encouraging. Wow, good job. Excellent. Maybe, you know, some greetings or very, very familiar language would be okay. But do keep it simple. So we're playing, letting the child lead and kind of nudging it in an educational direction. The next step then, once the child is engaged, and if they're not, by all means, off you go, try again tomorrow, try again later in the afternoon. But if they are engaged, then the next step would be to extend that learning. So build on this existing game that the child has begun and you are now part of and direct it so that there is some interaction and turn-taking. It requires some kind of creativity. So in the case of the trains, you might be putting them to bed in the sheds and it might be red train and then we say, "Who's next?" And we're looking for that verbalization of blue train. So there's an interaction there. It might be that you have all of your red objects underneath a red voile and you're hiding one at a time when we say, "What is it? Let me take a look and see what is it? And it's the red ball." So you're playing a hide and seek game. Again, it's interaction. Another game that you might play, and again, it's all dependent on what your child is really interested in. But another game that you might play would be identifying things by the colours. This would be for the teddies. Again, thanks to a colleague for loaning it to me. We might say, "Who's next?" And they've chosen blue teddy, and we put it in, but now they need to prompt me. So they would say red teddy, and I would find the red teddy and put him in. So we're matching by colour there in here, but we're also picking out those items with the prompts from the child, so they're encouraged to verbalise for us. There are umpteen games that you could play. And of course, it is all based on whatever is the most motivating thing for your child. Even something as simple as throwing a ball between the two of you. "Red ball," and then they echo back, "Red ball," and exchange the ball. "Red ball." And it could go back and forth like that. That is simple, but perfectly valid. And again, if you're at the very, very beginning of this process, do keep it simple and keep it what the child knows. So that's it for me really on how to play those games. I hope that that's helpful, and use your best knowledge of the child and use your creativity. If you are working alongside your child, please take the opportunity now to engage in that game and then extend it further. They know that you're part of it. You're already part of that interaction. Let's see if we can now through play, draw out the child using those two words together for themselves. A really good way of closing these games and ending these interactions will also help with consolidating the learning and helping you know what the child knows as well. So the challenge here for the child would be to name each object in turn with the colour and object combination. So it's a challenge, it's an extra step for them. And I often do this in the way that you might be putting things to bed or putting things back inside the box or putting things back inside the bag. So have the child work with you to tidy up and put things back one by one. You may need to do this to model this first. So with my basket of objects, I might say "Red ball in." "Red shaker in." Make a sound, you know, make a drama out of it, and then say, "It's your turn." Give them an item and see if they can do red brick. And you can say, "In." Create a bit of a pantomime about the whole thing. Once you've got that understanding there, then you can move on. But until then, I would say keep playing, keep practising , do the same things over and over and in time with repetition, it will come. It might be fun also if you're putting things to bed, to putting things away, to swap roles. So they're holding the bag or the box and it's you that has to go around and pick things up and put them in, again, encouraging them to name them as they go in, but almost directing you to do so. Children do like to be in charge and it creates good fun. Okay, so the next step would be another pause point. So we're going to have a bit of a pause. If you are working alongside your child, this is your opportunity now to check the understanding, consolidate the learning and begin to tidy up after your lesson. Okay, how to adapt or extend the learning here. Remember the objective was combining two words. So we've been talking about children verbally combining two words. We haven't addressed necessarily the fact that these might be two symbols that children are putting together. We haven't addressed the fact that they may be using an eye-gaze screen and combining two symbols that way. To make things easier, perhaps symbols might be more appropriate for your child. In which case, you could use drawings as long as the child knows what they're looking at, or you could use symbols from any of the software that the child might already be familiar. Repetition, of course will make everything easier all of the time. Use drama, use energy, use the anticipation and excitement that you can bring to the play. And if your child is struggling with putting those two words together either verbally or otherwise, then stick with a very familiar object, make sure that the child knows that colour and just repeat it, repeat it, repeat it. In the case of red ball, throw it to the child, child throws it back and you say, "Red ball," might be useful. Okay, and then to make it harder, try combinations of different colours. If the child is prompted to find a blue fork and a yellow spoon, that is now four times harder than just finding one red ball, because you've got combination of colours and also a combination of objects. That is significantly harder for a child. If again, you're really, really challenging, and you know the child's got this and it's time to race ahead, then change the combinations of the words that you're using. So why not play with other kinds of descriptions or categories, classifications? So you might say the big ball and the small ball, so we're looking at opposites, big and small. We might be doing loud and quiet. The additional challenge there might be to combine not just object, description, but now we've got noun, verb, as in a person or a thing doing an action. So it might be teddy jump or mummy roll over so that the child is now combining an action with an object or a person as well. So all of these things will spiral into complexity and add additional challenge. It may or may not be appropriate at this point, but you will know that best. Thank you very much for joining me for today's lesson. I hope it's been helpful and I hope it's been informative. I will say goodbye for now, and I look forward to seeing you at the next one. Parents and carers, if you would like to take the opportunity to share your child's work, please do so. The information is on the screen as soon as I say goodbye. If you would like to share photos and videos of your child's work with us, then please share them via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and tag us @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Reading and writing: Combining two words

Reading and writing: Combining two words

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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