Beginning to understand words

Speech and language therapy

﻿Hello everybody. My name's Emma, and welcome to today's lesson. I'm looking forward to today's session and I hope you are too. I can't wait to get started, but before we do, just a quick reminder. We here at Oak are here to support any approaches you might already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know this lesson is going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure or have any questions, please do contact your child's school or usual speech and language therapy team. In today's session, I'm going to be talking about types of words that we need to know. Together, we'll do some thinking about how words help you. And then we're going to have a go following some simple instructions. Throughout the activities, I'll be sharing some tips for adults so that they can help you to continue to develop your understanding language at home. So for today's session, you'll just need some toys. Adults you'll need some writing equipment and the downloadable resource that's available on the Oak website with this lesson. So before we begin find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed, turn off any distractions or notifications that you might have running on your device and make sure that you're seated comfortably and so is your adult. When you're ready, let's begin. Okay. Let's start by doing some talking and thinking about how we begin to understand words. Children learn words by hearing them lots of times and hearing them being used in lots of different contexts. They need adults to provide strong models of language, to help them to develop an understanding of it. From some of our earlier lessons in this module, we know that adults can model language by not only speaking the words, but signing them, providing gesture or actions alongside them, providing symbols or pictures to show us what the words mean. And in some cases also having the word written down can help. There are something called core words in everybody's day to day language. Core words are words that are used every day in lots of different situations. Core words might include things like stop, wait, help, or finish. Pause the video here to make a list of what you think you and your child's core words might be. When you've had a few moments to think about this, come back to the video and press play to continue. Using what we know about total communication. It's really important that we reinforce core words because they are used so often. We need to be sure that our core words have multisensory strategies to support the children to understand them. For example, we could make simple cards for our core words or a communication board. Pause the video here to make yourself some visual strategies for your core words at home. These could be pictures, drawings, or symbols from a symbol publisher if you have access to it. It would also be really helpful to talk to your child's school about any core words that they're using there. You could try and incorporate these at home, and they could also try and incorporate the words that you're using at school. When you've finished making your visuals for your core words, come back to the video and press play, and we'll continue with the rest of the lesson. Some of the first words that children tend to use and understand are typically nouns, naming words. These and concrete words that can be matched to familiar objects. For example, objects relating to play, everyday activities, familiar people or body parts. Pause the video here to make a list of the nouns that you think that your child has in their everyday activities. When you've finished come back to the video and press play, to continue the lesson. In order to support the children's understanding of early nouns, there's a few things we can do. You've already started a list of your child's early nouns, but it's really important that we keep track of that list so that we know exactly what words the child does understand. Children have to understand words before they can begin using them. So this is key. When we are thinking about introducing new nouns to our child, first of all, we need to think about what the child likes to do, and then find ways to model nouns in those activities. We can model and show the child the nouns or the words in everyday situations. And we can also use other multisensory strategies, for example, consistently showing a picture of an object or a symbol of an object when we use or say a word. That's an example of a really nice multisensory strategy. The important thing is that when we're introducing new nouns, we need to repeat, repeat, repeat. Language sticks when we hear it being used lots of times in lots of different places, and we get lots of feedback for using it. So the more we the adults, model the words in different ways, the more likely the word is to stick. So now it's time for some special time. Children, you're going to find something that you'd really like to play with. You and your adults are going to have five minutes of play. Adults, it's time to follow your child's lead through their play. Name the objects that the child shows interest in using single words. If your child is using language, then try repeating what they've said and adding a few extra words. We can use our voice to really emphasise the nouns that we're modelling and introducing through the play. Once you've had five minutes special time, come back to the video and press play to continue with the rest of the lesson. When we're working with our children on understanding new words, especially at this early stage, we really want to avoid any activities becoming a test. We don't want to test the words that the child's understands because this just creates pressure and can be damaging. What we want to do is to create a language rich environment where children are accessing words in fun-filled, natural exchanges with their adults. Words that are reinforced through multisensory approaches are much more likely to stick. So the more we can bring language to life, the better. Well that brings us to the end of today's lesson, but a really big well done on all the fantastic early nouns you've learned today. I hope you enjoyed your play with your adults. Adults, I'd like you to do something for me. If you could write down a couple of things that you've learned today, that would be really helpful. Children, if you'd like you could ask your adult to send a picture of the early nouns that you've been working on understanding through your play to your teacher at school, so they can see the wonderful progress that you're making with your understanding of words. You could also ask your adults to share a picture of the words that you've been working on, on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter tagging @OakNational. So I can see the wonderful progress that you're making too. Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you, but take care and enjoy the rest of your learning today. Bye bye.

Beginning to understand words

Beginning to understand words

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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