Understanding and following more instructions

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, we're continuing what we started in lesson 11 and thinking about instructions. Together, we're going to be thinking about how adults can help you to understand more instructions and instructions that have an order, and we're going to play some understanding games. Throughout all of the activities today, I'll be giving some tips for adults so that they can help you to develop your understanding of language. So for today's session, we'll need some writing equipment and some equipment to make a drink, if possible. Adults, you'll need the downloadable resources available on the Oak website with this lesson. So before we begin, find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed for the lesson. Turn off any distractions or notifications that you might have running on your device, and then make sure that you and your adult are seated comfortably. When you're ready, let's begin. Okay, 'let's start by doing some talking and thinking about more instructions. As we know, instructions tell us what we need to know in order to be able to do something. Instruction words give it meaning. Instruction words can be things like, who needs to do something, what they need to do, with what object, where, when, or how. Over the last few lessons, we've been working on types of words, like nouns, verbs, and concepts. All of the words that we focused on throughout this module on understanding language can be included in instructions. Instructions can sometimes have more than one part to them. For example, if I asked you to stand up and turn around, that's a two-part instruction because it's two actions that I'd be asking you to do. Instructions have more than one part can be a test for our memory and for our understanding. Let's have a little go practising some two-part instructions by playing one of my favourite games. It's called Run to the... This game is best played outside if you can. Adults, remember to check the child's understanding of the words used in the instructions that you give them. We need this to be a positive experience. So choose naming words of objects that you know your child understands. You need to tell them to run to the, and then the. So two objects they need to run to. Don't forget to take turns though. Children, you get to tell your adult where they have to run to. When you've had five or 10 minutes of this game, come back to the video and press Play to continue. Sometimes instructions can tell us the order something needs to be done to. For example. First, tuck your chair in, then line up. That instruction tells you the order that you would need to do those actions in. Here we've got a few helpful hints for when we're thinking about understanding and following longer instructions. Longer and more complicated instructions can be hard to remember. And if we can't remember the instruction, then we'll struggle to understand it. Science tells us that our brains are much better at remembering and understanding information when it's visual, when we can see it. So now it's time for an activity. We're going to make a drink. Children, what kind of drink would you like to make? Talk through the steps and use the downloadable resource to help make instructions for your drink visual. Adults, focus on modelling the sequencing words needed in this activity. This could also be done for things like washing up or doing the washing, making toast or making a hot drink. Adults, it would be great if we could have pictures on hand too. let's draw or take some pictures of the child completing each step so that we can refer back to them at a later date. When you finish your activity, come back to the video and press Play to continue. When we're thinking about working with our children on understanding of language, we want any activities that we set up to be positive. We want to avoid testing the children on the words or the length or complexity of instructions that they understand. Instead, we want to create a language-rich environment where children are accessing positive language models and the right kind of strategies to support their understanding. Words that are reinforced through multisensory experiences, such as pictures, symbols, and role-play are much more likely to stick. Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson. But a really big well done on all the fantastic progress that you're making with your understanding of language. If you'd like, you could ask your parent or carer to share some of this progress with your teacher at school. You could also ask your parent or carer to take a picture of some of the work that you've been completing and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational, so I can see your fantastic progress 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.

Understanding and following more instructions

Understanding and following more instructions

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

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