Modelling language

Speech and language therapy

﻿Hello everyone, 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 that 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 are talking about how we learn to understand and how our understanding of language relates really closely to our ability to use it. We're going to have a talking and walking activity and throughout the session, I'm going to be sharing some tips with adults to help them be able to help you to really develop your use of language. So for today's session, you'll need a book. You'll also 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 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 how adults model language. In early development, children learn to understand words by hearing adults talk about objects that they're playing with. Seeing or handling an object or doing an action with it whilst the adult talks about it helps the child to match the words to what they mean. Children need to understand words before they can say them. Adult's modelling language is one of the most important things that you can do to help your child to develop their use of language. So let's take five minutes to have some special time. Children, choose a game or activity that you really want to do and go somewhere quiet where you won't be disturbed. Adults, get down to the child's level. Use your stop, look and listen strategies to observe the child in their play and what they're really interested in doing. When you've had five minutes, come back to the video and press play to continue. Adults, pause the video here a few minutes, just to have a quick think about what your child was doing during their play. What kind of messages were they giving you? These messages could be actions or facial expressions or it could be words or vocalisations they were using. Once you've had a moment to think, press play to continue. You can support your child to develop their language by supporting them to understand and use words through their play. We can do this by using the strategies that I've listed here. I've said this before. It might not seem like it's that important but looking, listening and observing your child in play is the most important starting point. By doing this and really pausing to take time to observe what's happening, we're better able to follow their lead. When children are in the lead in play, they're more likely to be engaged and therefore more likely to get more out of it. When they're engaged and we're able to participate and join in in play that they're really interested in, it gives us the opportunity to use simple language to label and comment. This modelling of language based on objects or activities that your child is really interested in will be such an enriching activity for your child. So just to refresh ourselves, you might be familiar with this if you followed some of the earlier modules but when we're modelling language, we can focus on two things, labelling and commenting. We don't want to be using long and complicated sentences when we're modelling language for our children. We want to pick our words carefully and make sure that they're key words to the play or the activity that the child is interested in. So naming the object or naming the action or commenting on something about the activity that they're doing. Whatever one or two key words we choose to use needs to be the same and consistent across any later play or other play opportunities where the child is using that object and we also need to be communicating with other people who are playing with the child so that they're using the same key words too. That way, the child will be getting lots of consistent reinforcement with the vocabulary that they're hearing. So pause the video here to take another couple of minutes to have some special time. Children, it's time to find your favourite thing to play with. Adults, this time, whilst you're following the child's lead, focus on labelling and commenting on what the child is using or doing with just one or two key words. If the child is using language through the play, then you could try repeating what they've said and then add an extra word or two. For example, if the child says "Teddy's sleeping" in their play, then the adult could expand this by saying "Teddy's sleeping in his bed." Once you've had five minutes of play, come back to the video and press play to continue. Adults, before we carry on, I'd just like you to take a couple of moments to reflect on that play and have a think about how the child responded to the key words that you gave them when you were labelling and commenting. Multi sensory information is much easier to look at and much easier to learn. For this reason, taking a multisensory approach to the language that we're modelling can only strengthen and scaffold language for our children. When we're modelling language with spoken words, we can reinforce this with signs or gestures, symbols or pictures. In some cases, it can also be appropriate to have the word written down but that will depend on what's appropriate for the child. Communication boards are a fantastic example of a form of multi sensory visual reinforcement for language. They can be used alongside spoken language to model the words that we're using and reinforce them with a picture or a symbol. There's an example here, just so you know what they look like. When we're thinking about creating communication boards, we need to just think about the word list. When creating communication boards, we need to think about the words that we're likely to use in each situation so that the communication board has got everything we need on it when we need it. So now it's time to get your favourite book out children. Adults, before you begin to read the book, pick out a few key words, such as actions, comments or descriptive words and then draw a few key symbols or find some pictures for these words. Then read the book together and whilst you're reading the book, use your communication board to give an extra cue to reinforce the word. So as you say the word as you're reading it, point to the picture or symbol on your communication board. When you've had five or 10 minutes of reading your book together with your communication board, come back to the video and press play to continue. There really are endless opportunities for multisensory language modelling with our children. We can use multi sensory and visual approaches to model language throughout their regular activities, including things like a daily walk or time in the garden, even just activities in the home. Pause the video here to just take a few moments to think about some of your child's daily activities. When you've had a few moments, come back to the video and press play to continue. In order to create communication boards for these activities, you needs to think about these few things here. Where are you going? Who are you going with? What will you see? And what keywords will be really important? So now it's time to go for a walk but before we go, adults, let's prepare a communication board to help us reinforce the language that we're modelling on our walk. Think about the words you're going to need. You want to be able to use this communication board to label and comment on what you see. When you're finished with your walk, come back to the video and press play and we'll finish the lesson. When creating visuals that we're going to use to reinforce language that we're modelling, it's important we remember these principles. Positioning is key. We need to make sure that any visuals are available for the child to see, hear, or feel and that we should be at eye level with the child when we're introducing them so that we can see their face and how they're interacting with the clue that they're being given. Consistency is also key. So try and agree across home and school, what the words and the visuals are going to be. This will build up your child's understanding of what's going on in different day-to-day activities with consistent vocabulary. Lastly, make sure any visuals or strategies that you create are available. Make sure everyone knows what and where they are, so everyone in the family who is working with the child can use these strategies consistently too. Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson but a really big well done on all the fantastic language that you've been listening to through your play and your walk. I hope you liked your communication board and it comes in helpful in the future. Adults, if you could write down a few things that you found interesting and have learned today, that would be really good and children, if you'd like, you could ask your parent or carer to share a copy of your communication board with your teacher at school. That way, they'll be able to see the progress that you're making with your use of language. You could also ask your parent or carer to share a copy of your communication board with @OakNational on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. That way, I can see all the fantastic progress that you're making with your language 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.

Modelling language

Modelling language

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

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