Beginning to problem solve

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 introducing you to the concept of problem-solving. I'm going to present you with a few problem-solving tasks. And then I'm going to share some ideas for activities that you can continue with at home. So for today's session, all you need is some writing equipment. But 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 problem solving. As we know, the Blank Language Scheme was developed by Blank, Rose and Berlin in 1978. They created four levels of questioning. So far, over the last few lessons, we've covered level one, two, and three. In today's session, we're focusing on questions and language at level four of the language scheme. At level four, the children learn to be able to talk about why or how something is happening, and, what could be done to solve problems. We're encouraging our children to make logical solutions through level four language. And here are some examples of the types of questions and kinds of skills that we might be asking our children to perform using level four language. So pause the video here and take a few moments to think about some common problems that you face every day with your adult. When you've written a short list, come back to the video and press play to continue. Here's some examples that I thought of. Using the list of everyday problems that you've written or some of the ideas that I included on the list on previous slide, talk about these problems and have a think about making some quick solutions. Solutions are a way to solve a problem. When you finish this activity, come back to the video and press play to continue. We can support our children to develop their verbal reasoning, their verbal reasoning skills, by encouraging them to solve everyday problems that relate to them. As the child becomes more confident at doing this, we can start thinking about problems that involve familiar adults, or friends. Adults, you could try generating some ideas about everyday problems that you face. The child could then help you to form some solutions. Drawing pictures of problems can be really helpful and it can also help us to bring our solutions to life. Try this as an activity at home, and see how you get on. As we introduce more and more problem solving to the child in their every day, we can start thinking about problems that other people face in different situations. Talking about TV shows, movies, and books can help to develop wider the problem solving. Role play is also a really helpful way of bringing situations to life. If you're talking about a problem that the child hasn't experienced directly for themselves, try organising a role play around this to help make it more concrete and real. So pause the video here to find a clip from a favourite TV show or movie, where the character has a problem. Talk this through. Have a think about how do they solve their problem? Maybe, you can think of some better ways to solve the problem. Pause the video here, and then press play when you're ready to continue. Here is a little problem that I've put together for you. Pause on this side to have a think about what the problem is and how the character might be feeling. Then, try and think about how you might solve the problem if you were in this character's shoes. Pause the video on the slide to discuss this problem. And then when you're ready to continue, press play. Here's another problem. Pause on this slide to discuss it, think about how the characters are feeling, and generate some solutions. Here's our last problem. Pause on this side, to have a think about what the problem is, how the character is feeling, and what a solution might be. When you're ready to continue, press play. Remember we want to create a language rich environment for our children, and all of our activities should be fun and create communication that's natural and engaging. We want to create as many opportunities for prediction and problem solving as possible. But remember, most of the questions that we're asking our child should be at the level that they can succeed at. You can use the resources from previous lessons to help consolidate language and questions at level one, two, and three, before moving on to prediction and problem solving, if this isn't quite where your child is at yet. Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson. But a really big well done on all the fantastic work that you've put into problem solving today. If you'd like, you can ask your parent or carer, to share some of your work with @OakNational, on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, so I can see the progress that you're making. But also share this progress for school. Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you. But take care and enjoy the rest of your learning. Bye-bye.

Beginning to problem solve

Beginning to problem solve

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

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