Beginning to retell

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 going to be focusing on level three of the Bland language development scheme. We're going to be focusing on retelling and sequencing. And I'm going to be sharing some ideas for tasks that you can complete at home. So before we begin, for today's session, you're going to need your favourite book. And if you can, some pictures of you completing some everyday tasks. If you don't have these, don't worry. We can talk about what you will need to be able to complete this task moving forward. We'll also need some ingredients to make a sandwich, if that's possible. 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 the device, and then make sure that you and your adult are seated comfortably. When you're ready, let's begin. Okay, let's do some talking and thinking about beginning to retell information. As we know, the blank language theme was developed by Blank, Rose, and Berlin, in 1978. At level one, at the language scheme, the child is required to match simple language to what they hear, or to an immediate object or material. This might look like naming objects, or responding to a name of an object by pointing to it. At level two, the child has to listen to the language and match it to what they're looking at. Questions at this level require the child to focus more selectively onto the words that they're hearing in the question, to be able to answer it correctly. For example, it might be listening to a description of an object, and then finding it based on that information. At level three, the child learns to use language to talk about stories, events, and then be able to retell that information. At this level the child is really beginning to develop their understanding of their experiences, and is beginning to make common links. Here we have an overview of all the types of language and question, that you might hear and see at Blank's level three of questioning. Today, we're going to be focusing on sequencing and retelling. Pause the video here to get your favourite book ready for our first activity. When you've got your book, come back and press play to continue the task. Sequencing is an important skill, because it underpins being able to retell information. We can encourage sequencing and retelling of events, in lots of different activities. When we, the adults, are modelling the language of sequencing through day-to-day activities, it will help to consolidate the children's understanding of the concepts first, next, and last. If we try and prioritise time taking pictures of day-to-day activities, we can use these as a really handy resource to begin to sequence, and then begin to retell. So, with your favourite book, let's see if you can retell the story, children. Adults, let's try and use the language of first, next, and last. There's also, a first, next, and last board, in the downloadable resource, that might help you to structure thinking about what happens in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. If you need help retelling what happens in your favourite story, you can always look back through the book to remind yourselves. When you've had a go at this activity, come back and press play, and we'll continue with the lesson. We can also have a go sequencing, with clips from our favourite movies or TV shows. It might also be helpful to keep a diary. You can keep a diary of your weekend, or school holidays. This will help you to be able to regularly retell your weekend news. You could then make this into a story, using a story planner. And tell this to adults and other people who are working with you regularly, so that they're also supporting you to sequence and retell using language. Now it's time to have a think about another activity. We're going to plan out making our dream sandwiches. Children, you need to tell your adults what you want in your dream sandwich, and what they need to do to be able to help you make it. You need to plan out your sandwich using the downloadable resource. If you've got time, gather up the ingredients for your dream sandwich, and then have it go making this for real. When you've finished, come back to the video and press play to continue. So before we go, it's important that we just remember that we want to create a language-rich environment for our children, where they're accessing words in fun-filled and natural ways. By creating as many opportunities for talking, sequencing and retelling, we'll be helping our children to progress with their verbal reasoning skills. But adults, we need to be aware that most of the questions that we ask our children, are at the level that they can succeed at and understand. When our children are able to successfully answer questions and respond to language that we, the adults are using, it's more likely to be positively reinforced. Remember, you can refer to the downloadable resource from lesson seven, for strategies to help cue and scaffold children in, so that they're experiencing success throughout all of the questioning activities that we're doing. Well that brings us to the end of today's lesson. But a really big well done on all the fantastic work you've put in to beginning to sequence and retell. Don't forget to share this progress with school. And if you like, you could ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, by tagging @oaknational, so I can see the lovely progress that you're making as well. Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you. But take care, and enjoy the rest of your learning for today. Bye-bye!

Beginning to retell

Beginning to retell

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

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