Activities To Help Understanding Key Words

• Developing Understanding of Single Words

  A child who understands single words knows the name of an object and can give it to you on request. For example: “Give me the car”.

  The following tips can help to develop a child’s understanding at single word level:

  • Make sure you have the child’s attention by using their name before you start to talk.
  • Help the child to understand by pointing, showing them an object or using facial expressions.
  • Sometimes it is useful to stress the important words.
  • Praise the child when they get it right.
  • Label things that they are looking at by naming them and give them time to think about what you have said before you say something else.
  • If the child still doesn’t appear to understand, try simplifying it and say it again.
  • Offer them choices between items such as: “Do you want milk or juice?”.

• Developing Understanding of Two Key Words

  After children are able to understand a range of single spoken words they will start to be able to understand two key words in a sentence they hear.

  For instance, if there was a selection of items, such as a car, bus, box and bag and you asked the child to “Put the car in the box”, the child would need to understand the words ‘box’ and ‘car’ to carry the instruction out correctly.

  Remember:

  • Keep your language simple and the activities short.
  • Emphasise two key words out of each short sentence you say.
  • To begin with, use extra gestures or signs to help the child understand the words, but then fade these out to see if they can understand the spoken words without visual cues.
  • Praise the child for listening well.
  • Ask your speech and language therapist for advice if needed.

  Getting Started

  Before you start, it is very important you check the child understands the words at a one key word level by doing the following:

  • Spread out all the items you are going to use on a table.
  • Ask the child to find different items randomly, for example: "Where’s the teddy?" or "Where’s the cup?".
  • If the child doesn't know any of the items, swap them to items they do know.

  Some of the instructions contain preposition words, such as in, on or under, or size concepts like big or little, long or short. You need to check the child understands these concepts before attempting longer instructions with them in.

• Activities to Help Understanding of Two Key Words

  Two Key Word Instructions

  Collect together items in a bag. Try to use items that the child does not play with at other times. This way you can keep them specifically for your special times together.

  You Need	Example Instructions
  Teddy, dolly, chair, bed	Put teddy on the bed  Put dolly on the chair
  Teddy, dolly, sponge. Give the sponge to the child.	Wash dolly’s hands                Wash teddy’s nose Wash teddy’s feet Wash dolly’s face
  Teddy, dolly	Make teddy wave Make teddy lie down Make dolly walk Make dolly jump

   

  Dressing Up

  Find a doll or teddy for the child to dress up, plus some of the child’s clothes. The idea is for them to put on one item of clothing at a time, either on themselves OR on the teddy or doll. For example, you might say: “Trousers for teddy”, “Jumper for James” or “Hat on doll”.

  Actions

  Find two toys, such as a teddy and a doll. Give the child instructions such as: “Make teddy run”, “Make dolly jump” or “Make teddy wash”.

  Positional Words

  Use a teddy, doll or action figure and see if the child can place them where you ask - for example, you could ask them to “Put teddy under the table”. You can also play tidying up games such as putting the shoe in the box or on the shelf. 

  Tea Set Play

  You can give instructions about objects in places, such as: “Put the cup on the table” or “Put the plate in the sink”. You could also give instructions about toys and food, like: “Give teddy a biscuit” or “Can dolly have some pizza?”.

  Hiding Games

  Give the child instructions about where to hide items/toys, for example: “Put the brick in the tin” or “Put the car in the box”.  Then either look for them together or get another child to come and look for them (you could call it a 'toy hunt’, or a ‘treasure hunt’).

• Activities to Help Understanding of Three Key Words

  These activities aim to develop the child’s ability to understand sentences of increasing length.

  Three Key Word Instructions

  You Need	Example Instructions
  Dolly, teddy, chair, bed	Make teddy jump on the bed Make teddy lie on the chair Make dolly sit on the chair Make dolly walk on the bed
  Teddy, dolly, two bags, two boxes, play food, sponge, brush.	Put a banana in teddy’s bag Put an apple in teddy’s box Wash teddy’s feet Brush teddy’s tummy
  Big and little animals Barn/tractor	Put the little sheep in the tractor Put the big cow in the barn Put the big pig in the tractor

   

  Shopping game

  Set up a pretend shop using toys and other objects. Take it in turns to be the shopkeeper. The other person tells the shopkeeper three items on their shopping list. The shopkeeper has to find the objects and put them in the bag or basket. Use a picture shopping list and repetition to help at the beginning but gradually move towards just giving the instruction once with no visual clues.

  Colouring

  You will need: pictures of animals

  Ask the child to point to each animal’s body parts. For example: "Cow’s nose and ears", "Horse’s legs and tail", "Horse’s eyes and feet", "Cow’s tummy and legs". You may need to point to the pictures for your child initially and also encourage them to point to their own body parts, such as nose, eyes, legs or tummy.

  Putting Away The Shopping

  Ask the child to put items in funny places, for example: "Put the salt under the sink" or "Put the apples and the crisps in the draw".

  Treasure Hunt

  You will need: toys and objects

  Encourage the child to hide objects for someone else to find by giving them instructions to follow. Make sure your instructions contain different location words, such as in, on or under. You could say: "Put the shoe under the bed", "Put the teddy on the book", or "Put doll in the box".

  Feely Bag

  You will need big and little toys or objects of different colours and a fabric bag.

  Ask the child to find items in the bag. You could say: "Find the big red pencil" or "Find the small blue brush".

• Activities to Help Understanding of Four Key Words

  The aim of these activities is for the child to respond correctly to sentences with four key words.

  • You will need to demonstrate to the child what you want them to do.
  • Make sure you don’t give the child extra clues, for instance, don’t point or look at the named object.
  • Only help the child if they are really stuck!
  • The child may look towards the picture/object but not reach for it. Accept this as their response and offer them the chosen item.
  • Always use items that your child knows the name of.
  • Praise the child and make it fun!

  Four Key Word Examples

  If you have a big banana, little banana, big apple, little apple, red plate, blue plate, red book and blue book you could say: “Put the big banana on the blue plate”, the child has to make 4 choices.

  1. big or little
  2. banana or apple
  3. plate or book
  4. red or blue

  The child has to respond to the key words ‘big’, ‘banana’, ‘blue’ and ‘plate’.

  Washing Dolls & Teddies

  You will need a big and little doll, a big and little teddy and a sponge or flannel.

  You can play at washing the big or little teddy or doll. Ask the child to carry out simple instructions such as: “Wash big dolly’s face and foot” or “Wash little teddy’s hand and leg”.

  You will need a big and little dolly or action figure, a big and little teddy, a hairbrush, toothbrush, sponge and a shampoo bottle.

  Ask the child to carry out different actions such as: “Wash big teddy’s feet”, “Brush little dolly’s teeth”, “Wash big dolly’s hair” or “Wash little teddy’s face”.

  Actions With Dolls & Teddies

  You will need two toys, such as a dolly, teddy or action figure and two items of furniture, for example, a bed, chair or table.

  You can pretend to make the dolls do different actions, like sleep, sit, stand, walk or dance on the furniture. Ask the child to “make dolly dance under the chair” or “make teddy jump on the table”.

  Setting The Table

  You will need two toys, such as a doll, teddy or action figure, two cups, two plates, big and little knives, forks and spoons.

  Give the doll and teddy a plate and cup each and then ask the child, for example, to “Put the big fork in dolly’s cup” or “Put the little spoon on teddy’s plate” or if you just have a teddy and one of each item, you could change who does the action. Ask the child: “You put the knife under the cup” or “Teddy put the fork on the plate”.

  Activity For at Home

  When setting the table, parents could let the child help. Put all the crockery on the table in the right places and then give the child a pile of cutlery. Give the child instructions where they have to understand four words, for example: “Put a spoon in daddy’s cup” or “Put a knife under mummy’s plate”.

• Barrier Games

  These games help to improve attention, listening, turn taking, co-operation and ability to follow instructions.

  For all games you will need two sets of identical items and an area where the speaker and listener can hear each other but not see what each other is doing. For example have a big book or piece of card between you.

  Building Towers

  Aim: To build an identical tower by listening to each other giving and following instructions.

  • Sit on opposite sides of a table.
  • Each have a set of bricks; make sure you have the same number of bricks in each colour.
  • Hold a book between you so you cannot see each other’s bricks.
  • Choose a brick and place it in front of you. Then tell the child which brick you have chosen, for example, ‘a blue brick’.
  • Your child must listen and then find the same brick.
  • Lift the book and encourage the children to check they are right.
  • Swap roles so you are building an identical tower together.

  Extension: Include a number in the instruction, such as ‘two red bricks’

  Include bricks of different shapes, like ‘a long yellow brick’.

  Giving instructions

  Aim: To give, and listen to instructions.

  • Sit on opposite sides of a table.
  • Have two sets of identical objects, for example, a cup, a brick, a pencil or a toy cow.
  • Hold a book between you so you cannot see each other’s items.
  • Have a set of items each.
  • Arrange the objects and then give an instruction to your child, such as: "Put the pencil in the cup," or "Put the cow on the brick".
  • Keep the instructions short initially.
  • Lift the book and check they are right.
  • Swap roles.
  • Make the instructions more complex as the child is able.

  Other Activity Ideas

  • Fuzzy Felt – use two identical pictures, for example, faces.
  • Draw a picture – each person gives an instruction to draw a picture.
  • Colour a picture – one child has a coloured picture and the other(s) a black and white version. The child with the coloured picture gives instructions as to how to colour the black and white version.
  • Model making – each person has identical model-making material and gives instructions for making a model.