Early Interventions
Speech, Language and Communication
Support Materials
Area of concern:
Talking - Expressive Language: 22 – 36 months
This will help the child to:
Learn new words rapidly and use them to communicate.
Activities:
By the age of 6 it is estimated that children will have a vocabulary of 14,000 words. Based on
this, children between 18 months and 6 years would have to learn 8 new words a day.
• Display pictures and photographs showing familiar events, objects and activities and talk
together with the child about them.
• Use multi sensory activities and watch to see which things interest the child. Comment on
them (rather than asking questions) eg: ‘the worm is wriggling!’
• Provide activities which help the child to learn to distinguish differences in sounds, word
patterns and rhythms – use the Phase 1 of the Letters and Sounds programme
• Share picture books and talk about what the child is most interested in using nouns
(names of things), verbs (action words) and simple describing words (eg: big, little).
Repeat the same book many times if the child wants to.
• Play sorting games, all clothes in one bag, all fruit in another; this can be reinforced at tidy
up time.
Adult Role:
• Listen and respond to their ideas and questions. Add words, gestures, objects and other
visual cues to support understanding.
• Give children time to think and respond.
• Reinforce and repeat new words whenever you can in many different activities and
situations. The more repetition the child gets the better.
• Think about choosing a short list of ‘words of the week’ for all staff to use and repeat in
different situations and activities. (try to use just 1 or 2 new words in each individual
activity so the child is not ‘overloaded’)
Look, Listen and Note:
• How child begins to use words
• The features of adult/child interaction
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Early Interventions
Speech, Language and Communication
Support Materials
Area of concern:
Talking - Expressive Language: 22 – 36 months
This will help the child to:
Use action, sometimes with limited talk, that is largely concerned with the here and now
Activities:
• Use activities such as cooking where talk is used to anticipate or initiate what the child
will be doing.
• Role-play situations – café time, home corner, etc.
• Small world of all kinds – support by talking through the actions.
• Completing simple puzzles and talking about what might be on the missing pieces.
• Sing action songs and rhymes and encourage the child to join in.
Adult Role:
• Use talk to describe what the child is doing by providing a running commentary.
• Provide opportunities for the child to talk with other children.
• Include things that will excite the child’s curiosity and encourage talk, e.g. bubbles,
shells, wildlife – snails/spiders/insects.
Look, Listen and Note:
The actions that the child uses and what they say to support and think about what they are
doing.
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Early Interventions
Speech, Language and Communication
Support Materials
Area of concern:
Talking - Expressive Language: 22 – 36 months
This will help the child to:
Use a variety of questions
Activities:
• Use picture books and ask simple ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ questions. Re-read books,
asking some of the same questions each time so that the child has an opportunity to use
and reinforce learning of new words.
• Display pictures and photographs showing familiar events, objects and activities and
model asking simple ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ questions.
• Hide and Seek – hide objects or people. This can be played around the room, outside,
and also with smaller items in the sand/water tray, doll’s house, with the child’s favourite
resources. As you play you can ask simple questions such as ‘Where’s Ludo?’ ‘What is
that? Is it a cup or a spoon?’
• Use ‘lift the flap books’ to ask and answer simple questions together. E.g. Where’s Spot?
• With the child look at what is going on in the room around them. Ask simple questions
such as ‘Where is Zack? There he is. Zack is playing with the bricks.’ etc.
Adult Role:
• Model the use of questioning during routines e.g. ‘Where are the cups?’ ‘What do you
want to eat?’
• Provide situations that will encourage the child to ask questions.
• Praise the child each time they ask a question.
• Ensure you make time to answer the child’s questions which will encourage the child to
ask more.
Look, Listen and Note:
• The gestures and facial expressions the child uses when using questioning techniques.
• The type of questions the child asks.
• How the child shows what they understand by what they do and say e.g. the actions,
expressions, questions and new words.
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Early Interventions
Speech, Language and Communication
Support Materials
Area of concern:
Talking - Expressive Language: 22 – 36 months
This will help the child to:
Use simple sentences
Activities:
• Use books and role-play situations to stimulate and encourage the child to talk. E.g. play
alongside the child in the home corner ‘modelling’ phrases, e.g. ‘baby’s sleeping’,
‘cooking the dinner’.
• Display pictures and photographs showing familiar people, objects and events and talk
about them with the child. Allow the child to lead then comment and expand.
• Sing familiar songs and rhymes with repeated refrains and encourage the child to join in.
• Use activities from Phase 1 Letters and Sounds. NB: If you do not have access to
‘Letters and Sounds’, ask your SENCO.
• With the child look at what is going on in the room around them. Discuss together what
the children are doing. ‘Zippy is reading a book’, ‘George is building a big tower’, etc.
• Play a simplified version of ‘Simon Says’, e.g. ‘touch your nose’, ‘sit on the floor’, ‘wave
your hand’. Model the simple sentences then let the child have a go giving you (and
other children) instructions.
Adult Role:
• Support the child by giving him opportunities to practise using new words / phrases in
context.
• Repeat the words and phrases the child says, emphasising the key words and use the
correct tense, grammar, etc. You don’t need to ask the child to repeat it all back
correctly, they just need to hear you say it e.g. ‘teddy nana’ ‘Yes teddy’s eating banana’.
• Talk about things that interest the child.
• Talk about what the child is doing using simple sentences matching the child’s level of
language. E.g. if the child is using 2 word sentences, the adult should aim to use 2-3
word sentences so that it is easier for the child to understand and copy.
• Expand the child’s sentences, e.g. child: ‘up’, adult: ‘climbing up!’
Look, Listen and Note:
• The vocabulary the child uses, e.g. are they using a mixture of nouns (naming words)
and verbs (action words)?
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Early Interventions
Speech, Language and Communication
Support Materials
Area of concern:
Talking - Expressive Language: 22 – 36 months
This will help the child to:
Begin to use word endings
Activities:
• Look at picture books and ask the child what the character is doing – then repeat back
and model the word endings for the child e.g. ‘The girl is jumping.’ This could also be
done physically, asking the child what they are doing as they do it.
• Provide activities such as number songs and rhymes that involve using more than one of
the same object e.g. 1 cat, 2 cats. Use regular plurals such as dogs, and cows, rather
than irregular plurals such as sheep, fish, mice.
• Use Phase 1 Letters and Sounds Aspect 1 Environmental sounds as a stimulus for
activities. NB: If you do not have access to ‘Letters and Sounds’, ask your SENCO.
• Hide and Seek – hide objects or people. This can be played around the room, outside,
and also with smaller items in the sand/water tray, doll’s house, with the child’s favourite
resources. As you play you can ask simple questions such as ‘Where are the bricks?’
• Look at books together – talk about the things you and the child can see emphasising
word endings.
• With the child look at what is going on in the room around them. Discuss together what
the children are doing. ‘Zippy is reading a book’, ‘George is building a big tower’, etc.
• Play a simplified version of ‘Simon Says’, and talk about what the children are doing.
Adult Role:
• Ask questions e.g. ‘What was that?’ and support with the answer if necessary e.g. ‘I think
it was a bell ringing’.
• ‘Model’ word endings in words for the child to hear during play but don’t expect the child
to start using them straight away. Remember that the words and meaning are more
important than the grammar at this stage!
Look, Listen and Note:
• How the child begins to use word endings.
• The vocabulary the child uses.
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