Higher level language strategies for children with more language

Language difficulties are nobody’s fault but changing the way you talk can really help your child.

Here are some strategies for children with more language.

Leave gaps for your child to finish the sentence

The adult says a sentence and leaves it unfinished, or with a gap, for the child to fill in the missing word. For example:

• when looking at a book or reading a story, “and then Goldilocks sat on …” (baby bear’s chair)
• when retelling an event “and after Nanan’s house we went to the …” (park)

This strategy cues the child in to answer, rather than using a direct question. It can feel less pressured than a direct question. You and your child are working together to talk about an event or story.

Ask open ended questions

Some questions only require a one word answer and are not very useful for developing language and conversation. For example:

• ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions, such as ‘Did you have apples for snack?’
• ‘What’s that?’ questions

The best kind of questions, that can trigger off longer discussions or conversations, are open ended questions. Try asking questions using ‘where’, ‘who’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ to get conversations going more!

Add comments to questions

Adding comments to questions can take the pressure off, and create a more relaxed conversational style of interacting. Instead of:

• ‘What’s that?’… try ‘I wonder what that is?’
• ‘How many cars are there?’… try ‘I wonder how many cars there are in that picture?’
• ‘Why is the baby crying?’… try ‘Look at the baby crying… I wonder what’s wrong?’

Try comments that ‘invite’ them in , rather than ‘test’ them. For example:

• ‘Shall we see what happens when we do this? What do you think?’
• ‘I’m thinking that might be a … (you get it wrong)… what do you think?’
• ‘Would you help me count these bricks as we put them away?’

Ask questions to talk about past, future and imaginary experiences

When playing with toys, draw your child’s past experiences, feelings, future plans and even wishes into the conversations. Try to move them on from just talking about the ‘here and now’. For example:

• ‘Can you remember when we went to the farm? We saw that funny goat and… (child talks) … and you loved the rabbits, but you didn’t like the …‘

Talk about past experiences using ‘where’, ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ questions.