Higher level strategies to support listening and understanding

Many young people with communication difficulties have difficulty understanding spoken language. These young people need adult support to understand in conversations, and to develop strategies to support their understanding when socialising, and when in education or employment.

Visual support

• Seat the young person in the front of the class where they can easily see visual aids
• Ask the young person to visualise and imagine what they are reading
• Use any of the following as supports
  • a visual timetable or task schedule
  • question symbol cards
  • vocabulary mats or dictionaries

• • story frame planners

• • mind maps

• • problem solving frames

• • comic strip conversations to draw out sequences of events and stories

How to give instructions and information

• Use slow speech
• Give short instructions, one at a time
• Give instructions in chronological order
• Repeat key instructions or key information particularly if they ask you to
• Use familiar words or link a complex word to a familiar word
• Support and develop comprehension monitoring
• Check the young person understands specific words and say “what does that word mean?” rather than ‘do you understand?’
• Explain the meaning of words especially those related to behavioural management

How to ask for information

• Avoid broad questions such as ‘what happened?’ and instead break down complex topics or events into simpler components. For example
  • Who was there?
  • Where were you?
  • When did it happen?
  • What did you do?
  • What did they do?
  • What did you say?
  • What did they say?
  • How did you feel?
  • How did they feel?
  • What happened next?

• Avoid complex grammar and language that requires the listener to ‘read between the lines’. For example
  • “Walk please” instead of ‘stop running’
  • “Last warning” instead of ‘you’re on thin ice’
  • “Two of you were involved” instead of ‘it takes two to tango’