Higher level strategies to support talking

Many young people with communication difficulties have difficulty explaining their ideas or retelling a sequence of events, for example, what happened at lunchtime. These young people need adult support to communicate their ideas in conversations, and to develop strategies to support their ability to recall and explain ideas when socialising, and in education or employment.

Visual support

Give the young person a pen and paper so that they can learn to ‘back up’ what they are trying to communicate with visual supports.

Use comic strip conversations to draw out sequences of events and stories – break it down into ‘parts’ of the story and add speech bubbles and thought bubbles to break down what people were thinking, saying and feeling.

Asking for information

Here are some strategies you could try:

• Give the young person time to think about and plan what they want to say – waiting is ok!
• Avoid broad questions such as ‘what happened?’ Instead break down complex topics and 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?”

• Use sentence starters to support the young person to explain their thoughts, for example, “You knew it was your science lesson. You went outside because..?”, “If Jack knew that had happened, he would feel..?”
• Repeat back what you have heard so that the young person can think of the next part, for example,  “so you knocked on the headteacher’s door…”
• Repeat back and emphasis correct grammar when you notice an error, for example, “First I caughted the ball”, adult: ‘ah so first you caught the ball’
• Ask the young person to describe or show if they can’t think of the word
• Repair the conversation if the young person’s story is coming out a little jumbled by:

• • Recapping what you’ve understood
  • Pausing to see if they can complete the story
  • Manage the confusion and ask clarification questions if needed