Supporting Children's Speech and Language
Speech Sounds
These are games to help children hear the difference between speech sounds.
Download a guide to playing the games here: Speech discrimination games.pdf [pdf] 207KB
Below you can watch some of the children showing you how to play the games:
Phonics
These activities will support the phonics work you get from school and are fun ways to work on reading and spelling without needing a pen and pencil!
Compound words.pdf [pdf] 233KB
letters and vowels.pdf [pdf] 182KB
Where in the word.pdf [pdf] 267KB
Barrier Activities
Barrier games are a great way to get children talking and help them to understand what information they need to include so you understand. Even better you can use your own toys to play! Here are some ideas using Duplo/Lego and Mr Potato Head!
Download pictures here: Duplo barrier.pdf[pdf] 367KB
and instructions for playing the duplo barrier game here Duplo instructions.pdf [pdf] 317KB
Mr Potato Head Barrier game.pdf[pdf] 281KB
Rhyme
Rhyme is a tricky skill for lots of children but it is also a really useful skill that can help children's literacy.
Download a guide to working on children's awareness of rhyme here: Raising awareness of rhyme 2020.pdf [pdf] 187KB
These are some fun games to try at home to introduce the concept of rhyme:
New picnic game.pdf [pdf] 331KB
Rhyme anchor chart 1.pdf [pdf] 153KB
Rhyming Clues game with adult cues.pdf [pdf] 1MB
Word Levels
Thinking about Key Word Levels is a structured way to work on children's understanding of words.
Download a guide to working at Key Word Levels here: Key word Information.pdf [pdf] 469KB
Download lots of activities to work on Key Word Levels with your own toys at home here: Key Word Level activities topic based.pdf [pdf] 514KB
2 key word level activities.pdf [pdf] 449KB
3 key word level activities.pdf [pdf] 465KB
Syllables
Teaching children to clap out words into individual syllables can really help their speech but is also really useful for spelling too.
Download a guide to raising children's awareness of syllables here: Syllable handout 2021.pdf [pdf] 757KB
Here are some games to try at home. You can use their toys such as toy animals or play food or use photos of topic words - anything that interests them!
syllable claps.pdf [pdf] 128KB
Language Concepts
These are some specific activities to teach children some of the tricky language concepts they need to understand instructions in the classroom and at home.
Time line vocabulary 2020.pdf [pdf] 146KB
Abstract Concepts.pdf [pdf] 672KB
This is a really useful activity to play with any new vocabulary to help children practise new words.
Semantic cue cards 2020.pdf [pdf] 620KB
Maths
The language of maths can be very challenging to understand for many children. For example, understanding that 'times' and 'multiply' mean the same thing and so do 'take away' and 'minus'. These are some activities to help children overcome some of the barriers language poses to solving maths problems:
Number word sorting.pdf [pdf] 145KB
Teen ty resource.pdf [pdf] 207KB
Resources from:
