Date
17 April 2024

Support communication

Suggestion for implementing the strategy ‘Supporting literacy, social interaction, and communication’

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Ideas to support conversation

Ideas to support conversation

Role model wide and varied vocabulary to enrich language experiences.
  • Cut down on the amount that you talk.
  • Comment on what students are doing – this is less pressured than asking questions.
  • When students can’t think of what to say, help them. For example, if a student wants to join in a game say, “Ben, you could say, ‘Can I join in?’”.
  • Demonstrate how to say things. Should a student say, “Car blue school”, you can continue the conversation by adding, “So you saw a blue car on the way to school”.
  • Expand on what students say – this helps them to build longer sentences.
  • Expand students’ vocabulary. Instead of saying “Pass me the blue and red container”, say “Pass me the colourful container”.

Ideas to support task completion

Ideas to support task completion

Adapt your language to support student processing.
  • Break tasks into very small stages.
  • Give one instruction, then time to complete action before giving the second instruction.
  • Speak in short sentences, with a short pause in between to allow for processing.
  • Use simple sentences, with simple vocabulary.

Source: Raise Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder (opens in a new tab/window)

Support understanding with visuals

Support understanding with visuals

Offer information in more than one way.

Use symbols and graphics to illustrate key concepts.

Keep the layout clean and uncluttered.

Useful resources

Useful resources

Website

Te kōrerorero | Talking together

Te kōrerorero | Talking together

Publisher: Te Whāriki Online

Visit website

Website

Teacher tips 2: Practical strategies

Teacher tips 2: Practical strategies

Publisher: RADLD

Visit website

Next steps

More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Key areas to support”:

Return to the guide “Speech, language and communica­tion needs ”

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