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Topic “Individual”
Contains activities for individuals (one on one).
To make eye contact
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Gain visual attention Use something that the person may be visually attracted by, for example:
|
| Remember that although the room needs to have little visual distraction the light needs to be sufficient to allow clear eye contact to be made e.g. a low light sensory room may not be so good for this activity. |
Able to play simple action games and respond to greetings
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Playing action games Action toys Action nursery rhymes | 1. Use any toy which you need to post or press a key or push a part to make something happen e.g. rolling marbles down a kitchen roll holder, catching fish with a magnet and putting into a pond, press a button and the toy pops up. Set the toy up and take turns to have a go. 2. Play round and round the garden type games. Start the game and pause before the exciting end part and wait for the child to indicate he/she wants you to continue by the child looking at you or moving your hand to show he/she wants more. | Child learns to take turns Child accepts ending and starting a turn |
| Child says bye. | Be consistent in the ritual. The only thing that varies is the names of the people involved. | |
| Child greets familiar adults Soft toys | ||
| Child sits in a small group for story time. Comfy bean bags and favourite book |
First next last; first last templates
Template to use for first/next/last or first/last sequencing - with space for pictures. Example activities: sequences three pictures with first next and last.
Created 18 October 2012; updated 19 July 2015.
Initiation prompt cards
Examples of prompt cards you could use to help a child initiate - includes the main part of a sentence which the child may need to fill in using a name. Example activity.
Created 18 October 2012; updated 8 December 2015.
Robert's Friend
One day there was a boy called Robert. He was starting at a new school. On his first day, he met lots of children in his class. At playtime, he went outside with everyone else. Some children played football. Some children played hopscotch. Some children ran around and played tag. Robert wished he could play. He didn’t know anybody yet.
Phrases cards for emotions game
Created 18 October 2012; updated 30 April 2022.
Generic game track
neil
A coloured track which, along with dice and counters for example, could be used to make a variety of activities into a game - for example, shake the dice, move the counter, and if you land on an orange square, pick a card and describe what is on it.
Created 18 October 2012; updated 19 July 2015.
1-6 Grid
Grid containing the numbers 1 to 6. This can be used in a number of games - for example this emotions game.
Created 18 October 2012; updated 30 April 2022.
Use two key word instructions in everyday activities
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Making a cup of tea - telling you what to do Kitchen with everything appropriate for making a cup of tea. You don't need to have them out and ready though - finding the stuff can be part of the activity. | 1. Sit in the kitchen at an empty table and say you want to make a cup of tea - but you don't know what to do (or have forgotten what to do); 2. See if the person suggests getting something - e.g. teabag or cup. If the person suggests something, e.g. teabag, ask where you can find it. See if they can tell you - e.g. "cupboard" - but if not, give then some suggestions - e.g. "in the cupboard or in the fridge?" - have a look in the fridge if they suggest that. If the person doesn't suggest anything, give a funny choice, e.g. shall I get a cup or a paint brush - if they suggest "paint brush", get one and then look really confused when you have it - see if they can correct you, or if there is not paint brush to find, look equally confused. Get a cup even if they don't prompt you to get one (as if you've suddenly remembered!) 3. As you go along, try to get the person to extend the language - but don't try to get them to repeat, also try to avoid asking leading questions (for example avoid asking "shall I stir the tea now?"). For example if you have a tea bag and a cup, and they say "cup", indicating that you put something in the cup, put something else in the cup - e.g. a pen. If they then say teabag, do something with the teabag - but don't put it in the cup. At this point they may try to put the two words together, e.g. "teabag...cup". If not, you can give them a choice. Try the following: "teabag in the cup or pen in the cup" (you might get a response of "teabag" in which case put it somewhere - not in the cup); or "teabag in the cup or pen in the bag" or "pen in the bag or teabag in the cup" (easiest because the target phrase is last). | If the person is not familiar with making a cup of tea already, you should spend some time doing this - talking them through what you are doing as you make the tea. The key principle here is to give the minimum amount of prompting. You will need to adjust the level of prompting so that the person is a little bit challenged by the task - but not so much that there are long pauses (what constitutes a long pause will vary from person to person). As far as possible, you are trying to literally do what the person says - so if they say something that's potentially ambiguous, choose a more amusing interpretation of what they have said. The idea is that this activity should be really fun, and also prompt the person to try and add more information and be more accurate. |
| Everyday activities Whatever is required for the activity. Activities could include:
|
Understand and use ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc)
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Write it Writing materials |
| This works best 1:1. Use this activity only with a child who can read and write. With children with less good literacy skills, you will need to talk about what you are going to focus on, but miss out the written support. With children who can cope with larger numbers, you might want to go beyond 10, be careful to explain how numbers such as 21st, 22nd and 23rd are formed. |
| Line up None | This works best with a class or group. You may want to focus more on the front of the line. | |
| PE Equipment as required by the PE activity | This works best with a class. | |
| Small World Small world equipment, including several ‘people’. | This works best 1:1. This activity is more suited to younger children. | |
| Actions Equipment as required by the actions. Visual prompt cards if required. | This works best 1:1 or with a small group. Make sure you stress words such as “first”, “second” etc. Bear in mind the child’s auditory memory – the more instructions you give, the harder it will be to remember them. |
Learn new words
| Activity/strategy name and materials required | How to do the activity | Key principles for doing the activity and comments |
|---|---|---|
| Exploring words Written word with a picture Written sounds for beginning/ end of each word Visuals for the story Dictionary (maybe)
| Ideas you can use to help word learning - you do not need to use all of them, and some will work better than others for different children. 1. Introduce the written form of the word; 2. Say the word to the child and ask for repetition; 3. Ask the child to clap syllables on your or their hands, use prompting if necessary. Or alternatively they could tap the syllables out on pictures of drums (say four arranged in a row); 4. Ask if any other words rhyme with this new word (think of examples yourself) - you could take this in turns in a group; 5. Ask for beginning and ending sounds; 6. Tell the child a short story or anecdote, including the word as the main feature if possible - or work with the child to work a story out; 7. Give an explicit definition (school dictionary maybe - some dictionaries are more helpful than others for this!) and give context(s) preferably first one being the one used in the story as it’s familiar but make sure to offer other contexts; 8. Ask the child if they can put the word in a sentence/ tell a short story including the word; 9. If ability allows, ask the child if they know of any word which means a similar thing. | These activities help to build a child’s vocabulary with solid representations of words. It gives a child strategies to use when learning and remembering new words. It builds the child’s confidence on a topic, especially if taught before the relevant lesson. |
Number action rhymes
Below are some action number rhymes which you can use to develop children’s understanding of numbers and also encourage them to initiate and continue the song/interaction with you.
Remember to sing these songs a few times with your child and show them how to move their hands/body by modelling it yourself.
Communicating Phonics - Quick Reference
Background
The Communication Trust's publication "Communicating Phonics" was published to help teachers who are administering the Year 1 phonics screening check to children with speech language and communication needs (children with SLCN). Although this guidance was written with this check in mind, it also provides much useful information for developing literacy skills with this group of children.
The table below is reproduced from the reference table which comes from pages 12 - 16 of this guidance.
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