Receptive language means how we understand the words that other people use to communicate with us. Watch our podcast for more detailed information about what receptive language means and how you can help children and young people who find it tricky, to understand the words you use or take a look at the quick-fire tips below and add them to your toolkit!
Quick-Fire Toolkit
Some young people become quickly overloaded if you use too much language:
- Make sure you have the young person’s attention before talking to them. Call their name and ask them to stop what they’re doing first
- Try to break down or chunk longer instructions and give one piece of information at a time
For example instead of saying: “Go upstairs and get your green jumper then come back down and put your new coat and shoes on”. You could say: “Go upstairs” then once they are there: “get your green jumper” then once that is done: “come down and put your coat on” then once that is done: “now put your shoes on”.
- Give the young person enough time to process what you have said. Language is complicated. People can benefit from a bit of extra thinking time to help them process what you have said and to decide what they want to say.
- Don’t be afraid of silences! As a general guide it can be helpful to wait for about 10 seconds before saying anything else – try counting to 10 in your head before repeating or re-phrasing.
- Support what you have said in a visual way. Spoken language can be tricky to follow, as once it’s been said, it’s gone. Using visual reminders can be really helpful to support people to understand what has been said.
There are lots of different types of visuals you can use depending on what works best for your child or young person. Here are a few ideas:
- You can use pointing and gestures to help you to show them what you are talking about.
- You can use pictures as part of a schedule to show what is happening in the day. These are often called ‘visual timetables’. Simple versions of this can support people to know what is happening now and what is going to happen next.
- Writing things down can be helpful for some people. Some people like to write lists to help them remember what they need to do. Others might prefer a text or an event reminder on their phone.