In linguistic terms, basic concepts are the words that help us understand and describe the world around us. They are the words that describe positions, colours, shapes, size, time, sequences, quantities, qualities, emotions, measurements, comparisons, patterns and directions. We recognise these words as adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. These words are among the most important that children learn for social and academic success. Not only do these words enrich a child’s vo

Photo by saeed karimi on Unsplash 11 Tips to help your child understand you and do what you ask Comprehension Comprehension, also known as receptive language, is our ability to understand the language we hear or read. In order to interpret meaning from the language around us, we need to understand words, linguistic concepts, grammatical rules, the nuance of facial expressions, body language and have a general knowledge that puts the language we hear into context. Our comprehe

At the end of last year, my husband Tim and I took 3 months off work and embarked on an adventure to Japan. We volunteered in a local church in the north of Japan, which was great fun. Living and working in a different culture was a unique experience, and we were thrilled to have our first white Christmas! Before we left, I started trying to learn Japanese. The language is very different from English, which makes it difficult to learn. I spent a lot of time in Japan teaching

Intelligibility All this month in our blogs, we’re talking about speech sound disorders. One of the words you’ll hear a lot when talking about speech is ‘intelligible’. Intelligibility is how clear and comprehensible a person’s speech is. If a child is 100% intelligible, that means that everyone can understand everything they say. If you find you have to focus hard on what your child is saying to understand them, they are less intelligible. If you are relying on gestures and

Comprehension Comprehension, also known as receptive language, is understanding what we hear or read. It enables us to make sense of the world and follow instructions. It involves understanding concepts such as size, shape, location, texture and time. As we continue through school, the concepts we are expected to comprehend become more complex and abstract. Strong auditory comprehension skills are vital for school success because: Classrooms are full of spoken language Childr