Understanding early concepts

Speech and language therapy

﻿Hello, everybody. My name's Emma. And welcome to today's lesson. I'm looking forward to today's session and I hope you are too. I can't wait to get started. But before we do, just a quick reminder. We here at Oak are here to support any approaches you might already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know this lesson is going out to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure or have any questions, please do contact your child's school or use your speech and language therapy team. In today's session, I'll be talking about concept words and together, we'll do some thinking about how understanding concept words can help you in your everyday activities. We're going to have some concept games and then through these activities, I'll be giving some tips to adults so that they can help you with your understanding of language. For today's session, you'll need some playdough, a box and a cup. Adults, you'll need some writing equipment and the downloadable resource that's available with this lesson on the Oak website. So before we begin, find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed for the lesson. Turn off any distractions or notifications that you might have on your device and then make sure that you and your adult are seated comfortably. When you're ready, let's begin. Okay, let's start by doing some talking and thinking about concept words. Concepts are words that tell us more about our world and things in it. Early concepts tells us things like the size of something, what it feels like, sounds like, maybe how it moves. They can also tell us where something is and how much of something there is. Concept words can be difficult to learn because they aren't as concrete as naming words but we can do a few things to really help our children to learn and understand concepts in their every day. When you're thinking about learning concepts, the first thing that we need to try and do is experience concepts in the context of everyday, real-life situations. It can also be really helpful to attach concepts to really motivating experiences or activities because this will make them really memorable. It also helps to have lots of repetition and modelling of concepts from our adults. Okay, it's time for an activity. Children, we're going to play with some of our playdough. Can you put your playdough in the cup or the box or maybe both? Maybe you can find some other places to put your playdough in. Adults, this is a great time to be modelling the concept in. Let's attach it to some really fun and motivating activities. When you've had five or so minutes, come back to the video and press play to continue with the lesson. When learning concepts, and modelling them for our children, it can be really helpful to try and bring them to life just that little bit more. We can do this by adding a sign or a gesture, looking at symbols or collecting pictures that show us and remind us of what that concept looks like. And also say and point to the word together as often as we can in lots of different places. So pause the video here to take some pictures of your playdough when you were working on in. You can use these to help reinforce the concept in in the future. When you've a few minutes to take some pictures of your playdough in different things, come back to the video and press play to continue. It's important that when we're thinking about teaching and introducing new concepts to the child that we think about how and when we do this. If a concept has an opposite, like big and little, work on understanding just one of those concepts first and then leave the opposite for a little while. Focus on some other concepts and then come back to little so that the two don't get confused. Physically modelling and showing your child the concept when giving them an instruction is a really sure fast way to help them to understand it. Describe to your child what they are doing when they are using concepts and really emphasise the word that you want the child to learn by providing lots of repetition and lots of enthusiasm in your voice to really stress the concept word that you're modelling and that you're labelling for them. So let's try an in treasure hunt activity. Children, you and your adult are going to go on a treasure hunt. This could be around the house, in the garden or out in the community. What can you find to put in your box? Adults, this is again another opportunity to model lots of language and also the concept in. Every time an object goes in, make sure you say the word with lots of emphasis and positivity in your voice. It's also helpful to keep track of concepts that you have been working on and developing with your child. Regularly review concepts to make sure that the child has really secured them in their understanding. And continue to use motivational and visual activities to review these words. Here I've shared a few ideas for different activities that you could try when picking and working on your concepts. Concept walks are great. Also simple games like I Spy, and story time. By picking books that have the concepts included in them, you can really help to consolidate a child's understanding of that concept. You can also go on treasure hunts just like you did then. Give your child a bag or something that they can collect their items in that represent that concept. You can also try obstacle courses too. All of these are really fun, motivating activities that the child will then attach to their understanding of concept so that it's more likely to be learnt, remembered and understood. Okay, now it's time for one more in activity. But you get to choose this one. You could play I Spy, go on a concept walk, find a story or do an in obstacle course. Pause the video on the previous slide to remind you of what these activities are and then complete one of them. When you finish, come back to the video and press play to continue. So here, I've put a few of the early concepts that you could work on with your child over the coming weeks. Remember to use the activities and strategies that we've talked about through the lesson and don't forget to refer to the downloadable resource for more information. As ever, avoid testing your child on the words that they understand. We don't want to create pressure and we don't want word learning to be a scary or upsetting experience. We want to create a language-rich environment where children are accessing words in fun-filled, natural exchanges and receiving lots of positive role models and reinforcement with their language from us, the adults. Words that are reinforced through pictures and symbols and other multisensory approaches are much more likely to stick. So make sure you've got a pen and paper or a camera on hand to take lots of pictures of your concept words. Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson. But a really big well done on all the fantastic work you've done on the concept in today and for all the learning that you've been doing on your understanding of language. If you'd like, you could ask your parent or carer to share some of the work that you've been completing with your teacher at school so that they can see your lovely progress. And if you'd like, you could also ask your parent or carer to share some of your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter by tagging @OakNational so I can see your fantastic progress too. Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you. But take care and enjoy the rest of your learning today. Bye bye.

Understanding early concepts

Understanding early concepts

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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