09/08/2025
With school back in session, you might find yourself in a familiar situation. Your child walks through the door, and you ask, “So, what did you do at school today?” only to be met with a blank stare, a vague response, or even an immediate echo of the question (hello, GLP!). We’ve all been there!
Although this question is seemingly simple, it actually requires higher level language skills that many children continue to need support with into their school-aged years.
Good news! We can help strengthen these skills by doing the following;
⋒ Ask specific questions about their day to narrow and guide their thinking. “Who did you play with at recess?” “What did you learn in math today”, “what story did you read today?”, “what made you feel happy today?”
⋒ Build visual imagery. “Think about who you sat beside today. Can you close your eyes and see them? What were you learning about?”
⋒ Provide a model for them and share a few things about your day, or model what your child could say in one of their daily routines (e.g. “we started our day with breakfast and had...”
⋒ Avoid bombarding with questions and keep the focus narrow.
⋒ For our GLPs, make sure they have the spontaneous flexible language (stage 5+) to answer it. You may have to model first by having their teacher send photos of their day and then making declarative statements/comments about it.
Hope these tips help! If your child continues to need support, answering questions, sequencing responses, or forming sentences, please do not hesitate to reach out.
