1) Giving opinions and reasons

Opinions – Choose a topic, for example ‘my favourite hobby’. Each person in the group has the opportunity to talk for one minute about the chosen topic. Encourage the other people in the group to listen and then summarise the main points. Discuss the fact that everyone in the group has different opinions and encourage them to think about similarities and differences between what everyone said.

Debate – Choose an issue, for example ‘we should wear school uniform for school’. Divide the group into two teams and allocate sides – one group is arguing in support of the topic and the other group is arguing against the topic. Encourage the students to generate ideas supporting their argument. The adult may need to facilitate discussion by writing key points on the board/on a piece of paper.

2) Comparing – similarities and differences

Same/different game – Show pictures/name two items e.g. pencil and pen. Ask the child or young person to explain how they are the similar and how they are different, for example “They are both used for writing but you need to sharpen a pencil and you can’t sharpen a pen”. Initially you may want to choose more simple items such as ‘cat and dog’ but later you can move to more abstract items such as ‘sad and lonely’.

Venn Diagram – Draw two circles that overlap. Above one circle write a word, for example ‘horse’ and above the other circle write a different word, for example ‘camel’. In the section of the circles that overlap, write the similarities between the two items. In the separate parts of the circle, write the different characteristics of the words.

Word meanings – Give the child or young person two words and explain that they need to say whether the words mean the same thing or a different thing. Encourage them to explain the similar or different meanings.

Odd one out – Give the child or young person a selection of words/pictures with one word/picture being the odd one out e.g. hammer, spanner, toothbrush, saw. Encourage them to identify the odd one out and then explain why it is the odd one out, for example “The toothbrush is the odd one out because it is not a tool from the toolbox”. You can make the words/pictures more challenging with older children, for example using curriculum vocabulary.

Activities to develop higher level language skills

3) Predicting

Pictures – Look at pictures/photos of a situation and discuss what might happen next. Discuss why and how this is known.

Stories - Discuss what may happen next after reading short stories or novels.

Real events – Discuss what might happen next in a science experiment or in cooking.

TV programmes – Watch a short clip of a TV programme or DVD and predict what the characters may do next. This prediction will need to be related to the characters previous actions and feelings.

Predicting change – Discuss what would happen next in situations, for example ‘If you left a chocolate bar outside on a sunny day’ or ‘If you put up your umbrella on a windy day’.

Justifying – Use all the above activities but ask the child or young person ‘why’ they think something might happen. Initially you may need to give the child or young person a choice, for example ‘do you think the chocolate bar would melt because it’s hot or because it’s been left on the table?’

4) Problem solving

Framework – Support the child or young person to use the following framework to discuss an everyday problem, for example ‘You forgot your packed lunch’.

o What is the problem?o What caused the problem? Why did it happen?o What could you do? (think of good and bad solutions)o Which are the top three solutions? Which one is the best?o What could you do differently next time to stop it happening?

Picture cards – Practice using the framework above with picture cards, e.g. “What’s wrong?” and “What would you do?”

Books - Read a book and identify problems experienced by a character and how they tackle the problem. Discuss how the child or young person would solve the problem and whether they would do anything different.

Group discussion – Give the group a problem and write down all the possible solutions on the board. Encourage the group to brainstorm all their ideas without the fear of it being right or

wrong. At the end of the brainstorm, go through each problem and discuss the best solution, crossing off solutions that are less helpful. Examples of problems for discussion could include:

o You’re running for the bus when you see a woman drop her bag, what do you do?o You borrow a toy from a friend but it breaks when you are playing with it, what do you

do?o You don’t remember what the teacher asked you to bring in to school tomorrow, what do

you do?

5) Inference

Looking in detail – Look at composite pictures and ask questions about the picture, for example “What time of year is it?” and then “How do you know?” or “What are they doing?” and “Why are they doing it?”. Initially you may need to support the child or young person to identify the clues in the picture, for example “It’s autumn because all the leaves are falling off the trees”.

Analysing Stories – Read short stories or paragraphs and use similar questions as above to encourage thinking about ‘how’ and ‘why’ they know/can tell something. Provide choices if the student finds this difficult, for example “Is it dark because the trees are spaced out or because the trees are growing together?”

Fill the gap – Use something small, like a post-it note, to conceal object words in a short passage, for example “The rabbit looked at his _____ and saw it was 3 o’clock”. Explain that you have covered some words in the passage and the child or young person must guess the word which is hidden. You may need to offer choices if they find this difficult, for example “Is it watch or glasses?”. Remove the post-it note to reveal the word – you may find that they have given an appropriate, similar word instead of the actual answer.