WellComm is a Speech and Language Toolkit for Screening and Intervention in the Early Years: Revised Edition that plays a crucial role in identifying children with potential language difficulties and offers a range of customised intervention activities to help support their language development.

Easy to understand games and activities help practitioners to understand the child’s current level of speech and language and to provide a pathway for action, ensuring every child gets the support they need. These activities and games can be shared with parents to be enjoyed at home, providing a consistent effective approach.

⬤ Consider referral to a specialist service for further advice/assessment

⬤ Extra support and intervention required

⬤ No intervention currently required

Please find below, activities and resources to help with each section.

                                                                                                  Section 6

6.1 Understanding and using pronouns: ‘he’ and ‘she’

Why is this important?
Pronouns are words that replace a noun or a person (e.g. the boy – ‘he’;
the girl – ‘she’). Other pronouns include ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘they’.

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What to do
• Find two character toys – one must be a girl (e.g. Barbie) and the
other a boy (e.g. Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman).
• Gather together several everyday
items (e.g. brush, cup, spoon, flannel).
• Demonstrate that the toys can do lots of different things

(e.g. brush hair, wash face). Say:
★ ‘He’s washing.’
★ ‘She’s jumping.’
• Can the child choose the correct character to relate to the pronoun?
• Share books and use pronouns to talk about what’s happening

(e.g. ‘he’s running’, ‘she’s skipping’).
• Talk about what children are doing in the park when you are out for a walk, or on the bus. Use a lead-in phrase to help the child relate the pronoun to the male/female, e.g.
★ ‘Look at that boy, he’s hopping.’
★ ‘Can you see that lady? She’s eating.’

                                                                                                  Section 5

5.1 Understanding ‘in’, ‘on’ and ‘under’ at the simplest level

Why is this important?
Prepositions are words that describe the placement of objects. They are
important in the development of relational concepts (i.e. describing where
things are compared to others). Children need to understand prepositions
as words on their own before they can be understood in sentences
incorporating more information-carrying words.

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What to do
• Put out a box or jar (something with a lid).
• Give the child an object (e.g. brick) and ask the child to

‘Put the brick ‘in’/‘on’/‘under’ the box’.
• Give the child another item and repeat the game.
• The child only has to understand the preposition in this task as you have given no choice of object (brick) or place (box).

                                                                                                  Section 4

4.1 Remembering two things at a time

Why is this important?
Verbal understanding is like a ‘list’ of things/items that need to be
remembered in order to carry out the task. An example of a two-word level
instruction is ‘Give doll a banana’ (e.g. children have to remember ‘doll’ and
‘banana’). If children can’t do this, it may be that their auditory memory is
not yet sufficiently developed.

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What to do
• Put out four everyday objects (e.g. cup, teddy, pencil, sock).
• Say ‘Give me pencil and teddy’.

Make sure the child waits until the end of the instruction before responding.
• Hold out your hands for the items.
• Replace and ask for two different items.
N.B. Try to remember not to look at the items as you ask for them,

or eye-point during the task as this gives clues over and above the meanings of the words only.
• Work towards the same aim via different activities:
★ Play a shopping game, or put two animals into the field,

or two items of clothing into the washing machine, etc.
★ ‘Kim’s Game’ is good for developing memory and observation skills and is also
great fun. Collect a small number of items on a tray and cover them with a cloth.
Sit in a group where all the children can see the tray. Take away the cloth and
allow the children time to scan the items carefully. Re-cover the tray then ask
each child which items they can remember. The one who remembers most wins
the game