Relational Words: Qualitative vs. Quantitative

What are they and how do we target them?

By: Laura Beth Leddy

Relational words are based on quantity or quality, they are used in narratives to add descriptive features. “Quantitative concepts refer to numerical and measurable ideas, which are crucial for language comprehension, verbal expression, and cognitive development, so targeting quantitative concepts is great to do when our kids have trouble with them (Speechie Studio, n.d.).” Owens discusses that a child does not need to know how to count to learn qualitative terms. I have experienced this in my own life skills classroom, my students often couldn’t count within 10, however, if wrongfully given a smaller number of snacks, than their peers they could identify they received less. They could compare quantities like more, less, some or a few.

Qualitative terms cover a wide range of terms. These terms include big, small and inflection endings like –er, and –est. These can also incorporate sizes, textures, colors and comparative terms (e.g. hot/cold, smooth/rough, etc.) Owens discusses the how children gain these skills, one concept at a time. For example, the term big develops around the age of 30-48 months, where as tall-short may be acquired between 30-84 months (2024).

Relational terms are often taught through conversations and descriptive tasks, often adults' model more complex terms. However, at times intervention is needed, when SLP is targeting these terms, they should be introduced in order by development (Owens, 2024). Speech blogger, Robyn describes her practical approach in the explicit instruction for quantitative terms, she highlighted how providing concrete and visual aids can help working with quantitative concepts. Repetition is key in teaching new concepts and internalizing these concepts. Another way she teaches this is through comparisons like more or less, she gives a student student a group of different items and asks them to compare. Lastly, she uses fun songs like “5 Little Monkeys” to help visualize, count and compare the concepts (Speechie Studio, n.d.).

When teaching qualitative terms, Rachelle from Speech Tree Co. also utilizes visuals to systematically introduce the pair concepts, like hard/soft. She also stated how teaching the context helps these terms generalize outside of the therapy sessions. During intervention she uses an activity called Mystery boxes, there the clinician places items from around the home in a box or bag. “For example, if you are working on hard/soft you might put a sock, teddy bear, book, and cup into the bag. Let the child pull one object out at a time and sort into piles based on the opposite pairs. The mystery component keeps children engaged in this activity.” (Speech Tree Co., 2021).

References:

Owens, R. E., Jr. (2024). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention in children. (7th ed.). Plural Publishing Inc.

Speech Tree Co. (April, 2021). HOW to teach Basic Concepts. Retrieved on March 30, 2025 from https://www.speechtreeco.com/blogs/therapy-ideas/teach-basic-concepts

Speechie Studio (N.D.). Targeting Quantitative Concepts in Speech Therapy. Retrieved on March 30, 2025 from https://speechiestudio.com/targeting-quantitative-concepts-in-speech-therapy/#:~:text=Quantitative%20concepts%20refer%20to%20numerical,kids%20have%20trouble%20with%20them.

Narrative Intervention

Chloe Lyman

Traditional therapy approaches typically target a specific product. While these can be beneficial, in order to fully grasp the functionality of language, intervention strategies need to be adapted to different contexts. In a study assessing strategies to increase generalization of social communication skills, it was stated, "Effective intervention should enhance language and social skills while generalizing to authenticate interactions" (Timler et al., 2007). This generalization and intervention looks different with each client and each target. For example, in order to help teach narrative skills within the context of pragmatics, there are many different avenues the clinician can take in order to naturalize the teaching context. For younger children, it is important to control for the many variables that could affect performance. Things such as plot line clarity, number of episodes, age appropriateness, interest level etc. Some of these young children may be struggling with the concept of narrative structure. Opposed to organizing unfamiliar stories, the clinician may begin with overviewing the child’s daily activities to help them organize their own real-life scripts.

In a n excellent tutorial study, Spencer and Peterson (2020) set out intervention guidelines that follow evidence based practice in teaching narration:

Build story structure before vocabulary and complex language.
Use multiple exemplars to promote metalinguistics and generalization.
Promote active participation.
Contextualize, unpack, and reconstruct stories.
Use visuals to make abstract concepts concrete.
Deliver immediate corrective feedback,
Use efficient and effective prompts.
Individualize and extend.
Arrange for generalization opportunities.
Make it fun.

Each of these guidelines aids the clinician in ensuring their intervention is focused on generalizing the skills their clients are learning to everyday contexts! With narrative intervention, the focus may shift from organization to cohesion to comprehension. This shift in focus may shift the targets, but the guidelines above remain the same. In all narrative intervention, modeling and practice are so important in order for the client to fully immerse themselves in the learning. And above all, make it fun!

Citations:

Spencer, T. D., & Petersen, D. B. (2020). Narrative Intervention: Principles to Practice. Language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 51(4), 1081–1096. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_LSHSS-20-00015

Timler, G. R., Vogler-Elias, D., & McGill, K. F. (2007). Strategies for promoting generalization of social communication skills in preschoolers and school-aged children. Topics in Language Disorders, 27(2), 167–181. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.TLD.0000269931.18881.90

Verbal Working Memory

Erika Hembree

Verbal working memory involves maintaining, manipulating, and recalling verbal information for a specific period (Acheson & MacDonald, 2009). While speech therapy's sole purpose is not be teach working memory. It is a beneficial component in the therapy process for children with working memory deficits to help them improve their overall language abilities. Given the academic difficulties of children with working memory deficits, it seems wise for the SLP in collaboration with classroom teachers to identify working memory demands in the classroom that impact a child’s academic performance and the modify the classroom environment to support each child (Owens, 2024). During intervention with a student with working memory deficits, it would be appropriate to provide the student with information to store and process, then increase or decrease the demands of the goals based on the child’s performance and working memory skills. The best way to provide the stimuli at the beginning of speech therapy is visually and progress to auditory stimuli over the sessions to increase the child’s abilities in reading comprehension, nonverbal reasoning, attention, and reading speed. Owens (2024) states it is important to understand if young children with working memory deficits can understand and follow directions through the use of sentence frames with causal or conditional clauses (e.g., if/then, because), temporal terms (e.g., before, after, first, last), or specific terms (e.g., describe, explain, compare). To improve the retention and the quality of phonological information in working memory, repeating phonological forms that are unfamiliar can aid the child in understanding the essentials of the phonological structure of language. When completing an intervention for working memory, rehearsal of the stimuli is a principal factor when improving the student's short-term memory storage and ability to recall. Furthermore, children with working memory deficits will often have difficulty with organizing information while benefiting from visual and/or keyword cues.

References:

Owens, R. E. (2024). Language disorders. a functional approach to assessment and intervention in children. Plural Publishing, Inc.

Acheson, D. J., & MacDonald, M. C. (2009). Verbal working memory and language production: Common approaches to the serial ordering of verbal information. Psychological Bulletin, 135(1), 50–68. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014411

Conversation Starters

How to teach children how to intitiate or enter a conversation

By . Aislinn Moore

Entering a conversation can be a challenge to children with language disorder , it may feel overwhelming whether due to expressive language or social communication delays. Speech therapy can offer structured support by teaching them play entry strategies through modeling and prompting by an adult.

Four non verbal low risk strategies:

Walk over to your friend.
Watch your friend.
Get a toy like the one your friend is using.
Do the same thing as your friend.

Verbal initiation:

In modeling verbal initiation, the classroom teacher, aid, and SLP helps a child select a toy similar to that of another child. This help initiate conversation with the 2nd child giving an opportunity to the 1st child to ask by asking a child to play.

When the child successfully imitate the behavior , the SLP gradually reduces the model and tries to prompt it through toys , pictures, and verbal cues.

Script phrases:

Teaching script phrases, especially with older children can help them enter a conversation more naturally. To have a more natural conversation they also must have good awareness of the speaker as well. Active listening involves fully engaging with the speaker, showing interests through nonverbal cues, asking questions, paraphrasing, and summarizing to demonstrate understanding.

Motivational Procedures:

Motivation procedures utilizing pivotal response treatment (PRT) is also important for the child to increase social question- asking of both targeted and untargeted questions (Koegel et al., 2014).

PTR include :

Child choice: Begin with highly desired items and provide child with opportunity to initiate a question about the item .
Intersperse maintenance and acquisition tasks: Gradually introduce neutral or less desired items and fade prompts.
Reinforcement of attempts: Adults answers child approximation of a question about stimulus items or actions.
Natural reinforcer: Child is provided with a natural reinforcer, such as an opportunity to intact or play with the item.

⭐By incorporating these strategies, speech therapy empowers children to build confidence in their conversational skills.

Owens, R. E., Jr. (2024). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention in children (7th ed.). Plural Publishing.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-active-listening-3024343

Repeated Spaced Retrieval For Word Learning

Frances Jue

Helping children with DLD expand their expressive vocabulary can be challenging, requiring more than mere exposure to a broader lexicon. Repeated Spaced Retrieval (RSR) is a learning technique that can SLPs can incorporate into their therapy sessions and is particularly useful during reading activities. Reading activities, combined with RSR, are the perfect way to introduce new vocabulary and expand on many language and speech areas, as it can help at both the word and speech sound level (Owens, 2024).

As the name indicates, repeated spaced retrieval (RSR) is done by introducing material to be learned, allowing a bit of time or “space” to lapse when you don’t engage the material, then returning to the material. While this method of studying has been popularized on college campuses for years now, incorporating and studying it with young learners is a recent field of research (Karpicke et al., 2016).

A study in 2016 looked at the effects of RSR in elementary children and found “robust positive effects of retrieval practice with elementary school children” (Karpicke et al., 2016). Since research appears to indicate the same benefits for younger learners, and the method is so simple to execute, it is worth incorporating into therapy sessions for children with expressive or vocabulary challenges.

Incorporating RSR into a reading activity would be quite simple. The clinician could select a short story, verbally highlighting new words to focus on prior to starting the story. The clinician could subsequently proceed with the story and discussion (the space element) and then return to the new words for a quick retrieval/memory exercise after the story is over.

This helpful method is a great tool for an SLP to add to their toolbelt, not only for expanding vocabulary and expression, but also for helping to increase memory capacity, a great skillset for little clients.

References

Owens, R. E., Jr. (2024). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention in children. (7th ed.). Plural Publishing Inc.

Karpicke, J. D., Blunt, J. R., & Smith, M. A. (2016). Retrieval-Based Learning: Positive Effects of Retrieval Practice in Elementary School Children. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 350. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00350

Acknowledging Individual Learning Styles in Intervention

Ashley McBride

Children learn in a variety of different ways, and each way is unique to that child. This is the way that information is processed which assist in the storage and generalization of information. By understanding a child's learning style, you are able to enhance the learning experience and incorporate effective activities and plans into the sessions. Different learning styles include but are not limited to visual learning, auditory learning, and tactile and kinesthetic learning.

Visual learning happens when a child learns best through things they can see. Materials can include things like images, videos, and charts. By incorporating colorful and pleasant on the eye materials into the sessions you are activating the part of their brain that retains the information for comprehension. These students will most likely benefit most from visual cues during therapy.

A child who's learning style is more auditory will engage more with discussions about concepts and by just listening to instructions and reasoning. They are motivated by spoken words, story telling, lectures, and even verbal quizzes. Although it is important to keep in mind that a quiet environment is crucial for these types of learning to maintain attention. Things to incorporate in therapy sessions could be audiobooks, discussions, or even quizlets.

When considering tactile and kinesthetic learning styles, it is important to understand that these children learn best by hands on experiences with a lot of trial and error. They enjoy physical interactions, and benefit from fidget items to stay focused. Activities that include manipulatives, role playing, and experiments can gain full attention and retain information significantly.

By understanding different learning styles and being able to expand your knowledge of a child's educational needs, you are able to provide a more effective therapy environment. These styles can be addressed by trialing different styles and seeing which one engages the child more. You can also discuss this with the caregiver to see what way they believe their child learns the best or what they observe them to be engaging with most.

References

Owens, R. E., Jr. (2024). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention in children (7th ed.). Plural Publishing.

https://www.kidsfirstservices.com/first-insights/how-therapy-programs-support-children-s-unique-learning-styles-a81ce

References:

Miller, K., & Smith, J. (2020). Spatial and temporal concepts: Foundations for language development. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 41(2), 85-98.

Owens, R. E., Jr. (2024). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention in children (7th ed.). Plural Publishing.

Pérez, M., & Mendez, A. (2017). Interactive strategies for teaching spatial concepts in early childhood education. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(5), 750-762.

Teaching Spatial and Temporal Terms in Language Therapy

By Skylar Stringer

Spatial and temporal terms are important aspects of language, enabling us to describe and understand location and time. As children get older, these concepts become more relevant and more crutial to understand (Miller & Smith, 2020). This includes prepositions such as, "in", "on", "at", and "by" (Owens, 2024).

Miller and Smith (2020) provided practical strategies for SLPs and educators to teach these concepts. One strategy is to begin with concrete examples and gradually shift to more abstract terms. Concrete examples with spatial concepts could be modeling with a toy car and a bridge, "the car is ON TOP of the bridge" or "the car is UNDER the bridge". With temporal concepts, it could look like having two different types of vehicles go under the bridge, "FIRST, the train goes under the bridge, THEN, the car". Once children demonstrate that they understand these concrete concepts, SLP can gradually introduce more abstract examples, using drawings, pictures, or stories that represent spatial and temporal relationships with no physical objects (Miller & Smith, 2020).

Pérez and Mendez (2017) corroborated the previously-discussed strategy, and added information about other strategies such as the use of visual aids, storybooks, interactive games, and role-playing activities.

Context Clues Poster by The Bilingual Speech Studio | TPT

Contextual Cues and Learning New Words

Mindy Wender

One way to learn vocabulary is through utilizing context clues. People learn words through context. As they see the word in many different contexts it builds their knowledge of the word and its usage in language. When teaching vocabulary this is an important idea to consider. We should present new words in multiple contexts when teaching vocabulary. Using the word in contexts that the child is used to can help with generalization. In addition, children should be asked to use what they know and expand upon it in structured activities. This allows for greater language growth that sticks.

Contextual analysis is used to teach children to use context to determine an unknown word. However, context alone is not sufficient. The SLPs role is to teach their clients how to use the context properly. The context of the words can give clues to the time, location, relative worth, physical description, use, cause and effect, type, and similarity or difference.

In addition, it is important to teach children that some words’ meanings depend on the context that it is brought in. For example, the word “bark” can be used in different ways. “The dog barked really loudly.” “The tree bark was red and rough.” “His bark is worse than his bite.” The child should be taught that bark as a verb means a loud rough sound, bark as a noun is the outer layer of a tree, and the phrase “his bark is worse than his bite” means that he seems scarier than he actually is, or something seems worse than it actually is. Understanding the different meanings that come along in different contexts leads to less confusion over word meaning and usage.

Owens, R. (2024). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention in children. Plural Publishing, Inc.

Werbeckes, S. (n.d.) Context Clues. Speechy Musings. https://speechymusings.com/topic/words/context-clues/

Teaching language skills: Ways to Support Real-World Communication Skills in Children

By: Hailegh Wingo

When thinking about helping kids with language issues, it's too easy for us to assume it's just about teaching them words or so called "fixing how they talk." The goal is not just to teach them the correct words but to have the knowledge to actually use them in everyday life.

Some kids really struggle with things like trying to stay in the same conversation, and they may struggle to take turns or respond correctly to conversations. They might have word vomit and say random stuff at inappropriate times. Drilling grammar rules is not going to help these children; it's about practicing communication in real situations.

One technique that stood out to me while reading chapter 11 was to focus on helping kids learn while using fun everyday activities. For example, if a child is playing with blocks and needs help, that's a good time to make them practice how to ask correctly. Simple game sare great to use as well. Games that are fun for kids, like "I Spy" can teach them how to describe things, ask questions, and respond to the information given to them. This learning can occur in a way that feels fun and natural.

And it really makes a difference when these lessons happen in places like classrooms or group settings instead of just solo sessions. Kids need to practice talking with other kids their age, not just with an adult that's constantly correcting them. That's how they actually learn by using the skills they have been taught. Its important to teach skills that ask these kids to clarify their statements, give their opinions, or even just putting them in a situation where their expected to stay on topic can make a big impact. This is really true for kids who also deal with any type of emotional or behavioral issues. These aren't just easy fixes. These are tools that help kids connect with others, feel more confident, and just get along with people easier.

Citations

Hyter, Yvette & Rogers-Adkinson, Diana & Self, Trisha & Simmons, Brande & Jantz, Jennifer. (2001). Pragmatic Language Intervention for Children with Language and Emotional/Behavioral Disorders. Communication Disorders Quarterly. 23. 4-16. 10.1177/152574010102300103.

Owens, R. (2024). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention in children. Plural Publishing, Inc.