Higher-Order Language

Acquiring basic language is an accomplishment in itself but higher-order language truly fascinates me and I love targeting it in language sessions. This is where we see children really using their language for more complex purposes and put all their basic language skills to use. Higher-order language comprises a range of skills including:

• Predicting
• Explaining and justifying
• Reasoning 
• Inferencing (interpreting beyond the literal meaning of text/pictures)
• Problem solving 
• Interpreting non-literal language (like metaphors, similes etc.)
• Using language for humour 

These skills are all important for conversations, comprehension and general academic performance.

Fun fact! Kids start developing these skills from around 3 years . Here are some ways you can support this at home! 

• If something happens, as your child what happens next
• Present your child with a problem and ask them what they’d do to fix it 
• Ask your child to tell you how 2 things are the same or different
• Let your child describe an item to you and you have to guess what it is or play a game of ‘I Spy’ 
• Give your child a riddle (clues) and have them guess what you are describing 
• Ask ‘why’ questions frequently 
• Ask your child ‘how do you know that?’ if they make a comment or statement