Information carrying words (ICWs) provide a structure which helps us to control the number of words in a sentence that a child has to understand in order to carry out the instruction. Your speech and language therapist will have assessed the level of ICWs that your child is currently able to understand at, so that then their understanding can be improved in small, achievable steps.

An ICW is a word in a sentence that carries meaning. Many words in a sentence are not needed in order for the child to understand what they need to do.

Considering the above: Select items of different sizes/colours from around the house/classroom e.g.

big and little spoons in red and greenbig and little plates in red and greenbig and little bricks in red and greenbig and little dolls/teddies

Initially ask the child to select the ‘big red spoon’, ‘the little blue teddy’ etc. In this way, the child is listening and responding to 3 key words. Once this is consistent, move on to tell the child who to give the items to,

e.g. ‘give the big blue plate to teddy, ‘put the green brick on the big chair’ 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Remember that for each word that you want the child to follow, you will need a choice of items, e.g., if you only had dolly out, the child would not have to listen to that word in a sentence, so you will need to have both teddy and dolly out.

Remember for each item which is a key word you will need an alternative item in front of the child.

If you put a big blue plate, little blue plate, big red plate, little red plate and teddy in front of your child and say ‘Give the big blue plate to teddy’, the child only needs to understand the size, colour and the object words, as there is no choice for who to give it to – this is a three key word instruction.

Activities to develop a child’s ability to follow instructions containing 4 information carrying words

However, if you put a big blue plate, little blue plate, big red plate, little red plate, teddy and dolly in front of your child and say ‘Give the big blue plate to teddy’, the child needs to understand the size, colour, object and who to give the item to, as there is a choice for all four parts of the instruction – this is a four key word instruction.

Play similar games asking the child to listen to 4 word instructions using ‘in/on and under’ and verbs e.g.

‘put the big spoon under the table’ 1 2 3 4 ‘put the ball on the yellow chair’ 1 2 3 4 ‘make dolly wash teddy’s feet 1 2 3 4 ‘make dolly eat the green apple’ 1 2 3 4

Initially you may have to use gesture to help the child understand in/on/under.