Expressive language
What a child can put out — words, sentences, gestures, signs, anything that gets a message across. Distinct from what they understand.
Why expressive language matters.
Expressive difficulty is the visible half, so it is the half that gets treated. A child who speaks little is obviously struggling; a child who speaks fluently but understands less than they appear to is often missed for years, because fluency is mistaken for comprehension.
Any assessment worth having reports the two separately. A single "language" score conceals exactly the gap that determines what to teach next.
Questions that get a real answer
- What are the separate expressive and receptive scores?
- Which is further behind?
- What is being taught for each?
Ask these of anyone, including us. What you are listening for is not the right answer — it is whether the answer is specific enough to be wrong.
Terms that usually turn up alongside it.
Fading
Deliberately reducing prompts, adult proximity or session frequency as a child becomes more independent. It
GlossaryGeneralisation
A skill working outside the place it was taught — with a different adult, in a different room, on a different
GlossaryIEP
The school's own written plan for a child — targets, provision and review dates. Outside support should work
Send it to us and we'll translate it.
Any report, from any provider, including ones we have nothing to do with. We will tell you in plain English what it says, what it recommends, and which parts are actually supported by the evidence in it. No charge, and it does not make you a client.