Expressive Language

Expressive language is how a child puts thoughts, ideas, feelings and needs into words — the vocabulary they can reach for, the way they build sentences, and how they string events together to tell you something that happened.

It is not the same as speech. Speech is about making sounds clearly. A child can be perfectly easy to understand and still find it hard to find the right word, or hard to explain something in order. Another child may have plenty to say and be difficult to understand. They are different things, and they need different kinds of help.

Children also express themselves in more ways than speech. Gesture, drawing, signing, writing, pointing at pictures and communication aids all carry meaning. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists is clear that these supports help children communicate — and that using them does not stop speech developing.

None of these on its own means anything is wrong. Children develop at very different rates. They are simply worth noticing, and worth mentioning to school if you see them often.

• Uses shorter sentences than other children of a similar age.
• Reaches for "thing", "stuff", "that one" rather than the word they want.
• Tells you about their day out of order, so it is hard to follow.
• Starts a sentence, stops, and gives up on it.
• Answers questions with one word when you know they have plenty to say.
• Talks freely at home and hardly at all at school, or the other way round.
• Gets frustrated, cross or quiet when they cannot make themselves understood.
• Shows you rather than tells you — leading you by the hand, pointing, acting it out.

• Asking a child to "say it properly" before they are allowed what they asked for.
• Finishing sentences for them out of kindness — it is worth waiting a little longer.
• Correcting grammar directly and often; modelling the fuller version works better and costs the child nothing.
• Comparing them with a sibling or a friend's child out loud.
• Reading a list of signs and concluding your child has a particular condition. A checklist cannot tell you that.

There is no single moment at which you should worry. But it is reasonable to ask for advice if your child's difficulty getting words out is persistent, happens across home and school, and is affecting how they learn, play or feel.

• Start with your child's teacher — describe what you notice, with examples.
• The school's SENDCO can look at whether adjustments are needed and whether the same picture appears across the school day.
• Your GP or health visitor can refer to NHS speech and language therapy; in many areas families can also refer themselves.
• A hearing check is always worth doing if it has been a while.

1. Department for EducationStatutory guidance
   SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (2015)

   Names communication and interaction — including speech, language and communication needs — as one of the four broad areas of SEN, and sets out the graduated approach schools must follow.

2. Department for EducationStatutory guidance
   Early years foundation stage statutory framework (current version)

   Communication and language is one of three prime areas; providers must give children a language-rich environment and opportunities to express themselves.

3. Department for EducationProfessional guidance
   Development Matters: non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS (2023 revision)

   Describes typical progression in listening, understanding and speaking. Explicitly not a checklist, and not statutory.

4. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Oral language interventions (Teaching and Learning Toolkit)

   Rates oral language approaches as high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence. The Toolkit is periodically revised, so check the live page for the current impact estimate rather than quoting an older figure.

5. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Preparing for Literacy: improving communication, language and literacy in the early years (2018)

   Recommends high-quality adult–child interaction and structured language development, and notes the recommendations may also apply to older pupils who have fallen behind.

6. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1 (2017, updated)

   Places developing pupils' language capability — vocabulary, listening and structured talk — among the foundations of early reading and writing.

7. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 (2017, updated 2021)

   Links spoken vocabulary and structured discussion to reading comprehension and writing composition across KS2.

8. Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsProfessional guidance
   Clinical information: developmental language disorder (DLD)

   States that DLD affects around 7.6% of children — roughly two in a class of thirty — and describes its impact on understanding and using language.

9. Norbury, Gooch, Wray, Baird, Charman, Simonoff, Vamvakas & PicklesResearch evidence
   The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder (SCALES study), Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2016)

   The peer-reviewed population study behind the 7.6% figure. It concerns language disorder overall — receptive and expressive — not expressive difficulties in isolation.

10. Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsProfessional guidance
    Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): position statement (2024)

    Defines AAC — signing, symbols, boards, speech-generating devices — and summarises the evidence base. States that AAC supports rather than delays spoken language.

11. Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsProfessional guidance
    Augmentative and Alternative Communication: overview (2024)

    Plain-language explanation of AAC for families and school staff.

12. Speech and Language UKProfessional guidance
    Ages and Stages

    Qualitative descriptions of typical speech, language and communication development by age band. Ranges, not norms — individual variation is expected.

13. NICEProfessional guidance
    Early years: promoting health and wellbeing in under 5s (QS128), quality statement 2: speech and language (2016)

    Its rationale notes that children with communication difficulties are at increased risk of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The statement itself concerns early identification, not primary-age provision.

14. I CAN and RCSLTProfessional guidance
    Bercow: Ten Years On — an independent review of provision for children and young people with SLCN (2018)

    National review finding awareness of communication needs low and provision across England uneven, with recommendations on identification, workforce and whole-school practice.

15. Public Health EnglandProfessional guidance
    Best start in speech, language and communication (2020)

    Guidance and supporting evidence on early identification of communication needs. Early-years focused; useful background for primary schools working with feeder settings.