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Information carrying words
- 1-5 Years
- 5-11 Years
- SEND
- Speech, language and communication
Many words in a sentence do not provide important information. The words that do provide meaning and contain an element of choice, are known as information carrying words, or key words.
Parents and carers can use this information at home to support their child. Education staff can also use this information with children in their school or setting.
Please try these ideas and advice before making a referral to the Speech and Language Therapy Service.
Explore the topics on this page:
Examples of information carrying words
0 information carrying words
It's break time and a child is standing near his coat peg. If an adult is holding their coat and says “Put your coat on”, the child does not need to understand the words. The child can see the coat, and understands what to do. In this example, there are 0 information carrying words.
1 information carrying word
If the adult says “Put on your coat” from across the room, the child has to choose whether to put on their coat or hat. In this example, there is 1 information carrying word, "coat" or "hat".
2 information carrying words
If the adult says “Find Sam’s hat”, the child now has to make 2 choices. They have to choose between finding more than 1 person and more than 1 item. This example has 2 information carrying words, “Find Sam’s/Ben’s hat/coat.”
Language can be made harder to understand in lots of ways, by adding new ideas like colour, size or position of the item.
3 information carrying words
“Sam's/Ben’s hat/coat is over there on the table/peg." The child has to choose between the person (Sam or Ben), item (hat or coat) and place (table or peg). This sentence contains 3 information carrying words.
4 information carrying words
We usually support children to understand up to 4 information carrying words. This means the child would need to make 4 choices.
“Put Sam's/Ben’s hat/coat in the red/blue box/drawer.” The child has to choose between person, item, colour and place. This sentence contains 4 information carrying words.
Adults can set up games and activities so that the words and objects can be changed. This helps control how much the child has to listen and understand.
Top tips
- Play with the objects first. You may need to demonstrate to the child what sort of things you want them to do. For example, “Look, I’m making big teddy drive the bus".
- Make sure you do not give the child extra clues. For example, do not point or look at the named object.
- Only help the child if they are really struggling.
- The child may look towards the picture or object but not reach for it. Accept this as their response and offer them the chosen item.
- Always use items that the child knows the name of.
- Praise the child and try to make the activity fun.
Activities to support understanding of information carrying words
Last reviewed: 24 November, 2025
