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Using sentences and stories
- Speech, language and communication
Sentences and stories are powerful tools for children to share experiences, explain events and connect with others. Whether talking about their weekend, or retelling a favourite book, stories help children organise their thoughts and communicate clearly.
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.
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Understanding sentences and stories
Understanding sentences and stories
We use sentences and paragraphs to tell stories or share a series of events. These can be spoken or written.
We use sentences and stories to:
- talk about what happened at the weekend
- tell a teacher about an incident in the playground
- retell a story, such as the plot from a book, film or TV programme
- have a conversation in the playground with friends
- make plans or predictions about future events
Sentences and stories usually have a clear structure with a beginning, middle and end. They centre around a plot which often includes a location, characters, time and a main event.
To use sentences and stories, a child needs to be able to:
- attend and listen
- retain and recall information
- understand the language used
- formulate language using the correct words and grammar
Strategies to support storytelling skills
- Model sentences and stories in all possibilities: Show how to tell a story step by step. For example, when explaining a game like Snakes and Ladders, you can say, “We each have a counter. Then we roll the dice and take turns to move our counter the correct number of spaces. If we land on a ladder, we can climb up the ladder to the upper space. If we land on a snake, we slide down the snake to the lower space. The first person to reach the end is the winner.” Include sequencing terms like ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘then’ and ‘finally’.
- Create opportunities to tell stories: Provide time for the child to share news. This might be what they did at the weekend, on holiday, or in the playground.
- Read lots of books together: Share books together, including wordless books. Books with repetitive phrases and scripts, like “Once Upon a Time” can be helpful. They support the child's memory of the story and encourage organising.
- Use lots of different stories: To avoid children just learning stories by heart, expose them to lots of stories that follow a similar structure. This will help build their knowledge, which they can then apply to new stories.
- Change familiar stories: Swap the characters, location or the ending of a story and ask the child to spot the differences. This encourages active listening. Then, encourage them to amend parts of familiar stories themselves.
- Use visuals: Bring stories to life by using objects, pictures, gestures, actions, role-play, signs and drawing. Visual timelines can help children understand past events.
- Practise sequencing: Support children to split a story, activity or scenario into smaller steps and put those steps into a logical order. Read more about sequencing.
- Use planners, grids and maps: Story planners can help structure stories, like the ‘beginning’, ‘middle’ and ‘end’. Download a story planner template.
- Make it fun: Children like talking about themselves, so try to be animated and playful. Use puppets, props or movement. Model how to retell another person's story and play storytelling games.
Last reviewed: 24 November, 2025
