1. Shape and Colour Coding
Sheila Davies and Lisa Davies

2. History
Originally just colour coding – adapted from schemes by John Lea and ICAN’s colour coding used within the Language through reading scheme [LTR].
Shape was later added by Speech Therapists Carol Kaldor SLT and Catherine Redmayne’s.
Recently adapted by Wrexham Speech Therapists Matthew Cruse, Katie Monk and Helen Still.
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

3. What is Shape and Colour Coding?
A simple, visual, structured means of supporting language development and sequencing sentences.
A method for discussing and analysing grammatical forms and structures with young children.
Concrete, tangible and visible, it can therefore support children’s auditory and visual memory.
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

4. Who can Shape and Colour Coding be used with?
Children who have delayed or disordered language development
Children who benefit from the use of visual strategies to support auditory memory and processing.
EAL children, particularly in instances where the home language uses alternative grammatical structures
All pupils who benefit from additional support to develop understanding and use of spoken or written language
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

5. Developmental Progression of Questions
There are seven core question words that are used in shape and colour coding and these are:
Who? What doing?
What?
Where? When?
What like?
Shape and Colour Coding aids children’s understanding and response to the above questions
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

6. Starting Points - Oral Language Development…
Who?
Start with ‘Who?’
Hold up the shape whilst talking about the person
Use a clear red circle to discuss and identify the ‘Who’ in pictures, stories, games, role play areas etc
Can be used to reinforce and teach pronouns – he, she, they
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

7. Adding verbs
Get the children to do actions whilst holding up ‘What ..doing?’ shape
Again, use visuals, stories, games and curriculum based activities
Sorting ‘what doing’ and ‘who’ pictures
Introduce the simple sentence structure - Who is it? What are they doing? What is he/she/it doing?
Start with the present continuous – The boy is reading
What … doing?
Who?
What … doing?
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

8. What?
What?
Introduce the ‘object’ of the sentence, through progressive questioning
Who is it? The boy
What is the boy doing? reading
What is the boy reading? the book
Use the sequence of shapes to develop this sentence structure.
The boy is reading the book
Who?
What … doing?
What?
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

9. Practical Materials: Book Large, clear colour-coded shapes. Activity:
In pairs, practice asking and answering questions about the pictures using the appropriate shapes.
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

10. Adding ‘Where?’
Where?
Again, use this question independently at first, prior to introducing it within a sentence.
This introduces prepositions e.g. on, in, under, at, behind, in front…..
Where is the boy reading?
‘The boy is reading the book in the park’
Who?
What … doing?
What?
Where?
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

11. Practical Materials: Dice Small colour-coded shapes. Activity:
In groups of 4, take turns to throw the dice.
After each throw select the corresponding shape and colour card.
Think of an appropriate word to match the shape.
Continue until you have sufficient shapes to sequence and say a sentence
The winner is the first person to make a sentence with at least 3 different shape and colour cards
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

12. Adding ‘When?’
This introduces the concept and language of ‘time,’ including the correct use of tenses.
E.g. yesterday, this morning, last week, tomorrow, after school, before dinner, on Saturday, at 3 o’clock, in March…..
It is an abstract concept, which benefits from the use of sequential images, time-lines, real life situations.
Can be situated at beginning or end of a sentence e.g.
‘Yesterday Sam went swimming.’
‘Sam went swimming yesterday.’
When?
When?
Who?
What … doing?
Who?
When?
What … doing?

13. Examples Sam is running. The bell is ringing.
The boy is behind the tree.
The girl is reading the book.
Yesterday Jane went swimming.

14. Oral Activities
Throw a ‘shapes’ dice in turn, (pick up corresponding card and provide a word / leading on to building sentences).
Select shapes from a feely bag – make a sentence.
Talkabout pictures e.g. answering Who? What? Where? When? Questions.
Shapes can be used during plenary/whole class activities to support the discussion and questions asked by the teacher.
Encourage story telling, providing a bank of pictures / symbols displayed on corresponding shape and colour.
Silly Sentences.
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

15. Practical
Activity:
In groups of 4 discuss how shape and colour coding could be used to develop literacy skills.
Feedback ideas
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

16. Using Shape and Colour Coding to Support Literacy –
Once familiar with the visual sequence, pupils may be more successful at understanding and constructing grammatically correct sentences.
Shape and/or colour code phrases/words within a text
Use this to highlight and explain the different grammatical and sequential structures of different text genres. e.g – The use of verbs in instructional writing.
Focus on specific grammatical concepts within a text, and use colour coding to discuss where/how they have been used. E.g Vocabulary related to time, Prepositions
To improve comprehension and assess understanding of the text, ask the questions using the colour coded shapes. These are developmental.
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

17. Using Shape and Colour Coding to Support Literacy
Build up a word bank of colour coded words.
Practice making sentences using the above words, following a specific pattern or structure.
Worksheet planning. A story board can be produced using the shape coding.
Practice interchanging one part of the sentence to create new/better meanings – e.g replacing verbs for stronger examples, running…sprinting
The shapes can be used for marking written work – for example by adding corrections with the appropriate shape i.e if a verb is missing/in the wrong place a yellow rectangle can be added
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

18. Using Shape and Colour Coding to Support Literacy
Use the ‘What like?’ cloud to introduce adjectives and adverbs into pupils writing.
The horse galloped
The black horse galloped
The black horse
galloped quickly
Who?
What … doing?
Who?
What … doing?
What like?
Who?
What … doing?
What like?
What like?
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

19. Using Shape and Colour Coding to Support Literacy
At a higher level, colour coding can also be used to demonstrate and encourage the correct use of conjunctions and clause structures.
Conjunction/connective
Conjunction/connective
Sam is running because he is late
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding

20. Practical Materials: Written texts Activity:
Use shape and colour coding to explore and discuss the structure of a text.
Acknowledgements to Wrexham S and L Therapists for their advice re. Shape and Colour Coding