The Colourful World of Semantics

‘Colourful semantics is an approach created by Alison Bryan. It is aimed at helping children to develop their grammar but it is rooted in the meaning of words (semantics).

Colourful semantics reassembles sentences by cutting them up into their thematic roles and then colour codes them.’ The Integrated Treatment Services

I am always using Colourful Semantics with the students who are able to talk and communicate their needs and requests, but are not quite at the stage of using their words to create sentences in aid to describe something.

I have made a key ring full of different action pictures for the Subject-Verb-Object sentences

for example:

The Subject (Orange): Cat

The Verb (Yellow): Licking

The What (Green): Ice Cream

This is a great way to help children expand their vocabulary and practice describing different pictures. This can be used with books as well as pictures. (just make sure that you have all of the correct symbols ready for when they start looking through the book!)

Colourful Semantics can be made as hard or as simple as you would like!

To make it easier, you can make a book with only a couple of symbols to choose out of. This is less over whelming for the student and also demonstrates where the symbol’s go. You can then work your way up from Subject- Verb (Girl Running) or Verb- Object (Brushing hair) before going straight into S-V-O (subject-verb-object)

Here are some books that I have made S-V, V-O and S-V-O

Colourful Semantics Breakdown (all colours)

Orange: Who

Yellow: Doing

Green: What

Red: Where

Purple: When

Blue: What like/ feelings

Pink: Who to

Brown: Joining words

I will do another blog post outlining all of the colours and showing examples when I have made them, at the moment I do not have any students that are passed Green.