Sentence starters

Also called Carrier phrases, Openers, Frame phrases

'I want', 'I feel', 'Can I': the openers that get a sentence moving, and the trap of a board that only offers one of them.

What it is

A sentence starter is a short ready-made opener: "I want", "I feel", "Can I", "I don't like", "Let's", "Where is". Press it and the first two words of a sentence are done, leaving the person to add the word that matters.

They are scaffolding. A starter turns a single-word press into a sentence without the person having to find "I", then "want", then the object, in three separate places. And they carry intent: "I feel" tells the listener a feeling is coming, which changes how they listen.

Who it can help

Starters help a person who has single words and is not yet combining them, and they help a fluent user who wants speed: one press instead of two or three. They are especially useful for someone whose energy is limited, such as a person with motor neurone disease or multiple sclerosis, where every press costs something.

They are a poor fit as the only route to a sentence. If a person can only ever begin with "I want", every thought they have is turned into a request, and their vocabulary shrinks to the things that can be wanted. Starters should sit beside free words, not replace them.

How it works

A starter is a card whose spoken text is a phrase rather than a word. The label shows the whole phrase. On the sentence strip it appears as one unit, and the next card adds to it: "I feel" plus "sad" speaks as "I feel sad".

The useful set is small and mixed in purpose. Requests ("I want", "Can I have"), feelings ("I feel", "I am"), opinions ("I like", "I don't like"), directions ("Let's go", "You do it"), questions ("Where is", "What is"), and refusal ("I don't want"). Six to twelve starters cover almost every sentence a person begins in a day. The Talk board keeps them together in a sentence starters set so they are found in one place, and any starter can be followed by any card from any other set.

Getting started

Pick three starters from different families this week: one request, one feeling, one opinion. Model each of them a dozen times a day in real situations, on the person's own board or by pointing to them on paper. "I feel tired" when you are tired. "I like this" when you like something.

Watch for the starter that never gets used and ask why. Often it is because nobody has ever shown the person what it is for. "Can I" is meaningless until someone models "Can I" plus "go" and then actually lets them go.

If you are making a paper board, put the starters down the left edge so the sentence reads left to right.

Where to get help

Ask a speech and language therapist which starters suit the person's current stage. Communication Matters publishes plain guidance on vocabulary design. Speech and Language UK has free resources for families on early sentences.