Skip to content
Games

Expressive and receptive language

Language

One skill at a time: what it is, when children usually get it, and a worksheet you can print. Grammar on one side, meaning and comprehension on the other.

Topics
22
Practice items
3536
Worksheets
22 PDFs
Cost
Free

Language games

Following directions, describing, telling a story and conversation each have a game of their own. The grammar, question and vocabulary skills below can also be played in Patchy’s Playland: open the skill and tap Play it.

Speech or language?

Speech is how words come out of the mouth. Language is what the words mean and how they fit together. A child can have crystal-clear speech and still struggle with past tense, pronouns or answering “why” questions — and that is what this section is for. Every worksheet here comes with an answer key.

Expressive language

What a child says: tense, number, agreement, pronouns, and the small helping words that carry questions and negation.

Past Tense Verbs

Talking about things that already happened.

Verb Tenses · 145 practice items

Present Progressive Verbs

Talking about what is happening right now.

Verb Tenses · 134 practice items

Future Tense Verbs

Talking about things that have not happened yet.

Verb Tenses · 99 practice items

Regular Plurals

Adding -s or -es to mean more than one.

Plurals · 111 practice items

Irregular Plurals

Words that change shape instead of adding -s.

Plurals · 62 practice items

Mixed Pronoun Practice

Using he, she, him, her, my, their and the rest correctly.

Pronouns · 158 practice items

Subject Pronouns

I, you, he, she, it, we, they - the one doing the action.

Pronouns · 85 practice items

Object Pronouns

Me, you, him, her, it, us, them - the one the action happens to.

Pronouns · 71 practice items

Possessive Pronouns

My, your, his, her, our, their - and mine, yours, hers, theirs.

Pronouns · 66 practice items

Reflexive Pronouns

Myself, yourself, himself, herself, themselves - when you do it to you.

Pronouns · 53 practice items

Is, Am, Are: Copula and Auxiliary

When "be" is the whole verb, and when it is helping another verb.

Helping Verbs · 143 practice items

Subject-Verb Agreement

Making the verb match the person or thing doing it.

Making Words Agree · 120 practice items

Making Nouns from Other Words

Turning a verb or a describing word into a thing: teach becomes teacher.

Making New Words · 80 practice items

Vocabulary by Grade

A hundred words a grade, kindergarten to twelfth, each in a sentence to work it out from, and a story a grade to find them in.

Vocabulary · 1474 practice items

Prepositions

Words that tell you where something is.

Prepositions · 51 practice items

Describing Objects

Saying more than the name: group, parts, function, looks, size and place.

Describing · 6 practice items

Telling a Story

Retelling a story you heard, and telling one of your own, with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Narratives · 70 practice items

Having a Conversation

Keeping a conversation going, taking turns in it, and knowing the conventions well enough to choose when to use them.

Conversation · 108 practice items

Receptive language

What a child understands: what each question word is asking for, working out what was not said, sorting things into groups, and following what you are asked.