Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Speech and Language Therapy Advice
TEACHING BIG AND LITTLE
Why teach big and little

It is a useful early concept for children, eg. little spoon for yoghurt, big biscuit.

It is an introduction to concepts that will be needed later, particularly in maths

It introduces more abstract, complicated words

It promotes language development
To start:

Whenever you say the word “big” use a big loud voice and spread your arms to
show size.

Whenever you say “little” use a small quiet voice and put your index finger and
thumb close together to indicate the size.

This will help the child to understand the meaning of the words.
Later:
Just use the words with no hand gestures or voice changes. This will make sure that
the child is able to understand the spoken words without clues. You can always use
them again if the child is having difficulty in a new situation.
Remember:
Big and little are comparative terms. In order to decide if something is big or little you
have to compare it with something else. Learning comparative words is hard, as the
child needs to learn that the size word is talking about a relationship, not a thing. A
tennis ball is big when put next to a marble, but little when it is compared to a
football. It helps to begin with if the child sees two objects together and then
compares them. They will also need to experience “big” and “little” in lots of
situations to help them understand and use the words effectively.
Wiltshire Community Health Services is the arm's length provider body of Wiltshire Primary Care Trust and is wholly owned by
and accountable to Wiltshire Primary Care Trust
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Ideas for teaching Big and Little
A
Sorting Big and Little objects
1. Gather together pairs of items with one that is big and the other little. This might
be big and little spoons, bricks, dolls, pencils.
Tell the child that big things are to go in one pile and little things in another pile. It
might help if you can use a big or little teddy, pictures or written labels to show which
pile is which.
Look at a pair of objects and decide which the big one is. Put it in the big pile and put
the little one in the little pile. Do this for all of the objects.
2. Find a big soft toy/doll and a little one and a collection of big and little things.
Give all of the big things to the big doll and all the little things to the little doll.
3. Some everyday activities can help to practise big and little, eg. sorting socks,
finding cutlery, tidying books.
B
Finding Big or Little objects
1. Put the pairs of big and little objects in a pile. Ask the child to give you the “big
spoon”, the “big brick”, etc.
2. You can make use of everyday situations to practise, eg. “I need a big brick. Can
you find a big brick?”
C
Colouring activities
1. Collect pairs of pictures, eg. a big house and a little house. Encourage the child
to colour different bits on the pictures, eg. “Colour the big house door, red.”
2. Collect pictures which have big and little sets of items on the same page and give
the child instructions on what to colour.
D
Play activities
Lego/Duplo, playdough, trains and animal games can all give good opportunities for
modelling and practising the words ‘big’ and ‘little’. There are also lots of good
books which can help you talk about big or little.
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