Swear word

About this visual support

Why does one small word land so hard here, yet pass without a fuss on the sofa at home? For a child that rule is anything but obvious, and a swear word can slip out before they have thought about where they are, who is listening and how it sounds.

Pictures make the invisible visible: one image for the thought, a word can pop into your head, and another for the choice, to say it or to leave it. This is less about banning words and more about understanding that the same word can fit the playground but not the classroom. A concrete way in is to sort the pictures together into okay here and not here, and talk about why the line sits where it does. The more often you sort together, the clearer the map becomes in your child's head.

The images below are ready to print and use as a talking point at home or at school. If you want to gather words and social situations into a small exercise of their own, you can try Routined free for fourteen days.