How to encourage children’s language development
Supporting children’s language development in childcare settings is crucial. It is becoming more and more common seeing children with poor language skills. It is more of a concern that the number of children starting school with poor language skills is rising. It is down to early years practitioners to identify these concerns and work with parents to help children get the right level of support. Many parents often share with the key person that their child talks a lot, this, however, doesn’t mean children have a range of vocabulary appropriate for their age. Children need to develop their language skills as this will help them in other areas of their development such as developing their confidence and social skills. If concerns are left un-noticed this can lead to children falling behind in areas of the EYFS.
Why not try our 5 top tips in encouraging children’s language skills
Offering children real life experiences;
Incorporating real life experiences into your learning environment may help children learn new vocabulary; they are going to be more interesting in new words rapidly if the learning opportunity interests them. Be creative in your experiences and think of ideas that you know the children will enjoy.
Using other resources;
As children are becoming more and more interested in technology why not introduce this into children’s play. Using walkie talkies are a great piece of equipment that children will relish in using. Children will examine how things work and use this in their play to support their language. Why not ask parents if they have any old phones they don’t use. Have you tried using recording devices to allow the children to record their own voices? There are other resources you can purchase such as talking tins, talking postcards; these resources will allow children to build on their communication skills.
Giving children time to speak;
This is one of the most fundamental parts to promoting children’s language development. It can be very easy to forget this important factor. Encouraging children to speak opens up the opportunity for developing conversation leading to developing language skills. Children need to be given plenty of opportunities to speak, yes there may times when this is inappropriate but respond in a positive way. An ideal time for children to talk is during circle time where they can share all their news, this allows children to listen and respect others, a common element of promoting British Values in the setting. If children have a positive experience of talking this can build their self-esteem and confidence leading to them doing it more often.
Effective questioning
Using effective questioning is important, asking children what they are doing and what they are making can help promote language development. However be mindful of over questioning children and using closed questions. Open questions will give more answers leading to the exchange of conversations. It is not only important to promote children’s language for the EYFS area of communicating and language but also for the other areas of the EYFS. Developing language is crucial in helping children develop other skills; therefore, practitioners must use good quality effective questioning to scaffold children’s learning.
Sharing a story
There are many times in the day when practitioners can share a story with the children, take this opportunity to spend quality time sharing the love of language. Involve the children in the story by asking those questions about the characters or about what might happen next. Carrying out this quality time will provide children with a positive experience about sharing books. Even young children will enjoy a story or two…Why not make some story sacks for parents to take home with children to encourage parents to share a book with children at home.
From the minute babies are born is the time to start encouraging language development, talking to children from a young age gives them the necessary skills that will help them later on in life. Remember all of our top 5 tips and use this in your practice to help children reach their full potential.