COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERACY
Aspects of Communication, Language and Literacy
Communication, Language and Literacy
is made up of the following aspects:
Language for Communication -
- Discuss with parents and carers how they communicate with their baby/child. What language do they speak? Will it be necessary for you to learn key words in their chosen language? Can you find dual language books and books on their culture? Invite parents to contribute to words displayed in your home so that they feel involved and valued.
- Provide a language rich environment. Use different strategies to support the children’s developing language skills, for example by providing a running commentary. ‘I have put your cup on the table, here, then you won’t knock it over. I will put mine there too, next to yours. There two cups together’. Support children to correctly pronounce and order their words by responding by sensitively demonstrating the correct methods rather than correcting. Consider using baby signing with babies and young children alongside verbal communication.
- Provide books with stories that have repetitive phrases and rhymes that the children can learn to repeat. For example ‘Billy goats gruff’ or ‘ the three little pigs’
- Use singing and rhymes with actions to involve the children
- Provide photograph albums and scrapbooks showing familiar objects and themselves and discuss them with the children.
- Support the children to learn the conventions of communication, turn taking, listening to others and waiting until they have finished rather than interrupting and using polite expressions such as ‘please’ and ‘thank you’
- Involve children in activities that require them to explain what they are doing, for example cooking, weighing out the ingredients, mixing etc.
- Encourage children to communicate in lots of different situations, with visitors etc and in different ways, to explain what they are doing, to give instructions, to recount a previous experience or retell a story etc.
Download Sample Observation:
Speaking in Home Language when excited
Language for Thinking -
- Provide a range of resources that will stimulate babies and young children, encouraging them to use all of their five senses, touch, feel, smell, taste, hear and see. Treasure baskets are an excellent example of this. See www.ecd.govt.nz/...
- Provide resources that encourage children to become involved in symbolic play, tea sets, dolls etc
- Involve the children in activities that involve explaining and talking about what you are doing, for example when doing a cooking activity talking about the recipe and the ingredients, when doing gardening talking about the plants and the soil etc.
- Tell stories or play games that have repetitive elements , for example ‘The Billy Goats Gruff’
Provide lots of opportunities for children to talk to other children and adults. This can be in your home and at toddler groups and Childminder drop ins etc. Help the children to learn other people’s names.
Provide a scrapbook of photographs of the activities that you have done and encourage the children to recall what they did and to sequence them correctly.
Provide imaginary and role play resources so the children can act out scenarios in different characters.
Download Sample Observation: Greater Understanding
Linking Sounds and Letters -
- sing and say rhymes to young babies using actions.
- respond positively to babies and toddlers early attempts at words
- use props to support singing and story telling sessions to encourage the children to listen and respond at the correct time.
- play games that involve the children listening to a variety of noises and encourage them to distinguish between them. Encourage them to sit quietly with their eyes shut and listen to different noises. A great activity to do outdoors.
- Encourage children to make noises when sharing stories and rhymes, Old MacDonald is an excellent song for making animal noises
- encourage children to find the similarities in words that rhyme and support them to make up their own
- play games that encourage the children to say and hear the sounds of the beginning of words, especially their own names
- provide a language rich environment especially within role play, for example by having a cookery book in the play kitchen, an appointment book for playing doctors etc
- if you feel a child is ready to begin to learn phonics more formally then discuss
this with the pre-
school or school that the child attends and parents and then read the detailed guidance on the EYFS CD Rom
Download Sample Observation: Enjoying a nursery rhyme
Reading -
- Provide a variety of books, board, cloth, picture, story, rhymes and dual language. Arrange books in an area that is appealing and that the children are always free to access.
- Support babies and young children how to use a book, starting from the beginning, turning pages and reaching the end.
- Tell stories to the children as well as reading them
- Include props in your story telling, cuddly toys, puppets, items from around the home that illustrate the story. Encourage the children to help tell the story using them. Make up a story sack for some of your favourite books: For example for Handa’s Surprise, include a rag doll, a flat basket , some different plastic or wooden fruit and cuddly toys of the animals in the story. Magnetic props to retell the story etc Ebay often have props available quite cheaply themed around a particular storybook.
- Involve the children in your story reading, discuss the characters and the situations, discuss the feelings of the characters and encourage them to think when they might have had those feelings, leave pauses where they can add in the words when the story is repetitive, get them to predict what might happen next and then think of different outcomes to the story. For example ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ Get the children to say the refrain ‘we can’t go under it, we can’t go over it, we will have to go through it’. Use actions to support them to remember the words and recall them. Ask them how they are feeling? Are they scared? Ask them when you get to the snow, do they remember the snow? Was it cold? Encourage the children to use the story in their role play and use it as a theme for craft activities, for example making a collage of the different things they encountered. Provide the children with a CD of the story so they can listen to it again.
- Introduce the children to non-
fiction books and demonstrate how to find new information. - Ensure your home is rich in print and use every opportunity to highlight words, for
example on cereal packets, and food labels,
street signs when out walking etc
Recommended Books for young children:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Mr Grumpy’s Outing
The very hungry caterpillar
Where’s Spot?
The elephant and the bad baby
Handa’s surprise
Kipper
Owl babies
Dear Zonn
We’re going on a bear hunt
The wheels on the bus
Each peach pear plum
Pig in the pond
Have you seen the crocodile
Peace at last
Don’t put your finger in the jelly Nelly
Rosie’s walk
Ten in the bed
Whatever next
Five little ducks
Dinosaur Roar
This is the Bear
- Support parents to understand the importance of reading to their children. Encourage
them to obtain their free Bookstart packs and join the library. Maybe allow minded
children to borrow their favourite stories so they can share them with their parents
at home. www.bookstart.co.uk
- Visit the library and attend the specially organised sessions,
o Baby Bounce and Rhyme
o Stay 'n' Play and All Join In
o Storytimes
o Toddler Time.
Childminders can have their Childminder Library Tickets.
Download Sample Observation: Reading the three little pigs
Writing -
- provide different mediums for babies and young children to make marks in. Goop, shaving foam, paints etc.
- provide a range of mark making materials, crayons, chalks, paints, pencils, felt tip pens etc
- provide mark making opportunities during play activities, for example when playing shopping support them to write a shopping list, playing restaurants a menu and taking orders, when playing cooking writing up a recipe, playing offices, taking phone messages etc.
- Support children to recognise their own name and support them to write it.
- Explore signs and symbols with children, show them different cultures writing, for example Chinese.
- Make scrapbooks and ‘about me’ books with the children, using photographs and captions.
- Encourage children to make cards for special occasions and to write their name and greetings inside with support.
- Encourage children to make up their own stories and you scribe for them, repeating each word as you write it out.
- Play games with the children to support their development of phonics, linking sounds to letters.
Download Sample Observation: Painting
Handwriting -
Babies and young children need to be able to make large shoulder movements and gross motor skills before they can move onto master the fine motor skills required for handwriting.
Provide:
- Swirling ribbons
- Painting
- Making shapes in the air
- Balls to throw and hit with a bat
Support children’s fine motor skills by providing toys for babies to grasp and for older children a range of tools and equipment to use, for example scoops and rakes in the sand, finger paints, musical instruments, cooking, rolling pins, dough and clay.
Provide paper and mark making tools for the children to access at all times, especially in role play.
Encourage practice in writing letters and shapes when they are painting or writing.
Download Sample Observation: Playing Ball
Visit this website to access a wide variety of resources on Literacy
Communication, Language
and Literacy
is made up of the following aspects:
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relevant section or
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Requirements
Children's learning and competence in communicating, speaking and listening, being read to and beginning to read and write must be supported and extended. They must be provided with opportunity and encouragement to use their skills in a range of situations and for a range of purposes, and be supported in developing the confidence and disposition to do so. (EYFS)
What Communication, Language and Literacy means for children
To become skilful communicators, babies and young children need to be with people with whom they have warm and loving relationships, such as their family or carers and, in a group situation, a key person whom they know and trust.
Babies respond differently to different sounds and from an early age are able to distinguish sound patterns. They use their voices to make contact and to let people know what they need and how they feel. They learn to talk by being talked to.
All children learn best through activities and experiences that engage all the senses. Music, dance, rhymes and songs support language development.
As children develop speaking and listening skills they build the foundations for
literacy, for making sense of visual and verbal signs and ultimately for reading
and writing. Children need varied opportunities to interact with others and to use
a wide variety of resources for expressing their understanding, including mark-
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Communication, Language
and Literacy
is made up of the following aspects:
Follow link to the
relevant section or
scroll down the page.