What We Say & Do Matters Presented by: Diana Vincent High quality interactions between adults & young children will help to narrow the gap for our most vulnerable children Presented by: Diana Vincent (Early Years Advisory Teacher)

Learning Objectives for Workshop To understand the crucial role adults play in supporting children to develop appropriate communication & language skills To understand that adults should begin to support children’s communication from birth To understand that adults can successfully use a wide range of spoken as well as non-verbal strategies to develop children’s skills To understand that an adult’s interaction style can have an instant impact on a child’s communication & learning

What we say & do matters! Research has shown that caregiver behaviour has a direct effect on the development of the child Children’s development is facilitated by warm interaction with adults who know the child well enough to be responsive and to scaffold (support & extend) learning NDNA Quality assurance scheme ‘Quality Counts’ Recent studies show that there is a 16 month gap in school readiness between the most & least disadvantaged children

The language children hear matters Number of words spoken to children Hart and Risley, Meaningful Differences, 1995 millions of words American study – families were tape-recorded, and grouped into three bands. Children in high-talking families heard four times as many words by age four as in low-talking families – differences of more than 30 million words.

The language children hear matters Children’s vocabulary size Hart and Risley, Meaningful Differences, 1995 This correlated with children’s vocabulary at age 3 – and vocabulary at three is a strong predictor of later success in learning.

Quantity AND Quality of Adult Language Research continues to underline the importance of high quality & quantity of adult talking for preschool language development. QUANTITY of words HEARD varies enormously between PROFESSIONAL families & those at the opposite end of the scale in terms of social/economic capacity QUALITY of words HEARD is also significantly different between groups: AFFIRMATIONS (positive/praise) far more common in professional families; PROHIBITIONS (negative/damaging) far more common in lower end families

Children react instantly to the manner of adult interaction Still Life Experiment: Dr Edward Tronick Mother with very young baby: 2 different interaction styles YouTube clip from Nottinghamshire’s Language for Life website: www.nottslanguageforlife.co.uk/ResourcesAndLinks 2.49 minutes (can be just as powerful with no sound)

What does OFSTED say? The new Early Years Inspection Handbook says: “When observing interactions between staff and children, inspectors should consider how well staff: Engage in dialogue with children Watch, listen & respond to children Model language well Encourage children to express their thoughts & use new words Support independence & confidence Encourage children to speculate & test ideas through trial & error Enable children to explore & solve problems Behave as an excellent role model for children to copy” Early Years Inspection Handbook p.16 BP 67

What will good quality adult/ child interactions look like?

Rules of Thumb Child’s Perspective Adult’s Perspective Do adults encourage children to co-operate and share with one another? Do adults appear to be generally happy in what they are doing and seem to enjoy being with the children? Do adults use everyday interactions to promote children's learning? Do adults respond sensitively to children’s verbal and non-verbal signals? Do adults label objects for children by naming and at the same time pointing or holding the object? Are children asked questions that require more than just yes/no answers? Do adults respond to what children say by encouraging them to develop their comments into a conversation Do adults interact with children using positive non-verbal communication? Do children appear relaxed, able to ask for help and willing to initiate conversations with adults and children? Do children appear to be generally content, happy and enjoying themselves? Immediately obvious that the onus of developing & supporting good quality adult/child interactions lies with the ADULT!!

Activity 1: Interaction Styles Watch DVD clip 1 & complete tally chart Watch DVD clip 2 & complete tally chart Discuss positive adult interaction styles Take Tally Charts

Observation Frameworks SOUL Process HANEN OWLing Stop Observe Understand Listen Observe Wait Listen

Resources to support practitioners ECERs/ITERs/FCCERs Mapping to EYFS ECaT Checklists for ECERs/ITERS/FCCERs ECaT Top Tips ECaT Positive Relationships Audit

Activity 2: Play dough In groups of 3: 1 person playing (CHILD) 1 person interacting (ADULT) by asking questions 1 person observing & evaluating interaction 5 minutes Use question sheets/recording sheets Need playdough & playdough equipment

Experiential Learning Feedback from OBSERVER Feedback from CHILD Feedback from ADULT

Interaction Strategies for Practitioners Join children at their physical level Use the SOUL or OWLing process to guide your interactions & observations Follow the child’s lead; model turn-taking with them Participate in child’s play, showing interest in what they are doing Use comments as conversational openers rather than questions Label and describe children’s actions & the objects they are playing with Acknowledge what children say or do, if they are non-verbal Encourage children to extend their responses by scaffolding to the next level Ask questions sparingly especially closed questions Use open-ended questions to promote episodes of Shared Sustained Thinking

Sustained Shared Thinking An episode in which two or more individuals “work together” in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative etc. Both parties must contribute to the thinking & it must develop & extend …” (Siraj-Blatchford et al 2004) Recent EPPE (2005) study found that SST is more prevalent in the most effective preschool learning environments

How can adults support SST? Tuning In Showing Genuine Interest Respecting Children’s Own Decisions & Choices Inviting Children to Elaborate Recapping Offering Your Own Experience Clarifying Ideas Suggesting Reminding Using Encouragement to Further Thinking Offering an Alternative Viewpoint Speculating Reciprocating Asking Open Questions Modelling Thinking

What Could These Strategies Sound Like/Look Like? Give some examples from Descriptors, linking to some of the Strategies on previous slide

How to open a dialogue & give verbal feedback successfully: Flip Chart activity: What phrases would you use to open a dialogue with a child? What phrases would you use to give verbal feedback to a child? Resources available at the end of the workshop to take away

Resources to take away with you: ECaT Checklists for ECERS/ITERS/FCCERS ECaT Audit tool ECaT Top Tips for Talking Dialogue/Feedback phrases SST Top Tips

Narrowing the Gap By reflecting on your own & your colleagues interaction styles, you will hopefully be able to make (slight) changes/alterations that will positively benefit all the children you support … Often the children who are most At Risk of Delay for the development of age appropriate communication & language skills as pre-schoolers have had impoverished early experiences of interaction with adults close to them As adults who will develop warm consistent relationships with many of these vulnerable children, interacting positively & appropriately with them will contribute to narrowing the gap for these children to maximise the benefit they gain from attending nurseries & preschools.