Language Development

The Key to Good Phonics Skills – Part 9

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Developing #Listening & #Speaking Skills – How to encourage your child to keep talking!

Learning to the conventions of conversation start from birth, as parents we do not really think about it in this way but it is what we tend to do naturally.

Sometime though we all need a few pointers to help us, so here are some ideas to help you develop and encourage your child to talking skills:

From Birth to 1 Years Old

  • To encourage cooing and babbling. Get yourselves comfortable in a face-to-face interaction position, babies often like lying on their back or on your lap looking up at you.
  • Start by talking to your child while gently tickling their tummy or neck.
  • Anytime they make a sound you imitate or match the sound as best you can. It is best to wait until they have finished before you try (one of the conventions of conversation).
  • Try changing or adding a new sound to the one your child has made, so if they say ‘ah’ you might say ‘ah-ooh’, this will help to keep the game interesting.
  • Show that you are excited by the sound they make – smile and laugh, if you are enjoying the interaction, they will be excited by it too.
  • Vocal play works best when it occurs naturally, such as playing with farm animals, for instance sheep go baa, baa or cows make a moo, moo sound.

1 to 2 Years Old

  • Talk directly to your baby/toddler so they can see your facial expressions and how your lips move, as this is the beginnings of learning the conventions of communicating, listening and responding (something they cannot get from the TV, iPad or overheard conversations – indirect talk).
  • Talk through everyday events, such as getting dressed; what is happening, where you are going and what the plan is for the day.
  • Use your body language, expressions and gestures to help reinforce and develop your child’s neurological pathways to support understanding and comprehension.
  • Share books with your baby/toddler, they may not understand what you are saying to begin with but they will be listening to the different sounds that the words make. By reading aloud you are probably using words that will introduce new sounds that your child may not be picking up from your normal day to day conversations. As they get older you are developing and increasing the range of their vocabulary.
  • Babies and young children love to hear you singing and saying rhymes, this is because the language is slowed down, allowing them to hear the small units of sounds and patterns which are often repeated several times in a short time lapse. Again, the language used is often different from your day-to-day talk.
  • To encourage and help your child to generate and play with sound, repeat the sounds that they make.
  • Using familiar objects and toys make the noises associated with them for example a toy car, broom, broom or a toy bumble bee buzz, buzz.
  • When you are out and about talk about what you can see and about the sounds they make, a cat goes meow or a train Choo, Choo, for example.
  • You can use other onomatopoeic words to describe sounds, such as wooden spoons on saucepans could be bang, bang or blocks being knocked together could be click, clack.

2 to 5 Years Old

  • When playing, talking and sharing new words it is important to get down to your child’s level so they can see your face and how your mouth and lips move to form the words or sounds being explored.
  • Remember toddlers learn to listen best when they are taking an active role in what they are doing, especially when you or others join in eagerly with them to play the games.
  • Give your child thinking and response time, this may seem like a long pause but it is worth waiting, be sure your child has finished what they wanted to say before you respond.
  • Try not to finish off your child’s sentence, yes sometimes it may be quicker but just give them a little moment longer and they will get there. If it is clear they cannot think of the word they want then that is of course different.
  • Before a child can really take part in meaningful interactions with others, they need to learn how to take turns. It is one of the basic elements of communication, when we are talking to someone, we leave a gap/pause so that the other person has the opportunity to respond, taking turns. Turn taking skills need to be modelled and taught to help your child develop and understand this element of communicating with others.
  • To encourage your child to keep talking try nodding, smiling and using comments such as; wow, really or acknowledging something they have said by repeating rather than always asking them questions.
  • We are all guilty of half-listening, especially when we are busy trying to cook dinner for example. If it is obvious that what your child wants to tell you is really important then make it clear that you are interested by saying “Just let me finish this and then I can listen to you more carefully.”

The Key to Good Phonics Skills – Part 8

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Developing #Listening & #Speaking Skills – The Importance of Small Talk!

Don’t underestimate the importance of everyday chatter or conversation (‘Small Talk’), children develop and learn a great deal through ‘Small Talk’ with adults and other children.

What do we mean by ‘Small Talk’?

With babies it is the kind of talk that explains what we are doing, what they are doing, where we are going and what we can see.  As they get older our verbal exchanges increase as we support their receptive and expressive vocabulary development. Through these exchanges we also support their general language development and understanding of how words are pronounced, basic sentence structure and using the correct tense.

When we talk with a child we demonstrate and model the use of language in real time so that it has meaning. For instance, a child may point and say “cat” and we would respond with “Yes, the cat is sleeping.” Or we may correct the child and say “That is a dog.” If we could we would point to a cat and explain the difference. We also correct mispronunciation of words and correct tense issues in the same way; repeating the word or sentence using the correct pronunciation or tense back to the child.

The Communication Trust is now part of the I Can organisation and has a great range of information and guidance for parents and professionals: https://www.icancharity.org.uk/

Art Activities to support the Understanding of Pressure

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Crayoning and printing activities are great ways for a child to experience and experiment with pressure and the amount needed to create different effects. These activities will also encourage and support a child in helping them to understand, and for you to model, the language associated with pressure and how the pressure used feels. By linking the words used to the feelings and the outcome of using the pressure they can start to understand what is needed when asked to press gently or to press harder. 

When supporting a child to understand what we want when we ask them to press harder, we need to model how our body reacts to make this happen. You may need to exaggerate the actions but as you do this you also need to talk about what your body is doing and how it feels. Then point out the effect that this has had on the crayoning for instance.

When we press hard, we tend to lean our body forward over the table slightly as this allows us to put more force down on to the paper through the crayon. We may feel our arm and hand tense and often the movements made are slower and in small strokes. If it is something we are not used to doing it can make our hand and fingers ache and it will feel like hard work. The crayon marks will be thick and dark.

When we want to be gentler with the crayon, so that the crayoning is lighter in texture and colour, we tend to sit back away from the table. This way the hand moves across the paper more easily and often the strokes are longer and quicker, which sometimes feels as if we have less control over the colouring. This is why young children tend to be a bit heavy handed initially with colouring because their fine motor control skills have not reached a point that enables them to have control.

There are many creative ideas to be found on the internet and in books published by companies such as Usborne.

This crayon technique can be used to create a vast range of pictures. Here are just a couple of ideas to get you started:

Spider Party Time:

The same technique can also be used to create great firework pictures:

It is also worth remembering that drawing also helps to develop a range of different line formations, also needed for developing a good handwriting style.

Have FUN!

Leaf Investigation, Collecting and Printing

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The weather this Autumn has been unseasonably warm, making it easier to go out and explore our local green and wild spaces.

It is amazing how much quality time you can spend with children just looking, talking about and collecting different leaves. The amount of language shared and new vocabulary introduced is invaluable.

It is suitable for all age groups and you don’t need a vast knowledge of plants and trees to make this fun; just remember not to take whole plants or leaves from endangered or dangerous plants and watch out for thorny, spikey and prickly leaves (if you are not sure leave the plant alone). Make sure when collecting leaves, you do not trespass on to other people’s property, or pick from their gardens!

The aim is to look at and talk about the different shapes, sizes, textures, colours and parts of the leaves. There are so many new words you can share. It is important to make sure the words used, especially if new, are age appropriate and help develop the child’s understanding:

  • Shape:  round, oval, heart shapes, oblong, fanned.
  • Size: small, big, tiny, large, bigger, biggest, smallest, smaller, huge.
  • Texture: rough, smooth, bumpy, fluffy, silky, soft, furry, shiny, glossy, feathery, spikey, prickly, thorny, scratchy, hard, stiff, ridged, flexible, bendy, veiny, ragged.
  • Colour: green, brown, tan, orange, yellow, silver, gold, bronze, purple, red.
  • Leaf: stalk (petiole), leaf base, mid-rib, veins, venules, leaf apex, margin (edge), leaf blade (lamina)

Leaf printing is fun and easy!

If you have been able to collect some leaves, they can be used to create lovely leaf print pictures and patterns.

The printing activity is a great way of helping children to understand, and for you to model, the language associated with pressure and to experience how the pressure used feels. By linking the words used to the feelings and the outcome of using the pressure they can start to understand what is needed when asked to press gently or harder.  

Materials:

Paper, child safe poster paints, brushes or sponges, leaves collected from walk

Method.

  • Protect the surface being used for painting and aprons for the children
  • Put paint in to trays/tubs
  • It can help to tape the corners of the paper down before you start printing to stop the paper lifting when you lift the painted leaf off.
  • Paint one side of the leaf. This is when we can talk about how much paint (not too thick) and how gentle we need to be. If the leaf tears, due to too much pressure being used, we can support by explaining and helping the child to try again; with maybe a different painting tool or using their finger to give a great sense of feeling.
  • Then pick up the leaf by the stalk, or at one end, and place it paint side down on the paper
  • Encourage the child to gently tap the leaf down on the paper. Help them, if necessary, by demonstrating.
  • Then using the stalk, or from one end, gently peal the leaf off the paper.

The important thing to remember is to chat about what you are doing and have fun!

Why Placement (Preposition) and Directional Vocabulary is Important!

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Teaching your child the vocabulary related to placement (preposition) and direction is import in supporting them to understand and follow instructions, as well as sharing information themselves, such as; ‘put your cup on the table’ or to say ‘teddy in car’.

We also use this placement (preposition) and directional language to explain how to draw shapes, patterns and write letters and numbers.

We have created three sets of picture cards and games to help you support your child in developing and using positional (preposition) and directional vocabulary.

You can find these free resources on our Phonics website by following this link: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonics-resources.html

You can find these free resources in Parent section of the Teach Handwriting website by following this link: https://teachhandwriting.co.uk/more-activities.html

What are prepositions?

“A word used with a noun or pronoun to show place, position, time or means, e.g. at home, in the hall, on Sunday, by train.” Definition from Oxford School Dictionary, third edition 2002.

Here are just some preposition and directional phrases you might like to use:

On the … On top of the … Above the … Over the…

Under the… Below the … Beneath … Underneath …

Behind the …

In front of the…

Next to …Beside the … On the right of … To the right of … On the right-hand side … On the left of … To the left of … On the left-hand side… Before the … After the …

In the…  Inside the …

Out of the … Outside of the …

Between the … In between the … In the middle … In the center …

Going up the ….  Going down the … Going towards the… Going away from …

Why Vocabulary Building with your Child is so Important! 

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Building your child’s vocabulary is a vital pre-reading skill. This is because schools teach what is referred to as the ‘The Simple View of Reading’.

This means that a child decodes the words using their phonics skills and their own vocabulary knowledge to help them understand the text they are reading.

So, for a child to have good reading skills they need to be able to speedily decode unknown words and recognize familiar printed words. And, understand the meaning and grammatical structure of the spoken language and then use this knowledge to understand the printed text.

This means that a child:

• Who does not fully understand the meaning of all the words and/or the grammatical structure of the spoken language (age appropriate) will also be unable to fully understand the printed text; even if they decoded it correctly.

• Whose ability to understand the spoken word is poor will also be unable to understand the printed text; even if they have managed to decode a few words.

Helping your child build their vocabulary is also vital, if they are to continue to develop good communication skills. Talking, explaining, sharing and playing are all important in developing your child’s vocabulary, their understanding of the words meaning in the context of the conversation and the grammatical conventions of our spoken language.

The Key to Good Phonics Skills – Part 14

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Developing #Listening & #Speaking Skills – Directional and Positional Language (Word Play)

Treasure hunt and hide & seek games are a great way to teach a child directional and placement (prepositions) language. It is important for a child to learn directional and placement vocabulary so that they can both understand instructions given and share information themselves, such as; ‘put your cup on the table’ or to say ‘teddy in car’.

Through treasure hunts and hide & seek games you can introduce new directional and placement language in a fun and exciting way. There are a number of different ways to approach this:

  • You can give verbal instructions to the hidden treasure.
  • You could create a map for them to follow and ask them to talk through the map, supporting with new language as necessary.
  • You could use a mixture of verbal and map clues.
  • For older children get them to hide the treasure and give you instructions, or draw a map.
  • If you have more than one treasure to find, make the most exciting piece more difficult to find.

The important thing is the language shared. Words and phrases to use are: left, right, straight on, forward, backwards, about turn, turn around, up, down, higher, lower, stop, next to, in front, beside, underneath, on top of, behind, on the left of, on the right of, outside, and inside.

Treasure hunts and hide & seek games are a great whole class or family activity and you are never too young or too old to join in!

The Key to Good Phonics Skills – Part 13

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Developing #Listening & #Speaking Skills – Syllable Awareness & Counting (Word Play)

At about the age of 4 years old children start to develop an understanding that words can be split into sound parts (syllables) and that these parts give the word its rhythm.  A syllable is the largest phonological unit (one or a group of sounds) of a word and is like the rhythmic beat of the word.

They should be able to orally blend syllables together to form words and segment words into syllables (https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonological-awareness-stage-4.html).

A fun activity to help develop syllable understanding:

How Many Syllables?     

Children love to clap out the number of syllables in a word. It is important to say the word at a normal speed rather than really slowly as this can distort the word and make it difficult to hear the syllables. To start with a child just needs to be able to recognize them by clapping, stamping or jumping for each syllable of a word; they don’t need to be able to count them. It is thought that only about 50% of children can count out the syllables by the age of 4, so you can do the counting for them.

Spoken syllables are organised around the vowel sounds, making counting them easy; as the jaw drops when the vowel sound is spoken in the syllable. Try placing your hand under your jaw with your mouth closed before you say a word. Start with ‘cat’ you will notice the jaw drops once; this is because it is a one syllable (monosyllabic) word.

Most children will find it easier to identify syllables in compound words to start with. A compound word is formed by two words (root words) put together such as: sunset, hotdog, snowman and postman. They find it easier because the jaw tends to drop quite distinctly as we say the vowel sound in each of the root words and because we tend to say these words slowly.

The Key to Good Phonics Skills – Part 12

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Developing #Listening & #Speaking Skills – Rhyme & Alliteration (Word Play)

Young children develop their vocabulary and understanding of sound patterns within words through word play.

Rhyme awareness and the enjoyment of alliteration begins early, usually between the ages of 2 and 3 years old (Stage 3 of phonological awareness: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonological-awareness-stage-3.html ). This develops in to an important tool, supporting a child in developing an understanding of how words are formed and the sound patterns within them. These are important pre-phonics skills a child needs to develop to support their future ability to succeed with phonics, reading and writing.

This Rhyme awareness is supported and developed through the singing of songs and nursery rhymes and finger chants. Alliteration (words that begin with the same sounds) such as ‘Sammy snake slithers silently’, which children love to hear in rhymes and stories, also supports their word knowledge and understanding of sounds in words.

Being able to repeat, and join in with, short phrases they have anticipated in a story or rhyme, is another important step in a child beginning to understand the use of words in stories and story structure; such as, “I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down!” in the story of The Three Little Pigs.

For more information on this, and other pre-phonics skills (Phonological Awareness) your child develops through from birth to 7 +years old, check out the Pre-phonics section of our website: https://www.teachphonics.co.uk/phonological-development.html

The Key to Good Phonics Skills – Part 11

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Developing #Listening & #Speaking Skills – Games to Encourage Talking and Language Knowledge

Last week we explained the importance of developing your child’s word awareness skills here are some further games ideas to encourage them to use this new language.

  • Playing tapes or CDs of nursery rhymes and children’s song are good for helping your child to make the distinction between the music and words (language used) in them. It is a good idea to practise this skill when there are no other noise distractions.
  • When your child points at something tell them the name of the object, for example if they point at an apple, say “Apple”.
  • Try to use the new word in context regularly as repetition of the word will help your child to remember it and reinforce the meaning of the word.
  • Try playing some action songs and rhymes to help your child learn the actions for the rhyme, then let them have a go on their own. Watch them to see if they can do some of the actions at the right time in the song, to see if they are listening for the right cue words. If they are struggling, explain they have to wait for certain words and show them what to do and when to do it.
  • If they are trying to say a word, let them finish and then say it back to them clearly and correctly. Do not make them repeat it back to you, they may choose to do so but make it their choice.
  • Repeat and expand on what your child says, so if they say “Dog!” you may say “A big dog!” This also helps them to develop an understanding of sentence structure.
  • Finger rhymes, such as ‘Round and Round the Garden’, ‘Pat-a-cake’ and ‘Incy Wincey Spider’ and action songs encourage your child to interact with words, the sounds within them and the rhythms they create. ‘Row, Row Your Boat’ is a lovely whole body movement song that encourages a rhythmic whole-body motion, which babies and toddler enjoy (as well as the adults).
  • Sharing and talking about the books you are reading helps to build word knowledge, as you point to the pictures, picking out different objects.  Reading out aloud helps to introduce your child to words that they may not experience in their everyday talk. This helps to expose them to new vocabulary and the sounds to be found in those words.
  • Introducing and playing sorting games helps your child to build a mental filing cabinet system of categories, this helps them to remember and learn the meaning of words. Start by introducing simple categories of everyday items like food or clothes as their vocabulary increases categories such as colour, size and texture become more appropriate.