The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development.

Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children's language effectively.

Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, will give children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, story-telling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures.

Here's an example of high quality interactions that support communication and language development, captured on our electronic platform, Tapestry. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are so excited to have a jewellery shop in Fox Class. (N) "I think I'm going to make a Batman watch because I'm dressed like Batman. He is my favourite super hero." (J) "Yeah I'm going to make a Spider-Man watch so he knows what the time is when he need to get the baddies." (J) "I'm going to make something to be Batman but not a watch." (A) "I need to be a girl one. I'm going to be Super Girl. I need to make a Super Girl jewellery." (T) "I be Spider-Man. Spider-Man do webs." Mrs Hutchison joins us and asks us why superheroes are called superheroes? (N) "Erm because they do super things like fighting and lifting cars up." (J) "Actually it's because they have super powers I think." (J) "Yeah like Spider-Man can do webs out of his fingers." (T) "Spider-Man shoot webs." (A) "What power does super girl have?" Mrs Hutchison tells us that we might be able to find out more about our favourite super heroes using the computer. (J) "Yes you can Google things on the computer and it tells you about things in real life, and things that are not real life as well." (J) "That's like Alexa that can tell you things as well." With Mrs Hutchison's help we find out lots about our favourite superheroes. (N) "See batman can fly and he can shoot things out of his belt." (A) "I didn't know Super Girl can fly." (T) "Spider-Man climb high. Spider-Man climb to top." We then get busy designing new powerful jewellery for our superheroes to wear. (N) "This batman watch can tell the time but it's also magic because it can call the goodie and it can shoot power lasers at the baddies. J can you help me measure my arm." (A) "I'm making a super girl bracelet. It can make me do invisible, then the baddies can't find me. Can you hold this for me J while I cut it please." (J) "I made a spidey watch. It shoots coloured fire to get the baddies. I need to press this button and it all shoots out. N can you help me stick it, it's a bit tricky." (J) "I'm making a laser crown so when batman is in the dark he can make it all light up. Can you help me put the paper round my head so I knew the right size." (T) "I make fire shoot. Bracelet do fire shoot. Get baddies. Spider-Man bracelet." After we have finished designing our bracelets we get busy making them. We use different materials and tools to help us join objects together and we're all super careful when we use the scissors. Once our designs are finished we proudly show them off then get busy saving the world! Finally we label our designs so our friends know how to make them. We use our phonics to help us sound out and stretch the words we want to write, matching sounds to letters. We try really hard to write some sentences remembering to use captain letters, full stops and fingers spaces.

Wow what fantastic super heroes you are. Your new super hero jewellery will definitely help you save the day! I love how you used your words to initiate requests, make choices and express ideas.
Great Job 👏