Communication and Language

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, storytelling 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.

Communication and Language in the EYFS Curriculum

In our EYFS curriculum communication and language is called a 'Happy Chatter and a Confident Communicator'

Nursery milestones and goals for a 'Happy Chatter and a Confident Communicator'

Reception milestones and goals for a 'Happy Chatter and a Confident Communicator'

Supporting Language at school

Stoke Speak Out

SSO is a tool used at CHCA Nursery to assess pupils’ communication and language. All children develop at their own pace, yet there are some key skills that we expect children to develop at certain ages (ie milestones). Through our assessment, we can identify any communication and language needs from an early age and put in suitable interventions. See the link below for more details.

https://www.stokespeaks.org/about

Early talk boost and Talk boost

Early Talk Boost is a targeted intervention aimed at 3-4 year old children with delayed language helping to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. At CHCA, book Early Talk Boost and Talk Boost assessments and interventions are used to support speech and language skills. For more information, please see the link below:

https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/training-licensing/programmes-for-nurseries-and-schools/early-talk-boost/

In Nursery and Reception, we sing as much as possible and have a selection of different traditional and new rhymes and songs. We also enjoy children’s own choices and ‘made up’ songs and rhymes! We use our nursery rhyme spoons to help prompt children if needed.

Nursery - Nursery Rhymes and Songs

Reception Class - Nursery Rhymes and Songs

Supporting Language at home

In the Nursery, we use the Toddler Talk and Chattering with Children (3-5 year olds) resources to support families with weekly tasks. These resources are funded by the Children's charity Commission and the resources include:

Listening and attention
Understanding what is said
Learning and using new words
Speaking in sentences
Talking socially

This autumn, we are focusing on listening and attention skills.

Children need to learn to listen and pay attention by the time they enter school. Before they can fully understand words and sentences, they need an awareness of everyday sounds as well as sounds in words. Understanding the meaning of words relies on recognising voice, speech sounds and linking words with objects. The next stage is remembering more words for a sentence.