Young children begin learning about conversation within the first few weeks following birth! The new born baby learns to focus on faces, give eye contact and vocalise to indicate his/her needs to the carer. Non-verbal interactions, such as eye contact, facial expression, imitation and turn-taking are important foundation skills for language development. These non-verbal interaction skills are then used throughout life when we interact with others.
Play is not only enjoyable for a child but it also is important in encouraging the skills necessary for language development. These include:
When children are playing they are also developing their social communication skills. As they get older, these skills practised in play enable them to work co-operatively in a group with others. To take part in a conversation with others, children need to be able to:
As children get older, they are expected to be able to use language to interact appropriately with others, including asking questions, negotiating, giving opinions and discussing ideas and feelings. They need to know the appropriate language for each situation they experience (e.g. when to use slang, and when to use more formal language).
Children of this age will engage in exploratory play – they explore toys and objects using their mouth and hands. They will also look at adults closely and copy movements, e.g., dropping objects. There is limited interaction with other children and play is described as solitary.
Babies will respond to voice and sound, e.g., they will make eye contact and smile when spoken to. They will ‘talk’ using babbling, squealing and cooing and also try and communicate through actions and gestures.
Children of this age start to play with adults and notice other children. They are starting to learn through cause and effect e.g., banging two objects together and finding what sound it makes and also like repetitive actions such as putting object in and out of boxes.
Children of this age will start to take turns when talking. They will also practice intonation, imitating the natural up and down tones that occur in adult speech.
Communication Station Video: Let’s play – supporting early interaction and communication
Children of this age begin to use symbols in their play such as a stick becoming a sword. They may start to play alongside other children and copy their play. Children will still be learning through trial and error, he/she will start to show some reasoning skills, e.g. in playing with inset puzzles. Much of children’s play will be ‘imaginative’ for instance playing with large toys – teddies, t-sets or small toys – play people.
Children of this age begin to engage in longer conversations. They also may try and rephrase what they have said if the listener does not understand.
Children of this age are starting to play co-operatively with others and to take turns with other children. They also enjoy make believe play for instance playing ‘let’s pretend’ in the home-corner, or whilst dressing up and cooking.
Children of this age will start to talk about personal experiences, express ideas and feelings and frequently practice conversation skills by talking to themselves.
Children of this age are developing their conversation skills.e.g, beginning to take turns and talk about the same topic.
Your child will be playing co-operatively in groups with other children. Your child will enjoy role play, and may act out common routines (e.g. playing house or schools), or may pretend to be characters from books or TV programmes.
Your child will understand and use a range of emotion words, and will show some awareness of the emotions of others (e.g. by attempting to comfort an upset friend).
Children’s conversational skills are developing. They’re now more able to start conversations with other people and join in with groups already talking.
They will join in co-operative games with friends and help and organise complex role play games. They may still find losing hard!
Children can now use language to do a wider range of things – such as ask, negotiate, give opinions and discuss ideas and feelings. For example, “Can Max come and play today, he wants to see my new car and his Mum says it’s ok”. They know to give details that are important and will influence the listener (e.g. ‘his Mum says it’s ok’).
Children’s understanding of the feelings and wishes of their friends is increasing at this age. They are aware of who their friends are, and are able to give reasons why they are friends. Friendships will now include falling out and making up again.
Conversational skills are sufficient to:
Self-awareness and awareness of others is developing further during this period. Children will show an interest in their peer’s (e.g. their likes and dislikes), and may use this information in their social interactions (e.g. suggesting playing a game they know the other child likes to gain their friendship). Children can identify how their friends are feeling, using tone of voice and facial expressions. They are able to put themselves ‘in another person’s shoes’ and work out what that person might be thinking.
At this age children are learning that they need to use different styles of talk with different people. For example, terms like ‘’cool, ‘hiya!’ or ‘yeah right’ are used with friends but not teachers.
Children are now able to keep conversations going with a range of people in different situations, by making relevant comments or by asking questions. They use language for a range of different reasons (e.g. complementing or criticizing, clarifying or negotiating). This is important for building friendships.
Children are now able to use formal language when appropriate in some familiar situations , e.g. Showing a visitor around school.
Children are able to put interest into their voices to make storytelling exciting and come to life. They may add detail or leave information out according to how much is already known by the listener. They also understand more about the interests of the listener (E.g. “Guess who I saw yesterday…”).
Children are now able to work out how someone else might be feeling, what they might be thinking, and what they might do next using the context. For example, my friend is running towards me holding a piece of paper, I think he’s about to give me a message, he’s smiling so it must be good news. They use this information to successfully make and maintain a number of friendships with peers in their age group.
Young people are now able to:
The skills for making and maintaining friendships will be established by this age, although will be tested by changing friendship groups and social dynamics. Young people will be able to read ‘hidden social rules’ and use these to interact appropriately with different groups of people – at home, with friends, talking to a teacher, etc.
Young people are now able to:
The skills for making and maintaining friendships will be established by this age, although will be tested by changing friendship groups and social dynamics. Young people will be able to read ‘hidden social rules’ and use these to interact appropriately with different groups of people – at home, with friends, talking to a teacher, etc.
Last updated: 17 April, 2018
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