Conversation & interaction – Schools
Conversation & interaction – Schools
Young children begin learning about conversation and interaction within the first few weeks of their lives. The first interaction they engage in is non-verbal – they learn to make eye contact, watch and use facial expressions, imitate others and take turns in simple interactions. These non-verbal interaction skills are then used throughout life when we interact with others.
When children are playing they are 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:
- Take turns to talk
- Listen to others
- Be aware of what the listener knows and what they are interested in
- Talk about the same topic as others, and change topic appropriately
- Start conversations and join conversations appropriately
- Keep conversations going with a range of people in different situations, by making relevant comments or by asking questions.
As students 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).
Strategies
- When talking, make sure you are face to face and make eye contact.
- Give the child plenty of time to respond and try to avoid anticipating and/or completing the child’s utterance.
- Use open questions, rather than closed questions to encourage more than a yes/no response.
- Students will benefit from opportunities to chat on a one-to-one basis or in small groups. If they do not initiate topics themselves, start conversations about their interests, TV programmes, film, what they did at the weekend, holiday plans etc.
- Be honest – if you have not understood the student, ask them to explain again. This develops their self-awareness and gives them an opportunity to repair the conversation
Reception
Conversation and interaction
Children of this age are developing their conversation skills.e.g, beginning to take turns and talk about the same topic.
Children will start to play more co-operatively in groups. Their play may include role play, acting out common routines (e.g. playing house or schools), or pretending to be characters from books or TV programmes.
Children 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).
Year 1 - 2
Conversation and interaction
Children’s conversational skills are developing. They’re now more able to:
- Start conversations with other people
- Join in with groups already talking
- Use language to do a wider range of things – such as ask, negotiate, give opinions and discuss ideas and feelings. E.g. “Can Max come and play today, he wants to see my new car and his Mum says it’s ok”
- Give details that they know are important and will influence the listener. E.g. “Carys fell off the stool, it was an accident, she wasn’t messing around.”
Play skills continue to develop, with children now joining in games with friends, and leading role play games. Games can be quite elaborate and detailed. Play should be co-operative, although losing may still be challenging.
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.
Year 3 - 4
Conversation and interaction
Conversational skills are sufficient to:
- Take turns to talk, listen, and respond in two way conversations and groups.
- Use language they hear other people using and begin to be aware of current peer language.
- Begin to be aware of what the listener knows already and make checks while telling a story. E.g. “You know Jason, he’s the boy who lives next to Sally, he’s got a big dog, well he was at the park with….”
- Exaggerate in an implausible way, to make stories more exciting. E.g. “Last week at Granny’s we had the biggest pizza in the world.”
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.
They’re 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.
Year 5 - 6
Conversation and interaction
At this age, children are able to:
- Use formal language when appropriate in some familiar situations. eg. Showing a visitor around school.
- Keep conversations going with a range of people in different situations, by making relevant comments or by asking questions.
- Use language for a range of different reasons. This is important for building friendships. eg. Complementing or criticising, clarifying and negotiating.
- Put interest into their voices to make storytelling exciting and come to life.
- Add detail or leave information out according to how much is already known by the listener.
- Understand the interests of the listener. E.g. “Guess who I saw yesterday…”
- Infer other people’s thoughts and feelings.
- Make predictions about what people might do using the context (e.g 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.
Ask lots of questions e.g. Why? What? Where?
Year 7 - 9
Conversation and interaction
At this age, students are able to:
- Negotiate an agreement explaining other options and possible outcomes.
- Manage and organise collaborative tasks with little adult supervision.
- Realise when people don’t fully understand and try to help them.
- Enjoy organising group games and explain the rules effectively.
- Start to understand sarcasm. Though it needs to have more exaggerated context, tone of voice and facial expression clues to help them fully understand that what’s said isn’t necessarily what’s meant. E.g. “That’s a brilliant idea, make as much noise as you can whilst your Dad is trying to sleep!”
The skills for making and maintaining friendships will be established by this age, although will be tested by changing friendship groups and social dynamics. Students 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.
Year 10+
Conversation and interaction
At this age, students are able to:
- Stay on one topic of conversation for long periods and move sensibly from one topic to another
- Switch easily between informal and formal styles of talking depending on the audience
- Understand sarcasm and irony, e.g. ‘I love your shoes’
The skills for making and maintaining friendships will be established by this age, although will be tested by changing friendship groups and social dynamics. Students 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.
Page last reviewed: 17 April, 2018