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:
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).
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).
Children’s conversational skills are developing. They’re now more able to:
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.
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.
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.
At this age, children are able to:
Ask lots of questions e.g. Why? What? Where?
At this age, students are 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. 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.
At this age, students are 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. 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.
Last updated: 17 April, 2018
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