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Questions for practitioners to consider about how they support communication are suggested by Anne O'Connor

We want children to be able to interact positively with others, to communicate ideas and information effectively and to see communication in its many forms, as the New Zealand curriculum, Te Whariki, says, as 'a source of delight, comfort and amusement'.

To achieve this, we need to support parents in developing their children's communication skills. We need to identify how and why some children's powers of communication are not yet as robust as we would like. We need to identify physical factors such as hearing impairment. And we need to reflect on our own practice to ensure that we are providing a rich learning environment and appropriate support.

Margaret Carr, in Assessment in Early Childhood Settings, defines five domains (areas) of learning disposition. 'Communicating with others' is the fourth. She suggests that each domain can be looked at in three parts (see table).

Research has told us a great deal about the development of verbal and non-verbal communication. Katherine Nelson (1986) considered how children's communication and language develop within 'scripts for familiar events' and 'social sharing' This fits well with the concept of 'shared, sustained thinking' as described by Professor Kathy Sylva in the EPPE report (see 'Further reading').

Te Whariki reminds us that 'language grows and develops in meaningful contexts when children have a need to know and a reason to communicate.'

This is just as true for children with disabilities, who need adults and children to communicate naturally with them, whether through sign language or speech, making interactions fun and meaningful.

Communication involves making sense of shared meanings in more than just words. It also includes images, gesture, music, numbers, movement, rhythm and art, so allowing children to experience the 'communicative potential' of the whole body (Te Whariki).

Children learn to communicate their experiences in many different ways, and they are also learning how to interpret the communications of others. It is important, therefore, that they are immersed in environments where people talk to each other respectfully, discuss rules and help each other, and where the language of negotiation and reconciliation is modelled and made explicit. This goes far beyond the usual trite language of 'Why did you do it?' and 'Say you're sorry.'

If the victim can state their case and the perpetrator acts to improve the situation, then the regular disputes of children's daily lives can become powerful learning opportunities, and children become more disposed to communicate verbally when they see how effective it can be.

Model behaviour

Dispositions are mostly acquired, as children experience being around people who exhibit them. So, ask yourself:

• How aware are you of your own styles of non-verbal communication?
  
• How effectively do you read others' body language as a way of improving communication?
  
• How do you make explicit to the children your strategies for negotiation, reasoning and problem solving?

Environment

• How does the learning environment stimulate, provoke, challenge and support children to communicate through meaningful activities and experiences? Is it rich in symbols and signs, words and numbers, song and dance, drama and art that takes account of and extends children's cultural experiences.
  
• When and where do children have the chance to have private conversations and opportunities to watch and imitate? Is there enough space and time allocated to activities such as puppets and small-world play, where children can talk aloud to themselves?
  
• What experiences do you offer that will encourage children to develop the inclination to listen attentively and to respond appropriately to other speakers?
  
• Do you provide resources that encourage children to use their voices, such as voice-activated toys, 'recording' parrots and, of course, microphones and telephones?

Practitioner role

• How can you plan and structure your group times to provide opportunities for children to exchange and extend ideas, make plans, express feelings and explore the language of negotiation and reconciliation, as well as storytelling and information sharing?
  
• How do you involve and support parents in this area and help them to see how their own models of communication impact on their children?
  
• How able are you to identify and accept the non-verbal communication of individual children?
  
• Do you observe and take note of how children are choosing to communicate with each other, both verbally and non-verbally?
  
• How can you use your own body language to aid communication and increase levels of interest and participation, such as expressive actions in song, dance and poetry?
  
• What opportunities do you plan for and create to have one-to-one interactions with a child - listening to them, enabling them to initiate and sustain conversation?
  
• What strategies do you use to extend conversations with children, not just in questions and answers, but as 'shared sustained thinking'?
  
• How do you make the most of children's playful interest in words, repetitive sounds, silly rhymes, nonsense stories, humour and jokes?
  
• How do you plan for and initiate oral storytelling opportunities?
  
• How far are you able to include phrases from a child's home language when talking with them?
  
• How do you provide opportunities for children to use their first language, to develop a second and to hear and experience a variety of other languages?
  
• How can you support monolingual teachers in learning community languages and understanding the issues relating to being bilingual?
  
• What range of adult voices, accents and dialects do your children hear?
  
• How can you help children to 'find their voice', particularly at the beginning of a session?
  
• How do you ensure that all children feel safe enough to make their needs known and to be able to express their thoughts, emotions and fears?

Remember, children have a right to their silence, too. Invite them to participate, rather than compelling them to speak.