Learning & Development, Communication: Part 2 - Friendly places

There are plenty of figures on the National Year of Communication website (hello@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk) that illustrate the consequences of poor language skills. It is estimated, for instance, that two-thirds of sevento 14-year-olds with serious behaviour problems have language impairment and 60 per cent of young people in young offender institutions have communication difficulties.

The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) research has found that for most children, the home learning environment has twice as much influence as the early years setting on academic outcomes at age 11. However, the research also found that, where the home learning environment is poor, a high-quality setting can make a big difference.

Settings involved in the Every Child A Talker (ECAT) programme have certainly found that making the setting more communication-friendly has helped to reduce the numbers of children at risk of language delay and increase the numbers of children ahead of expectations. So what does being a high-quality, communication-friendly setting look like?

EMOTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

The environment for learning is a good place to start. One of the Early Years Foundation Stage principles is: The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children's development and learning. The indoor and outdoor environments should be places where communication is encouraged and where adults and children delight in the experiences offered, but the most important environment for learning about communication is the emotional environment.

People may receive messages about the emotional environment and ways in which people communicate before they even enter the building. Consider what happens in the following scenarios.

Setting A has a lovely new building, with a purpose-built shelter for buggies outside the front door. It has a big sign outside in several community languages, and glass doors through which can be seen a spacious entrance area with comfy seating. Emilija, who has only recently arrived in Britain, walks nervously through the gate with her ten-month-old baby and her three-year-old son. She meets a woman outside who is hurrying out of the building and does not introduce herself, but points at the buggy park and says brusquely over her shoulder, 'Leave your buggy in there, we don't want a load of mud on the carpet.' Emilija does not understand all the words but hears the tone, gets the gist and obeys the instruction. She rings the bell with trepidation.

Setting B is a pack-away setting based in a church hall. There is an old easel outside with a plastic covered sign saying 'Welcome' and the setting name in English. Emilija hesitates as she closes the gate, wondering where the door is. Just then a woman hurries round the side of the building. She sees Emilija and her children and her face lights up with a smile. 'Hello,' she says and holds out her hand. 'I'm Lesley.' After a minute's conversation Lesley has found out that Emilija speaks a little English, that she comes from Lithuania, that her son, Dane, has a lovely shy smile and that the baby, Anya, has a cold. She walks back round the building with them and takes them in to introduce them to the manager and carry on the process of getting to know the setting.

These two short snippets say nothing about the rest of the staff and the provision, but readers who put themselves in Emilija's shoes will probably feel that setting B has begun a relationship based on empathy, respect and two-way communication. Emilija and her children will feel relaxed and able to communicate there.

Positive relationships in a communication-friendly setting mean that practitioners use sensitive observation to assess babies and young children's development, and progress and respond appropriately. This approach starts with the youngest babies when practitioners talk to them - for example, telling them what is going to happen ('I'm going to change your nappy', 'We're going outside now') and describing feelings ('You think that's funny', 'You're angry'). See the box on James as an example of that process.

In a communication-friendly setting, all practitioners are aware of the children's individual stages of development and, like Claire in the observation of James, model and extend language and prepare children for the next stage. (See box on page 20 for more examples.)

INDOORS AND OUTDOORS

Practitioners who are tuned in to children in this way also make sure that the indoor and outdoor environments fosters communication for all age groups.

• - There are quiet comfortable areas where practitioners can devote time to bonding and being close to young babies.
• - Resources are at child height and in boxes labelled with pictures or symbols.
• - There are areas where there is not too much on the walls, so that children can concentrate on the adult talking to them.
• - There is no continuous background noise such as radio or CDs. Children in the early stages of language development need to learn to distinguish between language sounds and other sounds around them.
• - There is equipment outside which encourages shared play - for example, a mark-making area that uses big chalks and will attract children who may not be keen on mark-making inside. If bikes and cars, for instance, take only one child, the communication and play can be enhanced by turning a large cardboard box and a piece of rope into a petrol pump.
• - There are quiet areas where children can talk to each other and form relationships, as well as read and tell stories. These are small, well-defined areas such as dens and 'cosy corners'.

TALKING HOTSPOTS

Practitioners in ECAT settings audit their provision to find the places where good talking is already taking place - the talking 'hotspots'. These are not always the places adults predict, are often small cosy areas and rarely involve sitting on a chair at a table. The recent Ofsted survey Removing Barriers to Literacy reports on some of the ways in which the eight ECAT settings they visited used the evidence from their hot-spot audits.

Their findings highlighted that boys often engaged more in physical activities that demanded little talk. Subsequently, staff designed areas that encouraged collaboration and discussion for all pupils. For example, they set up activities for water play that required groups of children to collect and direct the flow of water, as well as construction activities that captured the imagination of the boys. The tasks could be completed successfully only if they listened to and communicated with one another (p19).

Practitioners in Brent wanted to improve their settings in the light of their audits and decided to develop role play, cosy corners and dens. They used simple resources such as bamboo canes and fabric, as well as existing structures - for example, draping a tarpaulin over part of the climbing frame.

In one setting the early language lead practitioner was surprised when observations revealed that children were not using the large book area in the way that was expected. A simple cosy corner was created under a table with some sheer fabric. Into it went a small fluffy rug, a few cushions and some good-quality books - and a lot of boys and girls, using the area alone, in pairs or groups.

TALKING TOO MUCH

Of course, setting up these areas is important for young children, but even more important is the interaction with the adults. The Brent practitioners decided that the role of the adult in these areas was to be a communicator - a good listener, a flexible planner and a sensitive co-player. These are not always easy roles to take.

Most practitioners involved in ECAT have found that they talk too much, which means that they spend insufficient time being a good listener. In many LAs, Early Language Consultants have helped practitioners to video themselves talking with children and although most were very reluctant to start with, the results have been very positive. This is Debbie, a childminder, describing her learning journey:

'The video was a real revelation. Although I used many good strategies to develop early language development, it was clear I simply talked too much and didn't give enough time for children to respond. I also asked far too many questions! So, I identified my key areas for development as:

• - more comments and less questions
• - a more explicit use of the recasting strategy to support the learners.

'I then became aware of trying to make these talk strategies, as well as others discussed in the ECAT meetings, part of my everyday interactions as a childminder. The results are clearly evident in the video footage I subsequently recorded. I talk less, I listen more, the children are supported in how they are playing by the comments I make relevant to their world and their play. The children are offered a model of language by the talk I use.'

FLEXIBLE PLANNING

Flexible planners realise that children live 'in the moment' and they go with the flow. As the EYFS says (EYFS Practice Guidance 2.9), 'It is important to remember that no plan written weeks before can include a group's interest in a spider's web on a frosty morning or a particular child's interest in transporting small objects in a favourite blue bucket. Yet it is these interests which may lead to some powerful learning. Plans should therefore be flexible enough to adapt to circumstances.'

SENSITIVE CO-PLAYER

More difficult than flexible planning for most practitioners is being a sensitive co-player. Adults often have difficulty knowing when and how to interact in children's play. Learning, Playing and Interacting (p14) gives the following good advice:

A guiding principle is to do what young children do when they are learning to be good players - they often stand at the edges of play and watch what is happening. They may be observing strategies for entering the play, trying to understand the rules of the play, or thinking about what they can offer. Sometimes they ask permission to enter - and sometimes they wait to be asked. Children seem to know intuitively that they need to tune in to what is happening in order to be included in the flow of the play.

Becoming a communication-friendly setting takes time, persistence and enthusiasm. Even the most outstanding setting is still on a journey to make the most of every opportunity for language development and ensure that every child can be an effective communicator and confident learner.

You may feel that you have a long way to go in your setting, but it's worth remembering what Michael Rosen says in the introduction to the ECAT materials. 'One of the best things we can do with young children is to have interesting and enjoyable conversations with them. If you are doing that, rather than asking questions all the time, you are well on the way to becoming a communicationfriendly setting.'

Helen Moylett is president of the British Association for Early Childhood Education (www.earlyeducation.org.uk)

Part 3 on Engaging Parents will be published in Nursery World on 10 March

OBSERVATION: JAMES

In a day nursery a practitioner, Claire, is sitting on the floor with two babies, Sarah and James. She is facing Sarah, talking to her and supporting her with one hand when she wobbles as she sits, and also keeping an eye on James. James has a plastic ball which he is repeatedly banging on a posting box. He then starts to bang it on the floor, but it doesn't make a noise on the carpet. He puts the ball to his mouth, then goes back to banging it on the box. The ball slips out of his grasp and rolls away across the floor. Claire reaches out to retrieve the ball and hands it back to James, saying 'Oops. Here it is.'

Observe: James is banging the ball on other objects.

Assess: James is exploring with some persistence - is he interested in the sound, or the feel?

Respond: Support James in his exploration by making it possible for him to continue. Use simple language models about the here and now

MORE INFORMATION

• - The Spring 2011 journal of Early Education has an under-threes theme and most of the articles focus on good practice in early communication
• - Communication Friendly Spaces focuses on the role of the environment in supporting speaking and listening skills, emotional well-being and general engagement. The organisation provides training on communication-friendly spaces and has developed bags for practitioners and families. For information visit: www.elizabethjarmanltd.co.uk. The website offers information and resources such as The Communication Friendly Spaces Toolkit: Improving Speaking and Listening Skills in the Early Years Foundation Stage and A Place to Talk in: Pack Away Settings; Children's Centres; Extended Schools; Outside; KS1; My Home; Pre-schools; At My Childminder's.
• - Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE), www.ioe.ac.uk/projects/eppe
• - Every Child A Talker: Guidance for early language lead practitioners and Learning, Playing and Interacting: Good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage can be downloaded at: http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/earlyyears
• - Hello is the National Year of Communication, a campaign to increase understanding of the importance of good communication skills. Hello aims to make communication a priority for all children and young people in homes, settings and schools across the UK. hello@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk
• - The Ofsted (2011) Removing Barriers to Literacy survey aimed to illustrate effective approaches in supporting literacy. Inspectors visited providers of childcare, education and post-16 learning chosen because previous evidence showed that they were particularly successful in enabling children and learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to make better than average progress and to achieve good standards of literacy.