Learning & Development - Practitioner Role: Part 4 - Now you're talking!

Perhaps the greatest challenge for practitioners is not in starting a conversation with young children but in keeping it going. Having a sustained and shared conversation seems to be difficult, because so often the child and the adult want different things from the conversation and have different purposes for starting that conversation in the first place.

For the child, the conversation is often started for emotional reasons. They want reassurance or praise, they want to be noticed and they want attention. Even the youngest baby is trying to make an emotional connection with their key carer, to have gaze and smiles and sounds reciprocated and shared. These are very basic human instincts and once the child's emotional needs are met, the child usually feels more confident to let the 'conversation' move on. However, while many early childhood educators are very good at being responsive to these emotional overtures, they can sometimes be tempted to move the conversation on, in order to achieve their own purposes rather than those of the child.

As we saw in Part 3 of this series (see box), the lead in a conversation can often be as a result of who is in control of the learning situation. If the child is involved in an adult-led activity, then the adult has a clear purpose for that activity and will sometimes steer the conversation so that it leads to the learning that they had planned. But when learning is supposed to be child-led, when the child is supposed to have control over the experience and its outcomes, then adults have to resist the temptation to take over and to find something more 'worthwhile' for the child to talk about.

In order for our interactions with children to offer the right support at the right time and in the right way, certain principles seem helpful. These have emerged during the Oxfordshire Adult-Child Interaction Project (see box, page 17) and are exemplified with particular clarity in the DVD footage gathered as part of the project.

PRINCIPLES

Share the same conversation

The first principle is to ensure that you and the child are having the same conversation. It is remarkable how feasible it is for an adult and a child to share the same space and yet have two quite different conversations. In the Oxfordshire DVD footage, we see children who approach adults because they want encouragement or reassurance, who want to share an achievement or simply share something of interest. The adult, not picking up on these cues and maybe worried that the child's learning isn't of sufficient worth or challenge, starts another conversation - probably with an early learning goal in mind - thus dismissing the child's purposes and substituting their own.

Two-sided conversations

A good conversation is mutually satisfying. Both parties need to feel they have been heard and need to feel they have had their say. As adults, we naturally have more advanced skills in turn-taking and supporting a conversation to keep it going and, from experience with our adult friends, should know how unsatisfactory a conversation can be if one person does all the talking.

Colwyn Trevarthen (see, for example, Malloch & Trevarthen 2009) frequently refers to the communicative exchange between mothers and their babies as a 'dance' where either the mother leads - by smiling or singing a song - and the baby mimics, or the other way around. The material from the Hanen Project (see, for example, Weitzman 1992) refers to conversation working like a see-saw, with sometimes one person being more dynamic and then the other. Of course, just like the play equipment, if one person is too 'heavy' (in this instance, does all the talking), then the other person is left dangling in the air, without any hope of joining in - or enjoying - the experience.

Loris Malaguzzi, the philosopher and pedagogue so influential in the development of the pre-schools in Reggio Emilia in Italy, refers to conversation being like 'passing a ball'. For the game to work, both parties must be equally involved although not both parties are necessarily equally expert. Both must want the game to continue and to play their part in passing the ball. In too many cases in the Oxfordshire Project, we saw footage of adults catching a conversational 'ball' thrown by the child, but then putting it down in favour of another ball (conversation) that they, as the adult, preferred.

Maintaining the threads

Perhaps one of our greatest challenges in the early years is to support and extend children's thinking. When working with older children, the adult - usually a teacher - is able to ask questions which clarify the learning that has taken place. With the youngest children, however, much that is learned is unscripted and is shown through action rather than words.

Sometimes a practitioner makes a comment or statement or asks a question to which the child does not respond. Maybe the adult's contribution has fallen on stony ground, or maybe the child is mulling over what the adult has said, only to return to it days - or months - later.

It is, therefore, very difficult to demonstrate sustained shared thinking as though it were something that occurs in a short, given moment in time. Much of what young children learn comes from the 'composting' they do (Claxton 2006) as they gather layer upon layer of knowledge which helps them arrive, over time, at their own understanding of the world. To maintain the threads of children's thinking, it is important that we avoid rushing children through the curriculum, but give them time to revisit and to readjust their emerging understandings.

In the early years, support to consolidate learning is every bit as important as support to extend learning. Neither is of value without the other. If all children do is to consolidate their learning then the world becomes too familiar, too predictable and, in time, becomes dull. If all children do is to have their learning extended, there is too much information to be taken in, nothing has time to become embedded, and the learner and educator become exhausted.

Maintain the conversation

One important way of sustaining the threads of children's thinking is to keep a conversational thread going. For this to be achieved, practitioners need to be alert to the conversational possibilities presented by children. It is a mistake to think that a worthwhile conversation arises only when there is something 'special' to talk about: a visit or visitor; characters in the story sack; the start of a project or theme.

These conversational opportunities are very important to the practitioner because they are often part of their planned agenda, but it does not mean that they are always the most worthwhile to the child. Frequently, what is worthwhile to the child can seem very trivial to an adult, yet our DVD footage from the Oxfordshire project shows that it is here, in those inconsequential moments, that some very rich conversations take place.

As we saw in Part 1 of this series, conversations often occur when children are at their most relaxed so, it is when they are having their nappy changed, when they are doing up coat buttons, when sitting side by side on a garden bench, when they are arriving on the carpet for storytime that the child often makes a remark they may have been thinking (or indeed worrying) about for some time and, it is then, if the adult is alert and responsive that the opportunity presents itself for a meaningful interaction.

Our Oxfordshire footage shows that the most effective practitioners are alert to all possible conversations and never overlook what a child says until they have found out, by being responsive, how important it is to the child. The practitioners who fail to have rich or rewarding conversations with children are often those who miss these openings - or fabricate them by dominating, rather than sharing, a conversation or by taking it over.

Keeping the conversational threads going often requires mental agility on the part of the practitioner. It also requires respect for what the child has to say, because if we are too busy thinking about what to say next, we do not always listen to what the child has said and do not always build successfully on their thinking.

Tackling learning hurdles

As we saw in Part 3 of this series, maintaining the child's learning momentum sometimes means helping them over a learning hurdle. When a child is trying to achieve something - making a model, investigating a theory, telling a story - they sometimes get stuck. They lack the knowledge, experience, skill or understanding to allow them to move smoothly on.

At times like this we have seen in our Oxfordshire DVD footage how important it is to help the child swiftly over the hurdle by giving them the word, concept, skill, physical assistance or knowledge to help them towards their goal. This is not to say that practitioners should jump in before the child has had a chance to work things out for themselves. That is not what we are saying at all. But it seems clear to that if a child is at a point where they are frustrated and losing motivation, then it is not helpful for an adult to add to the confusion or frustration by saying: 'What do you think?', 'Let's see what this book says' or 'Maybe your friends can help you.' What the child needs is a solution: 'It's called this', 'It might help if you hold it this way', 'Sometimes builders use a weight to help balance their models like this.' Taking this approach helps the child over their learning hurdle and their motivation is rekindled.

Avoid too many questions

Finally, in trying to maintain children's learning momentum, the Oxfordshire practitioners analysed how and when they ask questions. There are many times, of course, when a thoughtful, genuinely meant question can advance children's thinking, but until the Oxfordshire practitioners became aware of what they were doing, they found they were asking too many questions and would ask questions that were:

• often irrelevant to the child's thinking and actually interrupted their learning

• sometimes potentially helpful but asked at the wrong time, because when a child is deeply involved in their learning they lack the 'head space' to talk to anyone, let alone answer questions

• sometimes not genuine - the adult already knew the answer - and the child was confused or annoyed by the 'game' being played in having to guess what the adult wanted them to say.

Additionally, the practitioners found that they would often ask questions but fail to give the children time to answer; ask questions but then ignore the answer; ask questions then demand an answer; ask questions then answer the questions themselves; or ask questions when what the child wanted was an answer. All of this is immensely frustrating for children and interferes with their learning rather than enhances it.

The use of questions in an adult-led situation is different from in a child-led one. But, when supporting children's independent and self-initiated learning, the Oxfordshire practitioners have analysed their use of questions, they have tried to become more sensitive to the sheer volume of questions asked and to:

1. wait until a child is ready for a conversation and avoid asking questions when they are already thinking deeply

2. ask questions that are genuine - questions to which the adult does not know the answer and which will clarify the adult's understanding of what the child is trying to do or think about

3. ask questions that will show the child that the practitioners are interested in their thinking and want to help them think more - rather than checking that they have learned something that the adults think they should know.

FINAL THOUGHT

Many people have inspired us to think differently about the quality of our adult-child interactions, but the last word goes to Lilian Katz, Professor Emerita of Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois, who challenges us to 'focus our individual and collective energies on the quality of our day-to-day interactions of children and their teachers in their moments together so that they become rich, interesting, engaging, satisfying and meaningful' (Katz & Cesarone (eds) 1994:17).

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

Having worked together for nearly three years, the Oxfordshire practitioners have tried to work out what attributes they need - irrespective of whether they work with babies, toddlers or with older children - in order to have effective interactions with young children. The list is still emerging, but the following characteristics certainly seem to be relevant, whatever the situation and whatever the age of the child:

Effective practitioners:

• take the time to build strong, safe relationships with children and their families

• have high levels of respect for children and do not use patronising language or a patronising tone of voice

• are 'light-footed' and flexible in their responses to children's demands as learners;

• delight in children's company

• are focused on the child all the time and 'in the moment' when tuning in to the child's needs and interests - not with their minds elsewhere or on 'next steps';

• use interventions that are genuine

• have a natural capacity to show children 'warm attentiveness' in order to bring out the best in any learning moment.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

This four-part series of articles explores the issues that have arisen for practitioners involved in 'Interacting or Interfering? - The Oxfordshire Adult-Child Interaction Project'. The ongoing scheme aims to help practitioners better understand their role in supporting early learning and what helps interaction with young children.

Taking part in the project are 14 practitioners, who work across a variety of settings and care for children aged from six months to six years. Participants include colleagues who have worked together for over two years and each agreed to be filmed once a term for two years.

The four parts of the series are:

• Part 1 'Effective communication' (Nursery World, 23 January 2012)

• Part 2 'Tuning in to children's thinking' (Nursery World, 20 February 2012)

• Part 3 'The adult role in child-led learning' (Nursery World, 19 March 2012)

• Part 4 'How to have conversations with children' (Nursery World, 16 April 2012)

www.nurseryworld.co.uk/go/learninganddevelopment

REFERENCES

• Claxton G (2006) Oxfordshire Playing for Life Project, not published

• Katz, L and Cesarone, B (eds) 1994, Reflections on the Reggio Emilia Approach, Pennsylvania Ill, ERIC Monograph Series

• Malloch, S and Trevarthen, C (eds) (2009) Communicative Musicality: exploring the basis of human companionship, Oxford, Oxford University Press

• Weitzman E (1992) Learning, Language and Loving It, Toronto, Ontario, Hanen Centre Publications.

Julie Fisher is an independent early years adviser and visiting professor of Early Childhood Education at Oxford Brookes University.

She can be contacted on: julieafisher@btinternet.com

 Photographs by Justin Thomas at Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School and The Slade Nursery School and Children's Centre, Oxford.