Good communication skills are at the heart of quality provision of the Early Years Foundation Stage because practitioners must understand the needs and interests of individual children in order to plan and deliver truly child-led activities.
The new statutory framework places a heavy emphasis on communicating with children and their parents. It is a two-way process and practitioners do not only need to be articulate and adept at explaining their policies and procedures, but must also be able to comprehend what parents and children are telling them.
'The EYFS is child-centred, and that means giving the child control,' says Anna Hanks, managing director of Acorn Childcare Training. 'It means listening to the child, hearing what the child wants and not making assumptions about what you think the child wants.
'We have a Listening to Children course, looking at communication and observational skills, and at how to ask questions that encourage the children to answer and not just get a yes/no response. For example, if a child is drawing a picture, ask a question that will encourage the child to explain the picture.'
Early years consultant and writer Helen Bromley, who runs communication courses for Early Education, says, 'It is not just about asking open questions.It is about valuing every child's contribution. It is to do with assessment and it is to do with what you hear.
'If you go outside and ask the children to look at the sky, you might find some children who have played this sort of game before and will say "fluffy bunnies". Another will say "clouds", which is true. It would be better to ask, "Does what you see in the sky remind you of anything?" That way nobody can be wrong.
'What is crucial is the supportive context for talk. Adults are the gatekeepers of excitement, and sometimes when children are getting excited you see the adult saying, "Be quiet".
'Practitioners need to plan for talk. People look at me blankly when I say that, but half the early learning goals on language and literacy are talk- related. How can you get to know the children if you don't talk with them?
'In early years, the children can't write you a diary or give you their autobiographies, but if you listen to their talk and their stories you will find out about them. We also need to look at encouraging children to talk to each other.'
Karen Walker, director of the Children's Place nursery chain, says, 'One of the impacts of the EYFS for the older children is the emphasis on observational-led planning. This is something we have worked on in our training. Our staff are watching the children and are listening to the children. The children are leading the planning.
'The children are doing the menu planning with the staff. They get together and talk about healthy options. Yesterday was a very windy day, but the children got wrapped up and went outside and felt the wind blowing them about and watched what it did. That was what the children wanted to do.
'In one sense it is a kind of affirmation of what we were already doing, listening to the children.'
Ms Walker says the nursery has always been very pro-active in trying to promote communication with young children. 'My co-director, Debbie Burke, is a speech therapist and language development has been a key element for our nursery practice.
'When they are engaged in personal care of the little ones, staff spend the time making eye contact, talking to and listening to the child.'
She adds, 'We are taking part in a Listening Champion project with our local Centre of Vocational Excellence, Kirklees College. It has only just started but Noreen Sharif, who has been on the training and is now going to cascade it down, has already noticed that the settling-in process for the NEG-funded-only children has gone very smoothly this year. She involved the other children in talking through how they might welcome the newcomers.'
Key Skills
Effective early years communicators are people who:
- recognise that communication is a two-way flow of information
- by their welcoming, open demeanour, encourage others to speak
- listen and do not interrupt
- read other people's body language
- think before they speak
- use simple language and avoid jargon
- speak and write clearly
- ask open questions of the children - questions that do not have yes/no answers
- do not make assumptions when talking with the children but wait for the child to explain
- take the time to communicate with children who are non-verbal on their own terms.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Principles into practice: communication
The importance of effective communication features frequently throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance.
The Principles into Practice cards highlight the challenges for practitioners. For example:
1.1: A Unique Child - Child Development
- How to meet the differing and competing needs of every child
- Listening carefully and waiting for a child who gets excited and pauses a lot so that they can complete what they want to say
- Recognising and praising effort as well as achievement
2.2: Positive Relationships - Parents as Partners
- How to communicate with parents who are working or simply very busy
2.3: Positive Relationships - Supporting Learning
- Making time to really listen to children's views and to act on them even when they do not match adults' views
- Putting into practice a written policy of listening to children who are non-verbal, or use alternative communication systems, or are learning English as an additional language
- Identifying the right moment to intervene and move children's learning on, perhaps by asking a question
3.1: Enabling Environments - Observation, Assessment and Planning
- Ensuring flexibility in planning for the group, while keeping a focus on children's individual and present learning needs, or interests and achievements
- Involving parents in contributing to the observation, assessment and planning cycle when they are already busy
CASE STUDY
'An audit of our practice, considering the EYFS requirements, helped identify practical opportunities to develop our work on communication,' says Anna Mead, proprietor of the two Polly's Day Nurseries in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
'For show and tell, we created a "chatterbox" - a decorated box with a hole into which the children put their hands to feel and pull out an object and then describe it or use it to create a story. Another new element in our routine is "squeeze balls", which help us to talk about how we're feeling.
'The children act out role-play stories and act out their emotions to music - for example, pan pipes make you feel sleepy and Disney music makes you feel happy. We use timers or music to inform them there's five minutes to go until tidy-up time. We sing "are you listening?" songs and do painting to music.
'During their induction period, new staff attend daily coaching on all areas of learning and weekly reviews with the manager. They work closely with their group leader, who explains and role-models good practice. The nursery manager works with the team in each room to ensure coaching is put into practice.
'Our staff are trained in Development Matters to ensure they plan and deliver appropriate activities. They act as role models to help the children learn about appropriate behaviour during quiet times by sitting quietly and listening themselves.
'During internal training workshops we explore and define listening skills. We train staff to use non-verbal communication skills for children who cannot yet speak or for whom English is an additional language. They use hand gestures, facial expressions, head and body movements, and props such as puppets, squeeze balls, flash cards and posters.
'At both nurseries, our three- to four-year-old group leaders attended a Letters and Sounds course organised by our LEA. They shared their learning with the rest of the team and together we discussed and reinforced the importance of tailoring communication to the children's age and stage of development.
'Our key considerations and tools include:
- The use and value of repetition
- Ensuring we speak clearly
- Being specific and precise in our language. For example, we would not say to a child "please put this over there...", as it is imprecise and does not maximise their learning.
- Using fewer words in sentences
- Stressing important words in sentences
- Understanding the benefits of asking open-ended questions
- Letting children take the lead in their talking.'
