Speech and Language in the Early Years

Creating Language-Rich Learning Environments

Becky Poulter Jewson, Rebecca Skinner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000575279
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Speech and Language in the Early Years is an accessible resource, packed full of practical ideas and techniques to support speech and language development in young children.

Learning to communicate is a dynamic process. A child needs a reason to communicate, the motivation to communicate, and, significantly, a responsive communication partner. This book will help you to develop language-rich interactions to facilitate language development in your everyday work and will encourage reflective practice in your setting.

Key features include:

• Activities and strategies designed for busy educators to dip in and out of as part of everyday practice, promoting speech and language development as well as supporting those with speech, language, and communication needs
• Templates and techniques for reflective practice, supporting the creation of language-rich environments and encouraging mindful communication
• Chapters spanning from birth to the transition to school, each exploring different areas of the learning environment

Offering readers the opportunity to extend their skills and confidence in their practice, this book is an essential resource for early years practitioners looking to facilitate quality interactions with the children in their care.

1 Speech and Language Development

DOI: 10.4324/9781003139829-2

What Is Communication?

We communicate in so many ways: spoken words, sign language, gestures, the written word, facial expression, the list goes on!

Communication is a way to share our thoughts and ideas. It is a way to make requests or to express our dislike for something.

It is a way to connect with others.

Reflection Point

Take a moment…think about a time when you had some really exciting news to share. Who did you want to tell? What happened? How did they react? How did you feel?

Let’s hope this was a positive experience for you. Perhaps the other person shared your excitement, perhaps they showed genuine interest and wanted to know more.

It is in these moments that we can reflect back and value that our message – our communication – was listened to and understood. The result was that we felt ‘connected’ to that other person and the experience was positive.

What if…

What if the other person didn’t share our excitement?

What if the other person didn’t listen and started talking about something else?

How might that feel?

This is a critical point when thinking about communication. A positive experience requires a responsive person who listens and by doing so acknowledges that the person communicating their message is valued.

An excited reaction is obviously not always necessary, a smile may be the appropriate response, but let’s be mindful of the communication attempts of the children in our care.

We know that some children will be able to have complex conversations, but we also know that for some children eye pointing is their only means of expressing themselves. As early years professionals we must be aware of and value all types of communication.

Let us strive to create environments where all children are understood.

How Do We Learn Language?

The process of learning language involves acquiring and developing skills which are then built upon and enhanced. We often see the communication pyramid as a way of understanding how language is learned and this suggests that the skills at the bottom must be in place before we can progress to the next layer of learning; but learning to communicate is not a true hierarchical model, as most communication skills will continue to develop and grow as children get older. The communication pyramid is a helpful visual for us to use when we are thinking about what skills we need to focus on with a child who is struggling to communicate. As we can see from the model we wouldn’t prioritise focusing on speech sounds if a child is struggling to focus their attention and listening skills. This will be explored further later in the book.

We are going to share with you how children learn language through a ‘ten-stage model.’ We have deliberately not put specific ages next to each stage, as there is natural variation in the age that children acquire skills, but it is important to know when you should be concerned about speech and language development and you will find information about this in the following chapters.

Emerging Communicator

This is the first stage of communication development and we can observe the child’s communication emerging from birth as the baby cries to ‘signal’ they are hungry, tired, or need a cuddle.

Stage 1 – Looking, Listening, and Attention

You may have heard the phrase ‘pre-requisites for communication development,’ but what does this really mean?

Well, we know that talking doesn’t just happen and that it is in fact a very complex process.

Pre-requisite skills are the foundations that are needed to support later language learning, and children develop these skills from birth.

Hearing is an important part of this process. Language is typically learned through exposure to sounds, and it is vital to identify any hearing difficulties as soon as possible to ensure that support can be put in place. In the United Kingdom, the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme helps to identify babies with moderate, severe, or profound hearing loss as soon as possible. Children may pass this test but go on to experience glue ear at a later stage.

For ears to work properly, the middle ear needs to be kept full of air. The air travels through the eustachian tube, which runs from the back of the throat to the middle ear. If the eustachian tube becomes blocked, air can’t enter the middle ear. When this happens, the cells lining the middle ear begin to produce fluid.

With fluid blocking the middle ear, it becomes harder for sound to pass through to the inner ear – making quieter sounds difficult to hear. It can be like listening to the world with your fingers stuck in your ears. This is glue ear.

The following are common signs of glue ear: changes in behaviour, becoming tired and frustrated, a lack of concentration, preferring to play alone, and not responding when called. These signs can often be mistaken for rudeness or being ‘naughty.’ As a result, children with glue ear may be misunderstood or labelled as ‘difficult.’

Glue ear will often resolve on its own, but prolonged episodes of glue ear can result in speech and language difficulties. If you have any concerns about hearing, speak to the child’s parents and request a referral for a hearing test.

Listening is a skill to be developed. We all know of people with good hearing who struggle to listen. Babies are learning how to listen from birth; they learn to listen to voices and they learn which voices are important to them.

Listening and attention are skills which are often referred to together and ‘looking’ is another skill which fits well in this group.

In this first stage, a baby is learning to look and focus their attention. From birth, a baby will watch their parent’s face and again will learn to discriminate between faces and work out which faces are important to them. This skill of looking will enable the baby to develop eye contact and provide them with the opportunity to gain information from the parent’s/adult’s face.

A child who has difficulty looking at and attending to their parent’s face when they are talking will have fewer opportunities to hear language and words and it will be more difficult for the child to attach meaning to those words.

Listening and attention skills emerge at this stage, but they will continue to develop throughout the other stages.

Stage 2 – Making Sounds and Taking Turns

Children start to make sounds and noises before they learn to say words.

At this stage a child is experimenting with sounds, moving their lips and tongue (articulators). As they continue to experiment and play with sounds, they will eventually attach meaning to these sounds.

Early turn-taking skills emerge at this stage, with parents/carers noticing the child’s smiles, vocalisations, and movements and then imitating the action or adding a word to the interaction. By waiting/pausing after the adult’s response, the child is given the opportunity to repeat their smile, vocalisation, and movement, creating a shared interaction and an early turn-taking experience.

This is an important stage for communication development as the child is learning that when they do something (make a noise, move, smile), an adult responds. The child is learning early ‘cause and effect’ and most importantly, in that moment the child knows that they matter.

Reflection Point

Just think for a moment…what could happen if the child’s vocalisations, movements, and smiles went unnoticed?

What might happen if the child doesn’t get positive feedback at this stage?

The role of the adult in this stage is so crucial. A child at this stage needs the adults around them to be observant and responsive as they develop these early yet fundamental skills for communication development.

Making Sounds

During this stage, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Speech and Language Development
• Chapter 2 Reflective Practice
• Chapter 3 Birth to 18 Months
• Chapter 4 18 Months to Two Years
• Chapter 5 Two to Three Years
• Chapter 6 Pre-Schoolers
• Chapter 7 Transitions into School
• Chapter 8 Speech, Language, and Communication Needs
• Index