20 Language and Communication

Language

Language is essential for children to build relationships. Relationships are essential to learning.  Language and literacy are interrelated with other domains of development and all of the content areas. Communication and literacy or the use of language is defined as:

Communication is the exchange of information between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, and gestures of behaviour. A child’s ability to communicate is dependent upon an awareness of appropriate social practices in language usage, (pragmatics) the ability to listen, to make meaning of and to follow verbal conversation (receptive language).^[1]

Literacy is the ability to use language, symbols and images to read, write, listen, speak, represent, observe and think critically about ideas. The ability to listen and speak, and eventually read and write, is formed in everyday experiences^[2]. Literacy learning includes dual language learners, as well as sign language and the cultural base of those languages.

Video: Language for Learning: Infants and Toddlers^[3]

Begin your investigation of language and communication. The purpose of this video is to illustrate the role of the teacher in using language to support children’s development. The interactions you will see include positive language, expansion, questioning, and redirection. Teachers use these techniques to expand children’s knowledge, encourage complex thinking and problem solving skills, and help children develop appropriate behaviour and positive social skills.

Self Talk

There are several effective teaching strategies to promote language development and communication. The first technique is self and parallel talk. Self talk is when the caregiver narrates or describes what is going on in the child’s world by putting word labels on things. For example, if a child looks toward the door as a parent enters the room, you might say, “That’s Jenny’s mother. She is here to pick up Jenny.” Self-talk is respectful because it involves telling children what will happen to them before it happens and waiting for the child to indicate that they are ready. You might say, “It’s time for a diaper change,” to describe what will happen to the child. Then wait for the child to pause their activity and indicate readiness before continuing. You then describe each step of the diaper change as it occurs, “Off come your pants. Here’s the clean diaper. All done!”

Parallel Talk

Parallel talk focuses on the child’s action and usually begins with “you.” For example, “You’re turning over from your back to your front.” “You’re putting the blocks in the bucket,” “You’ve got the toy,” or “You pulled off your shoe.” Focusing on the action helps the child put word labels on behaviour.

Expansions and Extensions

The third technique to use is expansions and extensions. These techniques take what the child says and expand on it (expansion) or add to what the child says (extension) For example, when a child says “muk,” the teacher might say, “You want more milk,” to expand what the child says into a complete sentence. For an extension you will add a little more to the sentence a child uses. For example, the child says, “Go bye bye.” You respond with “It’s time to get your things and go bye bye.”

Notice that these techniques require nothing of the child. The child is not asked to repeat the larger sentence, repeat the label of an object identified by description, or to respond further. These techniques add information to the child’s language skills and foster future language development.

Indicators that describe expected observable behaviours or skills of infants and toddlers in the developmental domain of language and communication.^[4]

• Demonstrates the meaning of language by listening.
• Develops expressive language.
• Engages in social communication.
• Demonstrates phonological awareness.
• Develops grammar and syntax or watching if hearing impaired.
• Engages in pre-reading activities.
• Demonstrates interest and engagement in print literacy materials.
• Develops emergent writing skills.
• Develops in multiple language acquisitions when considered a dual language learner.

Evaluate the Environment

As a way to summarize the chapters about learning environments, watch the 50 minute video Teacher Time produced by the Early Childhood Knowledge and Learning Center.

Teaching Tips

Phonological Awareness

Writing requires fine motor skills.  Infants develop hand strength, eye tracking, coordination, and trunk and arm strength needed for handwriting. Tummy time provides the opportunity to coordinate their arms in order to lift their head off the ground. When they lift their head up off the ground, they are able to visually get a sense of their surroundings and begin to explore.  Then when the infant begins crawling they develop the neck, arm, and trunk muscles. A strong core or trunk gives them a stable base of support. Not only does this affect their gross motor skills later on in life (such as kicking, jumping etc) it also affects their fine motor skills and handwriting.

Toddlers need to develop fine motor skills to prepare for writing. For example just playing with playdough is great for building strength in hands.

Building Fine Motor Skills

Playdough – Practice making balls, rolling playdough into snakes, or create fun designs. Here are more ideas that help toddlers develop pre-writing abilities.

String large beads – Make sure you use large size beads that they can fit their hand around. Begin to encourage them to use their pincher grip (thumb, index and middle finger) to pick up items.

Snip paper with scissors – Choose a theme, like winter and help them make a picture collage.  If paper is too hard to cut, try cutting playdough.

Roll clay/play dough into “snake” – Begin making basic shapes with the play dough; lines, circle, cross, square shapes.

Draw and copy a horizontal line – Use the terms “Straight line down.” and  “Across” (make sure they start left to right).

Q-tip painting – Practice the pincer grip by painting with a q-tip.

Lacing – Use lacing cards or create your own from foam sheets or card stock.

Beads & Pipe Cleaners – Use the pincer grip to slide beads onto pipe cleaners.

Write in shaving cream – Pour shaving cream onto a tray. Encourage the child to write with their finger to make letters or designs. After using fingers to write, try using a writing utensil. Encourage using the tripod grip on the utensil.

Tweezers – Use tweezers or tongs to transfer objects.

Clothespins – Opening a clothespin takes a lot of strength.

Scrunching Paper – Use newspaper, tissue paper, wrapping paper, or regular paper to scrunch paper into balls to toss.

Droppers – Have the children practice using a water dropper by transfer the water from one cup to the other. The squeezing motion will help build strength in the child’s hand.

While it’s important to do fine motor activities, also give your child opportunities to practice using writing utensils. Let them use markers, crayons, coloured pencils, dry erase markers, etc. Another tip is to break crayons in half so it’s easier to write with. Make sure you use thick crayons with toddlers

Oral Storytelling Example

In a family childcare home, there is a fish tank with a few colourful fish in it. Every day, children gather as the fish are fed. They watch the fish move to the top of the tank to take food and float back down again. Some children watch the bubbles from the filter. The children make comments about feeding the fish and how their mouths move. One of the children waves to the goldfish as it gulps the food particles.

One day, Sharon, the provider, had an idea to capture what children were experiencing and the conversations that were triggered by simply feeding fish. She took a photograph of the fish-feeding event and glued it to a piece of paper. Now, as children watch and converse each day, Sharon writes down children’s words and utterances that describe the feeding event. She shares it with the children when they read stories.

Your Classroom Library

Think about reading to infants and toddlers.

• Do you have a cozy place to read?
• What book might you select?
• How will you read to the child?
• What are your likes and dislikes about reading aloud to children?
• How will you use your strengths when reading to children?

Think of an infant or toddler classroom you were in recently.

• What did the book area or library look like?
• How might you make changes to enhance the book area?
• What books would you like to add to the book area?
• Where can you find the books you want to add, and how can you get them?
• How will you incorporate reading and storytelling into your daily routine?

Chapter Attribution

Chapter adapted from Chapter 13 Enhance Language and Communication in Infant and Toddler Education and Care by Susan Eliason, CC BY-NC-SA.