Early education settings are so often bright and happy places, buzzing with conversations, songs and stories. Many children start early years full of curiosity, with an unstoppable urge to ask questions. Yet some will struggle with their communication as they move through the early years foundation stage (EYFS) and beyond. These longstanding concerns have intensified because of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A new Ofsted research review, released today, aims to provide support in this area. It covers the prime areas of learning in EYFS, for children from birth to four years old (before they start Reception).

So, how might practitioners use some of the review’s findings as starting points to improve children’s communication and language?

Prioritise quality interactions

The first finding to consider is about prioritising back-and-forth interactions with young children. It is easy to do this with the chatty and confident children. But other children may come into early years settings with fewer experiences of shared attention, play and conversation with adults. Practitioners’ understanding of children’s different starting points is key here. They may need to organise the day so that this group has additional time and support.

Routines and expectations are an important part of this. Snack time provides a good opportunity for adults to talk with children, but this opportunity is lost if the snack is self-service and children simply eat and drink mostly in silence. 

Practitioners might also consider how they model listening to children, and teach children to listen to each other and to adults. Settings that are so busy that no one can hear themselves think are not good places to learn language. Lots of high-quality talk directed to children in a noisy atmosphere is unlikely to help them to develop their communication.

Importantly, it is the quality of interactions that makes the biggest difference, not the quantity. In practical terms, practitioners with two-year-olds might consider how to introduce the children to a broader vocabulary than is usual in everyday speech. For three- and four-year-olds, topics of conversation that go beyond the “here and now” are particularly beneficial. For example, narrating an event like a trip to the shop, or explaining why something happened (Rowe, 2012).

Explicit vocabulary teaching

The second point to consider is explicit vocabulary teaching for older children in the early years. Having a wide vocabulary enables children to learn new concepts and is associated with better emotional wellbeing. This explicit teaching is especially important for children with smaller vocabularies.

Vocabulary teaching is not about drilling small children with long lists of unfamiliar and disconnected words. Instead, research suggests the following approaches:

• Carefully selecting books to read aloud that include richer vocabulary rather than everyday speech.
• Judicious pausing to discuss target new words without breaking up the flow so much that children become disengaged.
• Discussing the meanings and uses of the target new words.
• Repeating those words in a range of natural contexts over the next few days.
• Re-reading the book over the next few days.

For example, as the researchers Isabel Beck and Margaret Mckeown suggest, a practitioner might plan to pick out the word “notice”, and the word “commotion”. They might use those words over the course of the next few days when talking with children and consider which children need more of this targeted approach.

This leads us on to the wider importance of shared book reading. Reading books aloud to groups of children is an important and much-valued activity in early education. But there’s evidence that small-group reading is more beneficial than whole-group reading, and leads to better comprehension than whole-group or individual (one-to-one) reading.

Build a communication curriculum

The third finding I want to consider is careful thinking about the curriculum. A well-designed curriculum for communication and language is good for all children. It is especially good for those who do not benefit from a rich vocabulary at home.

A setting may offer a multitude of high-quality activities, and practitioners might use excellent strategies with the children during these activities. But, if the children who need the most support are away in the corners of the room or whizzing round the garden all day, doing lots but saying little, then they are not getting the teaching they need. 

Opportunities to develop communication skills therefore need to be explicitly planned, in a clear programme of learning, just as you would plan to deliver any other curriculum area. 

In general, children from disadvantaged backgrounds lag behind other children by the end of EYFS. Boys also fall behind in communication, with the widest gender gap for the most disadvantaged children. But early communication and language skills have a significant influence on children’s achievement at school and other later outcomes, including employability and mental health. That means this is too important to leave to chance.

Julian Grenier, HMI and curriculum lead for early education at Ofsted