“Language is the instrument of collective thought” – Dr. Maria Montessori.
As early years educators in Bramble Montessori, we strive to enrich the communication environment and language development of children attending our school, by engaging our children in initiating and responding to conversations, holding dialogue/ joint attention on a topic, turn-taking, maintaining eye-eye contact and developing the ability to react appropriately in a given situation.
We try to create rich opportunities to extend children’s language and engage in sustained shared thinking which is particularly important in relation to supporting and extending children’s learning. In doing so we must also consider the appropriate expectations of listening, understanding, speech sounds, conversation and social skills for children from two and a half to six years so that we can identify whether a child’s speech, language and communication skills are developmentally appropriate or whether additional support systems are required. We encourage speech, language and communication through developing planned learning experiences and through spontaneous dialogue, allowing the children to expand vocabulary and develop links to prior learning and vocabulary by providing scaffolding, filling gaps in understanding and supporting narrative skills using ‘wh’ words – who, what, where, when, why.
We endeavour to expose our children to the sounds and patterns of language in order to develop phonological awareness and we do this through rhyme, song, poem, music and by modelling sounds. Some children may struggle with articulating sounds, receptive or expressive language, understanding the meaning of a group of words, social use of language or the rules of grammar. As educators we are able to effectively contribute to the appropriate identification of these children’s speech, language and communication needs through ongoing observations which focus on areas of concern and liaise with parents regarding appropriate support/intervention measures.
‘In an early childhood language curriculum the focus for teaching and learning will aim to identify, to capitalise on, to provide appropriate intervention for, and to further develop, children’s understandings of their roles and the roles of others as both listeners and speakers in constructing meaning on a topic to develop the specific listener–speaker skills required for communicative competence in the school setting’ (Shiel et al., 2012, p.82-83).
Pre-school children should be exposed to de-contextualised language i.e. free of context, dis-embedded and autonomous. We encourage our children to engage in imaginary play as it supports the early emergence of de-contextualised language where the children’s freedom of expression and desire to communicate are harnessed. Finally, we endeavour to develop Narrative skills further during large group activities such as circle time and provide another opportunity for embracing de-contextualised language.
