'Talking Time', devised by researchers at the University of London, was found to improve children's number skills, concept development, comprehension and vocabulary when compared with a control group who received normal 'good' nursery practice.
The programme was delivered to small groups of children twice a week for six months within the nursery setting. Nursery staff ran two different sessions - 'talking' that encouraged children to communicate orally on various themes, and 'story reading' that exposed children to language but did not necessarily require them to use it. Each session lasted ten minutes.
In the report, Professor Julie Dockrell of London University's Institute of Education said, 'All the children had poor oral language skills when they started, and we thought the result was very positive for just 20 minutes'
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