Nursery World - Language development: More than words

<P> It is vital to encourage young children's listening and speaking skills as they progress to writing, as Lena Engel demonstrates </P>

It is vital to encourage young children's listening and speaking skills as they progress to writing, as Lena Engel demonstrates

Early learning goal Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language (Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage)

Very young children absorb ideas and develop new language and vocabulary as they play. Adults, therefore, need to provide encouragement and opportunities for them to gain confidence in using words and creating sentences to express their views and feelings.

Expressing themselves verbally with confidence is the most essential step to developing writing skills. Children who have little to say about their lives or experience always have the most difficulty in writing about themselves, while children who are used to lots of purposeful verbal interaction find it a natural progression to begin to record their views and feelings on paper. Even learning the rules of writing is easier for those children who have become proficient in speech and language.

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