This is a true story. Ravi wasn't known for being talkative. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that his reticence to engage in any form of conversation with either children or adults was causing considerable concern.
All efforts by nursery staff to engage him seemed doomed to failure, until one lunchtime when his key worker returned from the local market carrying a plastic bag. The children implored her to let them see what was inside. Obligingly, she opened the bag to reveal the Spiderman figure she had bought for her son's birthday.
It was then that Ravi leapt to his feet and proceeded to give the assembled company a blow-by-blow account of the life history of Spiderman. In the next five minutes he spoke more than he had in the entire time he had been attending the setting.
He was animated, excited and brimming with enthusiasm. In those significant minutes Ravi demonstrated something simple and obvious, but frequently forgotten: that each and every one of us talks with most interest and enthusiasm when we are speaking about the things that are important to us.
And that is precisely why child-initiated learning offers such a wonderful context for supporting, developing and extending talk.
When children take on the responsibility for organising their own learning, they will engage with things that interest them. They are then far more likely to need and to want to talk, and their interests provide them with the stimulus to do that. So, if we can find out about the things that are interesting them and then provide access to those things in a culture of encouragement and support, talk will flourish.
Quality interaction
Any setting committed to promoting quality talk during periods of child-initiated learning needs practitioners who are prepared to strive to develop their skills of interaction. It is only when the supporting adults themselves have these skills that children will gain maximum benefit from the experiences offered.
Children need access to adults who really value what they have to say about their self-initiated learning, and who make time to listen to them. We should encourage children to express their thoughts and feelings, and support them in talking about their ideas and in describing and reflecting on their actions. Plan activities that enable children to repeat, consolidate and practise language.
On their own
As a practitioner or parent it is salutary to remember that children can and do learn without adults. They learn from the materials and experiences we provide and what we say to them; but in the early years they probably learn even more from each other, and they work things out for themselves.
Nevertheless, when a talented adult skilfully enters a play scenario, children's learning and talk can accelerate dramatically. And if the entry is not skilful the opposite can be true. Here is a true anecdote which describes the experience of one of the writers as a young teacher. To spare her blushes, let's call her Roxanne.
One day a large group of children were playing happily in the home corner. Roxanne set out to make sure that they were, as she saw it, doing something profitable and learning effectively. Her intention was to scaffold their talk and extend their vocabulary.
While she began firing questions at them, they, imperceptibly at first, began to remove pieces of the play furniture they were using to another part of the room. Finally, it dawned on her that the children had moved the entire piece of play away to another area and she was on her own! It then occurred to her that the children may not actually want her involvement.
That day provided a valuable lesson. If play is to be truly child-initiated, then it must be owned by the players. In other words, we adults need to be invited in. We need to know how to interact in ways that give children options, to participate and not direct, and we need to be clear about the various roles we can play.
High/Scope offers a useful framework for classifying adult/child interaction. There are three different roles the adult can adopt:
1. The manager. This is the person who completely ignores the children's agenda and attempts to impose her own. She interferes with the children's play and when she does, this rich and profitable talk is not going to happen.
2. The observer. This is the person who, as long as the children are playing nicely and not bothering her, is quite content to let them get on with things while she does something that she regards as more important.
3. The co-player. This describes the person who is able to enter the children's play sensitively and unobtrusively in order to develop their talk and their learning.
It is obvious that, out of these three, we are likely to have the greatest impact by taking on the role of the co-player. In order to do this we need to pay careful attention to the process by which we become involved in what the children are doing.
Desire to teach
'It is easy to inhibit children's learning through our own desire to teach.' We are not at all sure who first said this, but it is a very profound statement. Certainly young Roxanne, with the best of intentions, ran the risk of doing just that.
In a culture of education driven by targets, the perceived need to 'teach' and the pressure to deliver all the children to the next stage at a prescribed level (regardless of the time of the year they were born) can all too easily dominate. Adults can become obsessed with achievement criteria, worried if they are unable to tick all the boxes. We beg you not to forget that children can - and do - learn language effortlessly and abundantly when it is linked to something important to them and within their experience.
This is an edited extract from 'Child-initiated learning and developing children's talk', featured in Like Bees, Not Butterflies, edited by Sally and Phil Featherstone (A&C Black, £16.99)
Addressing current concerns
Like Bees, Not Butterflies - Child-initiated learning in the early years, edited by Sally and Phill Featherstone (A&C Black, £16.99), is a welcome and timely book, coming at a time when, far from becoming more secure in their practice under the EYFS, a large number of practitioners are emerging more uncertain about how to plan under the new framework.
Chief among the reasons for this uncertainty is the lack of clarity and understanding of such terms as 'child-initiated', 'adult-led' and 'play'. In Like Bees, an impressive line-up of early years experts set out the meanings of these terms, their importance and implications for early years practice.
Chapters include 'Child-initiated writing' by early years consultant Wendy Scott and 'Empowering children and adults: play and child-initiated learning' by emeritus professor Janet Moyles. Another common and current concern, assessment, is addressed in the chapter by Jan Dubiel.
Supporting children with language delay
Almost all children talk to themselves as they play, giving a running commentary on their actions. Vygotsky has shown how essential this is to the development of thinking. He refers to such talk as an 'exterior monologue', which in turn develops into an 'internal monologue', which then becomes thought. However, for children who may have come from language-impoverished backgrounds, such talk may be scanty and vague, restricting their cognitive development.
This is when talk during child-initiated learning can make a dramatic difference. With the right support children can absorb new vocabulary and language structures easily, because the talk can be directly linked to the things they are doing, making it real, meaningful and easily understood.
