Improving the development of children’s early communication &
language skills will narrow the gap for vulnerable children
accessing literacy at school
Presented by: Jan Stevens
Early Language Consultant/Speech & Language Therapist
Michael Rosen DVD
JOE!!
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AGENDA
 Parents & Reading
 School Readiness
 Early Home Learning Environment (EHLE)
 4 Key Strands of Early Literacy
 Planning vocabulary learning: SPIDERGRAM
 Phonological awareness skills
 ORIM Framework to work with parents
 Early Years Talk Homework (TCT)
Early Literacy Skills
 National Literacy Trust research with parents (2009) found that MOST
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parents are happy to support early reading/spelling skills when child starts
school
Far fewer parents recognised that they had a role in supporting the
development of their child’s early communication skills at home, from birth!!!
We are told that many parents in Southampton don’t appear to know Nursery
Rhymes
BUT Nursery Rhymes remain probably the BEST way for children to develop
adequate early communication & language skills
ECaT Aims: to improve children’s communication skills by developing
knowledge & skills of EY practitioners AND parents …
TABLE ACTIVITY
o …. parents & grandparents believe that modern technology in
o ….
o ….
o ….
o ….
o ….
o ….
the home distracts them from storytelling
parents are too tired to read stories
parents get home from work too late to read
parents are too busy with other activities at home
parents read to their children daily
parents say story time allows them to spend quality time
together
parents know their children enjoy having books read to them
DISNEY survey
1,000 parents & grandparents of children under 6:
 48% mothers read to their children
 21% fathers read to their children
 17% grandparents read to their grandchildren
 53% women were read to when they were children compared with
44% of men
What does this tell us??
Reading needs talking
Talking needs reading
THE EARLY HOME LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
EHLE
EPPE study (2004):
“What parents do is more important than who parents are”
 Social class, income, living conditions, parents own education levels
are all factors that are directly related to child development outcomes
 High quality EHLE can mitigate much of the impact of these factors:
parents can enhance their child’s progress if they engage regularly in
activities that encourage positive social development & thinking
 Children with strong EHLE are ahead in both social & cognitive
development at 3: they show advanced language ability, higher levels
of confidence, co-operation & sociability
 This advantage continues as these children progress through school: at
7 they achieve higher on standardised reading & maths tests; the
benefits for literacy & numeracy continue through to at least 11 years
old
The language children hear
matters Number of words spoken to
children
Hart and Risley, Meaningful Differences, 1995
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
millions of words
45
40
35
12 mos 24 mos 36 mos 48 mos
lowest talk
families
lower talk
families
high talk
families
The language children hear matters
Children’s vocabulary size
Hart and Risley, Meaningful Differences, 1995
1200
1000
lowest talk
families
lower talk
families
high talk
families
800
600
400
200
0
14 mos 22 mos 30 mos 36 ms
Quantity AND Quality of Adult
Language
Positive Factors in EHLE
Play activities seen to have most impact:
 Reading & sharing books
 Going to the library
 Going on visits
 Playing with letters & numbers
 Singing songs & rhymes
 Drawing & painting
 Playing with friends
(Millenium Cohort Study Bristol)
Bucking the Trend
(Blanden 2006):
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds who had been read to
on a daily basis at age 5, & whose parents had been very
interested in their child’s education at age 10, were less likely to
be living in poverty at age 30.
The effect of parent interest was independent of the effect of
parents being more educated.
For boys, having a father with little or no interest in their
education reduced their chances of moving out of poverty as
adults by 25%
For girls, the impact of having a mother with little or no interest
in their education reduced their chances by a similar amount.
Transition to School…
School Readiness
 Well developed attention & listening skills will support learning in school
 Well developed auditory discrimination skills will support phonological
development therefore literacy development
 Well developed social skills will support development of relationships &
friendships, which will support development of the language of
compromise/negotiation
ECaT Communication Tree == ECaT Early Literacy Tree
Universal Strategies in
Southampton settings …
Every Child a Talker promotes:
Dialogic book sharing: good evidential support as helpful
strategy (Early Intervention Foundation “The Best Start at
Home” p11)
Narrative groups or using Narrative approach
Nursery Rhymes & Songs (supported by signing)
Signing by all adults as part of a language rich learning
environment
Positive Adult Interaction style
Adult Strategies/Top Tips for Talking
Making it REAL
 Raising Early Achievement in Literacy : www.real-online.group.shef.ac.uk
 Cathy Nutbrown & Peter Hannon University of Sheffield:
 Project to improve parents knowledge & confidence in developing & supporting
early literacy
NCB adapted model of intervention & developed training package
4 Key Strands of Early Literacy:
Environmental Print
Books
Oral Language
Early Writing
ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT IN EARLY
LITERACY
Research shows that children notice & draw meaning from
familiar environmental symbols & signs & from print in
context. For many children print awareness develops before
they go to school.
ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT can be found:
 At Home: words, letters, logos on clothes, labels on household
appliances, packets of food, TV, digital technology, newspapers
…
 In the Community: street signs, bus stops, trains, adverts, shop
signs, car registration plates, signs on the road, café menus,
carrier bags …
Value of Environmental Print
 Children use context of colour, shape, size & pictures to support their
recognition
 Children are prompted by adults to talk about literacy e.g. What does
that say? … this helps them become aware that print & words carry
meaning
 Children gradually focus more on the letters & words that interest
them e.g. That letters in my name …
 They begin to recognise & ‘read’ whole words e.g. STOP on street
signs or NO in No Parking
 Noticing print encourages & stimulates early writing attempts:
children like to imitate what they see …
 Adults help children by making their use of environmental print
explicit e.g. I’m looking here to read when the next bus is coming …
Books in Early Literacy
“Children who have been read to daily tend to achieve more in the first year of
primary school not only in language & literacy, but across all other areas of
learning & development” (Hansen K. et al 2010)
Babies & Books:
 Books as a focus for talk, play & interaction especially if used
repetitively
 Babies & toddlers enjoy pictures, rhythm & repetition
Sharing & Reading books helps children to:
 Become familiar with book & story language
 Know how books & story structure work
 Anticipate rhyme
 Memorise & predict text; join in & “read”
 Notice & develop interest in features of print
 Recognise familiar whole words & letters
3rd Key Strand of Early Literacy
Key Aspects identified by Professor Cathy Nutbrown as
part of Oral Language Strand:
Phonological Awareness
Storytelling
Talk about Literacy
Phonological Awareness
 When children are exposed to spoken language in their everyday
environment & through their experiences, they develop some
knowledge of the sound structure of oral language
 They progress through identifying streams of linked sounds
(sentence/phrase/word/syllables/phonemes) in what they hear
around them
 For young children the most useful knowledge of sound structure
is ONSET & RIME (Goswami & Bryant 1990)
ONSET: STRing same onset in STRetch, STReam, STRong
RIME: strING same rime in rING, thING, wING, beginnING
Links to Early Reading
Awareness of ONSET & RIME supports early reading
One way to develop this awareness is through nursery
rhymes
Research has indicated that children who know at least 5
nursery rhymes by heart are more likely to achieve
success in reading at school
Nursery Rhyme Activity
In small groups, come up with a new version of the song/rhyme:
ROW ROW ROW THE BOAT …
Replace the original rhymes with the following:
 Stream
 Sea
 Lake
 Pond
 Car
 Bus
 Bike
Storytelling
An important factor associated with future reading attainment is
children’s experience of listening to stories read aloud or told
How does this help early literacy?
 Familiarity with story & book language & structure
 It increases conversations with adults
 It extends children’s thinking (SST) & vocabulary
 Stories broaden children’s experience & knowledge
 Stories help to develop children’s imagination, encouraging them to
invent & tell their own stories
Talk about literacy
 Children will be introduced to language related to
books/stories etc such as print, writing, word, by
adults consciously using these words in a
meaningful, contextualised & positive way
 Children learn through imitation of models in their
environment
 Talk about literacy can occur in everyday activities:
shopping, baking, gardening etc
SPIDERGRAM MODEL
A resource to plan the words you identify for children to learn related to
a specific topic
1. CORE words = essential for understanding topic
2. KEY words = desirable words to develop learning of
topic
3. EXTENSION words = increasing number of words
available relating to specific topic
Vocabulary Activity
Each table has a specific topic
Plan for a particular activity on this topic
Identify 10 words you want the children to know & learn
for this topic
The ORIM Framework
 Devised by Cathy Nutbrown et al:
 There are 4 ways in which parents help their children’s literacy
development:
 OPPORTUNITIES
 RECOGNITION
 INTERACTION
 MODEL
 Practitioners can support parents by building on what they already do
 ORIM network: contact ORIM@sheffield.ac.uk
These all look & sound familiar …
O
Language learning opportunities should be provided by parents
or other adults
R
Language learning occurs within the context of warm, loving,
attached relationships with adults who recognise & praise child’s
attempts & facilitate progress for that child
I
Language learning occurs within the context of relationships &
episodes of social interaction involving adults & other children
M
Language learning depends on adult modelling of words &
socially appropriate behaviour which children then imitate
There are many reasons why we are doing
this …
 HELLO advice sheets: Poor Communication Impacts on …
Language – a Foundation Life Skill …
• Reading gap graph
• ECaT audit results 2014-15
• Southampton EYFSP results 2013-15
• ECaT stakeholders: we need to find ways to work with parents to
enable them to feel confident about supporting their child’s early
literacy skills at home
The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language
on Reading Comprehension Growth (Hirsch, 1996)
16
High Oral
Language in
Kindergarten
Reading Age Level
15
14
5.2 years difference
13
12
11
10
9
Low Oral Language
in Kindergarten
8
7
6
5
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Chronological Age
13
14
15
16
Narrowing the Gap: Strand specific % AT RISK OF DELAY
from total cohort tracked 2014-2015
November 2014
June 15
Listening &
Attention
23%
18%
Social
Communication Skills
29%
24%
Understanding
23 %
21%
Talking
31%
28%
Narrowing the Gap: EYFSP Results
WEST CLUSTER
2013:
55.4%
2014:
65.1 %
2015:
65.5%
SOUTH CLUSTER
2013:
47.5%
2014:
60.4 %
2015:
62.7%
NORTH CLUSTER
2013:
53.4%
2014:
63.7%
2015:
69.6%
EAST CLUSTER
2013:
47.5 %
2014:
57.7 %
2015:
66.0%
Good Level of Development
Results:
2013:
National = 52%
Southampton = 50.8%
2014:
National = 60.4 %
Southampton = 61.7 %
2015:
National = 66.2%
Southampton = 66.0%