Why is the practice important?
Children learn language best when they have many chances to express their ideas and feelings. It’s important to provide children with a variety of opportunities to engage in conversations — with each other, with adults, one-on-one, and in groups. These opportunities create positive interactions and build strong relationships between children and adults. Engaging children in conversations as early as infancy sets the stage, builds a foundation, and establishes the pattern for back-and-forth conversations as they develop.
When adults actively attend to and expand children’s verbal and nonverbal communication, they accomplish the following:
- Help children communicate their feelings and emotions (i.e., social and emotional development)
- Encourage exploration and understanding of new concepts and skills (i.e., cognitive development)
- Introduce new vocabulary and practice more complex communication skills (i.e., language development)
Connecting to Children’s Everyday Lives
Create a learning environment that supports children’s developing sense of self by connecting to their daily lives. Reflect and include all children’s home languages and cultures into the environment. Children use these their home languages to communicate and make sense of their world.
Educators support children’s developing sense of self and connect to their everyday lives by doing the following:
- Encourage children to use the languages they know to communicate, even if this means mixing different languages to express their ideas.
- Engage responsively and start and continue conversations children are interested in.
- Help children remember past experiences and intentionally support learning vocabulary.
- Individualize interactions and communication for children’s needs and preferences, including nonverbal methods.
- Talk with families about interests, activities, stories, songs, and games to include in the learning environment.
- Learn and use words and simple phrases in the child’s home language to support their learning.
Practices for Children with Disabilities or Suspected Delays
Educators provide different levels and types of support, depending on a child’s learning needs. When engaging children in conversations, educators recognize each child’s various communication skills and abilities. They then appropriately individualize their support for the child.
Strategies to support children who find conversations challenging include:
- Modify the environment by including visual supports like conversation cards to encourage conversation at snack and mealtimes.
- Use special equipment such as switches on toys or communication aids, which can be simple, like pointing to a photo on a picture board. They can also include pressing message buttons that activate prerecorded messages.
- Increase learning opportunities by pairing a child with a peer who engages in conversations with ease during group times, mealtimes, or free play. Educators can use an activity matrix to plan when and how to provide more opportunities during daily activities and routines.
- Provide intensive instruction by modeling how to initiate conversations, respond to a peer, and engage in back-and-forth exchanges.
Learning Stages for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
Infants — Early On
Infants learn that their needs are important to other people when adults respond consistently to cues like gestures, body movements, vocalizations, and crying. Repeat what the infant may be trying to communicate and add words or ask questions.
Children who are at an early stage of engaging in conversations do the following:
- Participate in joint attention with an adult by looking back-and-forth between the adult and an object
- Engage in back-and-forth exchanges through facial expressions and sounds
- Repeat actions, sounds, or words to begin and maintain social interactions
- Initiate and take part in conversations by babbling and using gestures, such as showing or giving, or by using words or signs
Toddlers — Emerging Skills
Adults encourage toddlers to engage in conversations by acknowledging their verbal and nonverbal language, like using gestures, approximating words, or putting a few words together.
Children who are at an emerging stage of engaging in conversations do the following:
- Show understanding by responding to comments or suggestions with actions or behaviors
- Use spoken or sign language that includes simple sentences, questions, and responses
- Add more and more words to their communication and use new vocabulary words regularly
Preschoolers — Increasing Mastery
Preschool children learn words by communicating with others, which helps them express thoughts, meet needs, resolve conflicts, and learn.
Children who are increasing their mastery of engaging in conversations do the following:
- Acknowledge comments or questions and engage in conversations, either verbally or nonverbally
- Use spoken or sign language for a variety of purposes and provide enough detail to get their needs met
- Engage in two or three conversational turns with adults or other children
- Steadily increase vocabulary through specific and varied words
See
The videos in the playlist are short examples of practices that facilitate engaging children in conversations in early childhood learning environments. As you watch these videos, think about what you already do to engage children in conversations and what additional practices you can implement to engage children in conversations.
