K3C168: The Importance Of Clear Communication With Children

K3C168 – The importance of clear communication with children and specific issues that may arise in bilingual and multilingual settings
K3C168 The importance of clear communication with children

Do Don’t
Show positive facial expressions Interrupt children
Expand children’s statements Change the subject
Make sure that we are on the same eye level Allow other children to interrupt
Be interested and ask questions Interrogate children
Look for opportunities for sustained conversations Make children feel rushed or hurried
Use age appropriate language Use phrases and words that they may not know
Use nice tone of voice Be sarcastic
Use positive body language Use negative body language
Use visual clues Use aggressive or bored tone of voice
Use hand gestures Be distracted and impatient
Be patient and listen carefully Talk over the children
Give full attention Use negative facial expressions
Use alternative or augmentative communication Do not stand over the children
Write down key words in bilingual or multilingual language with the correct pronunciations Be judgmental or jump to assumptions
All communication is a two way process and it is important when working with children that we listen carefully, question, understand and respond in a positive manner to what is being communicated to us.
This will give the children the essential skills to take part in family life. Within the setting we provide opportunities for the children to development their communication and language skills by different activities:
• Group time show and tell.
• Group lead activities.
• Group reading story time. Encourage younger children to listen and spot letters they recognise or to perform jolly phonics actions (such as first letter of their name) or to retell the story.
• Individual reading, speaking about what or who they enjoyed in the book, expecting ending of the story.
• Home corner, encourage children to role play, share and socialise with peers.
• Singing and rhyming, recognition of song or rhyme repeated patterns and actions.
• Outside play.
• Use puppets to retell story or in a game.
• Cooking, ask them to name the ingredients, talk about the processes and ask them to predict the
outcome.
• Craft, encourage children to talk about their drawing or model, how they made it, what is going on in the picture, what different materials did they use.
Why it is important to give children clear communication and sufficient time to express themselves.
• Showing our understanding and respect.
• Giving children confidence and self-esteem.
• Encouraging independence.
• Children can express their feelings and views.
• Encourages socialising skills.
• Gives children choice.
• Showing we understand their needs.
• Develops their language and communication skills.
In our setting we have several children who are bilingual and multilingual with two or more languages these children have extra weekly support from our SENCO co-coordinator. With these children we also ensure that we give clear and understandable instructions and in some cases use hand gestures or picture clues to help with their understanding.