When considering how ICT can promote communication and language in early years settings, it is first useful to consider the central aspects of this prime area of learning.
Any ICT resources that are selected for the development of communication and language skills should aim to promote:
Listening and attention Helping children to develop attentive listening skills with stories, rhymes, games and interactive activities.
Understanding Prompting discussion and debate. Helping children to absorb information, interpret instructions and formulate questions.
Speaking Helping children to develop and extend their vocabulary, providing opportunities for them to use spoken language in play situations and giving them the confidence to clearly express their ideas and thoughts to others.
SUITABILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS
There are many products available on the market that aim to develop these aspects of communication and literacy. However, to assess the suitability and effectiveness of a product, it is important to evaluate it in relation to how it promotes the three characteristics of effective learning as defined in the EYFS:
- Playing and Exploring
- Active Learning
- Creating and Thinking Critically.
To do this, it helps to consider the following questions:
- Does the piece of equipment or computer program engage children in active play and exploration?
- Does it require them to use initiative?
- Does it grab their attention, fascinate them and invite them to take on a challenge?
- Does it encourage them to think, make decisions, be creative and use their imaginations?
The following selection of ICT products, which are aimed at developing communication and language skills, have been selected with these questions in mind.
A LISTENING ENVIRONMENT
ICT equipment can be used throughout the learning environment to make it more interactive - encouraging active listening.
Talking-Point (£6.59 each, £35.94 for a set of six, £155.70 for 30) is available from TTS Group. These small disks record and play back ten seconds of sound and can be used for sending messages, recording and sequencing story events, and making talking displays. Also available is Talking-Point Pro (£6.59 or £32.34 for a set of six), which allows for 30 seconds of sound.
Recordable Pegs (£41.94 for a set of six) also record ten seconds of sound. Uses include hanging children's work with audio captions, as well as clipping them around the setting to deliver messages, reminders and prompts to the children. They are also a useful maths resource for creating talking number lines.
Rainbow Talking Boxes (£22.95 for a set of six) can be filled with mystery items and set to play back ten seconds worth of descriptions, comments or questions. A Talking Photo Album (£37.95), with the capacity to hold 30 pictures with five minutes of sound recording for each, is available from Arc Education Supplies.
Alternatively, try Talk-Time Postcards (34.95 for a pack of ten) from Music Education Supplies. These can hold ten seconds of recorded sound, can be used with dry-wipe pens and also have plastic pockets for inserting pictures.
They can be used for listening activities, such as memory games that involve children matching two sounds that are the same or matching sounds to pictures. They are also good for speaking activities. For example, practitioners can put pictures in the pockets and ask the children to record simple descriptions of what they can see.
A good stock of audio CDs is important for fostering attentive listening. Lawrence Educational has produced some high-quality resources, including Ros Bayley's Rap Books (from £3.50, or 16 titles for £30). Themes include action raps, mouse raps, alliteration raps, beanbag raps and creepy crawly raps. The books aim to improve children's rhythm, rhyme and phonological awareness - all part of building the foundations of literacy.
More resources by Ms Bayley and Lawrence Educational promoting active listening, auditory memory and imaginative engagement include Listening Games CD (£5.50), Exciting Interactive Stories (£11), and Almost Traditional Tales Compilation CDs (£10).
Yellow Door is another organisation that is good at producing listening activity resources - one example is the Come Alive Listening Game and Activities Pack (£36).
This contains scene-setting picture cards, accompanying sound effect CDs and a teachers' book. There is also an interactive CD version (£60 for single user or £150 for a site licence), which includes animated songs, sound sequence games and the option for children to create their own sound pictures and listening walks.
GETTING CHILDREN TALKING
As well as helping to improve children's listening and attention skills, ICT products can be instrumental in getting children talking.
For reluctant speakers and children who lack confidence, there are Easi-Speak microphones (£34.99) from Reflections on Learning, which allow children to record, play back and download a minimum of 30 minutes of voices, sounds or music, while the Easi-Speak Sound Station (£43.99) allows a whole group to listen to their Easi-Speak recordings.
In addition, Yellow Door has produced the Talk About range (£30 each), which aims to help children build and extend their vocabulary. The packs cover a range of themes including 'things at home', 'things we do', 'things outside' and 'how we feel'. Each provides picture and activity cards, as well as a CD containing resources for use with computers and interactive whiteboards.
Also available from Yellow Door is Come Alive Stories set (£36), which include story cards and a CD. These aim to encourage children to talk about stories and retell them, as well as engage them in role play, interactive activities and language games. Featured stories include 'Three Little Pigs', 'Little Red Riding Hood' and a range of other traditional tales.
In addition, Made in Me has produced a set of Me Books apps for iPad (£1.99 each), featuring picture books read by well-known actors. Children use the touch screen to swipe and clear parts of the narration and replace it with their own verbal recording.
There are also a number of ICT products designed to enhance children's play by fuelling imagination and prompting speech and purposeful interaction.
When it comes to communicating through role play, the Electronic Cash Register and Scanner (£22) from Early Learning Centre has a built-in microphone for making shop announcements.
Budding performers may like to listen and sing along to their favourite tunes with the Sing Along CD Player (£30), also from Early Learning Centre. It includes two attached microphones for collaborative play. For secret missions outdoors, try the set of two Early Learning Centre Walkie Talkies (£8).
Early Vision has produced a series of Play Packs (£29.99) that aim to give children real knowledge and understanding of the workings of various environments such as the building site, fire station and optician. Each pack features a CD containing downloadable printable resources, as well as non-fiction video footage that practitioners can use as a prompt for discussion and children can use as stimulus for role play. The Early Vision packs are available from Reflections on Learning.
Taking video footage of themselves as they talk about their special interests or record day trips is also useful for building on children's listening, speaking and comprehension skills. Flip cameras from Digital Blue or the VTech Kidizoom Twist Digital Camera (£49.99) from Early Learning Centre, have USB ports that can be plugged into the computer so that they can easily watch the day's events when they return.
UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE
Two influential research studies, Effective Provision of Pre-School Education and Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years, highlighted the importance of promoting purposeful interactions encouraging children to think and question. Made In Me's educational digital game The Land of Me, designed in collaboration with Professor John Siraj-Blatchford, has been created with this in mind.
The software aims to develop children's creativity, language and active imagination through a range of activities that stem from a six-chapter interactive storybook featuring animal characters. Children are asked to take an active role in the storytelling, including creating monsters, constructing buildings, altering weather and environments, and composing music.
It is a BAFTA-nominated resource, and includes more than 100 printable supporting activities. Visit the www.landofme.com to see a promotional video, read testimonials from settings that piloted the software and download three apps for free.
Land of Me is available for both Mac and PC users to download from the site (£19.95). There is also a DVD with Adventurer's Map (£24.95), Teachers' Pack containing 20 lesson plans (£19.95), two 32-page Activity Books (£6.95 each) and a Night and Day Floor Puzzle (£9.95).
Marianne Sargent is a writer specialising in early years education and a former foundation stage teacher and primary and early years lecturer
