Babies and toddlers are keen to make social contact and communicate with other people from their earliest days.
One of the ten principles underpinning Birth to Three Matters reminds practitioners that 'Babies and young children are social beings, they are competent learners from birth.' The importance of communication skills is highlighted in one of the four aspects, 'A Skilful Communicator'.
Babies and children do not need to be pushed into communicating, nor do they need special language programmes, unless they are coping with a disability that directly affects the development of communication.
To stimulate their communication skills, under-threes need communicative adults and an interesting learning environment, with flexible play resources that they can explore at their leisure.
Key messages
The information and advice given in the four components supporting 'A Skilful Communicator' give some important and consistent messages:
* The developmental information reminds us how babies and toddlers want to communicate with familiar adults and with other children. They do not sit around waiting until they have 'proper words' to communicate.
* Young children absorb a great deal from non-verbal communication. They are sensitive to body language and tone. Older toddlers and two-year-olds continue to notice the 'music' behind verbal communication once they have grasped the meaning of spoken words.
* Practitioners need to be alert to a child's speech beyond the total number and type of words used. Under-threes start to use their spoken language(s) in different ways and for various purposes, such as requesting, describing and questioning.
* Helpful adults are aware of their own behaviour. Do you set a good example of listening? Do you allow enough time for conversations? Do you value simply chatting with children?
* Supportive adults are generous with gestures to accompany their speech and use their spoken words to comment on what young children indicate by their own body language.
* Any 'planned experiences' should create possibilities for children to use and extend their communication skills through open-ended play resources that will also foster related aspects of a child's development.
Caring adults
Another key principle in Birth to Three Matters is, 'Caring adults count more than resources and equipment'. This is relevant to many strands of good early years practice, as well as developing communication skills.
Under-threes flourish when a familiar and kind adult shows real interest in baby gestures and sound-making, through to the turn-taking conversations of a rising three-year-old.
The entire toy industry cannot make anything that beats an attentive adult.
Children's fledgling skills flourish when familiar adults are responsive to what individual children want to show and say, there and then. Alert practitioners will comment on what is in front of babies and young children, or what the child or adult is doing at that moment.
Babies and toddlers (and, indeed, over-threes) are poorly served when communicating is viewed as an adult-led activity.
Unfortunately, some practitioners have been led to believe that under-threes benefit from planned, group 'communication activities'. Some misleading under-threes booklets outline heavily directed activities, right down to the list of questions that practitioners should ask babies and young toddlers.
In fact, young children are often deterred from talking and listening when they are required to tolerate sitting still in large groups.
Warm relationships
Practitioners also need to reflect on the importance of relationships in motivating children to speak and listen. An affectionate and enduring relationship with their out-of-home carer is crucial for the overall emotional well-being of under-threes.
One principle in Birth to Three Matters states, 'Relationships with other people (both adults and children) are of crucial importance in a child's life.' The introductory booklet (page 9) notes that: 'To become skilful communicators, babies and children need to be together with a key person and others in warm and loving relationships.' And Scotland's Birth to Three materials have a strong focus on the need to build such personal relationships.
The Birth to Three Matters video contains many examples of practitioners physically close to a baby or child and sharing a particular experience, activity or daily routine. The sequence that illustrates 'A Skilful Communicator' shows a childminder enjoying a book with a two-year-old and a baby. The consistent message of the video, and the other Birth to Three Matters resources, is that this snuggling-in experience should be children's right in any kind of early years provision.
Full attention
Group settings that understand and respect young children's needs are organised so that there are easy times and spaces for babies to receive the full attention of an adult and for toddlers and two-year-olds to sit together with an interested, and interesting, adult, out of personal choice.
Both the English and Scottish Birth to Three resources remind us that babies are interested in other babies and older children, communicating through looks, touch and sound-making. Toddlers and young children talk and listen to each other. Supportive adults work to ease their interaction, as well as helping when an exchange has outstripped their communication or social skills.
Written examples as well as the video materials from the English and Scottish Birth to Three show how opportunities to listen and talk emerge in a natural way through daily experiences, including children's active involvement in routines. See, for instance, the video sequence of feeding the guinea pigs on the English CD. Play resources, storybooks and shared experiences - whether initiated by children themselves or offered flexibly by adults - come alive when respect is shown for children as communicators.
Many of the longer written examples in the Scottish Birth to Three guidance show the importance of relaxed observation of children.
Practitioners need to fine-tune their playful contributions, spoken comments or open-ended questions to fit what absorbs this baby or child today.
Alert practitioners notice over time the ways in which individual children welcome a contribution from a familiar adult. Supportive communication can also be made through your presence as you show that you are pleased to watch and listen, smiling as a toddler or child looks towards you. You do not have continually to say something; your presence communicates, 'I'm really interested in you.'
Further resources
* Learning and Teaching Scotland (2005), 'Birth to Three: Supporting our youngest children', www.ltscotland.org.uk/earlyyears/birthtothree
* Manolson, Ayala (1995), You Make the Difference in Helping Your Child Learn, Hanen (distributed by Winslow, tel: 0845 921 1777)
* Murray, Lynne and Andrews, Liz (2000), The Social Baby: Understanding children's communication from birth, The Children's Project (book and DVD, tel: 020 8546 8750)
* Sure Start/DfES (2002), 'Birth to Three Matters: A framework to support children in their earliest years', www.surestart.gov.uk/resources/childcareworkers/birthtothreematters
* Talk To Your Baby resources and research papers, www.talktoyourbaby.org.uk
