- The importance of the home learning environment
The home learning environment has a strong influence on a child’s language development, yet some parents may not be aware of this.
Research from the Effective pre-school, primary and secondary education
Project (EPPSE) shows that children’s cognitive and language development at ages 3-4 is strongly linked to positive parental interaction at home.
Educators need to enable parents to know how valuable they are. It is a delicate matter as we don’t want them to feel blamed if they are encountering difficulties.
Practice example:
R met with a mother who was concerned about her daughter’s language development. R put the focus on working together to support the child, providing consistency between home and nursery.
R shared a video recording of educator - child interactions, looking at just one strategy: repeating the child’s sounds and words. R and the parent agreed she would try this at home.
Here we see how R highlighted the significance of the parent’s role without it feeling too onerous for her.
2. Interactive reading
Encouraging parents to share books with their children is important. Booktrust advise that educators need to act on the understanding that there is no “right” way to share books. We can help ‘parents and carers feel more comfortable starting in a way that works for them, increasing the likelihood they will keep going.’
Demonstrating how to share books is a powerful way of modelling high-quality interactions. It can significantly improve the quality of communication at home.
You can find a video of high-quality interactive reading here and a commentary about it here
Practice example:
S noticed a child who was engaging well with interactive reading. She invited their parent in to observe a session. S highlighted two aspects of the interactions that were valuable for the child’s learning:
(i) repeating the child’s sounds and words
(ii) extending them
S worked with the parent on using these strategies at home.
3. Tuning into the child’s interests
Many parents can find it hard to know what their child likes to do. This can lead to the child being bored and the parents frustrated. Sharing what you notice about the child’s interests in nursery can help the parent tune into them at home.
The EEF guidance report Working with Parents to Support Children’s Learning suggests that educators provide practical strategies to support learning at home.
Practice example:
K noticed that one of her key children’s language development was flourishing during Forest School. K explained to the child’s mother how valuable this was.
They then discussed practical ways of spending time in green spaces (and outdoors) as a family.
4. Sharing your understanding of the child’s language development
Doing this can help parents discover more about how language development works and how they could support it at home. It can be especially important for children who are communicating non-verbally - parents may need further strategies to encourage early communication.
Practice example:
In this column, we can see how Tazmin worked with Haris’s parent to help him understand and support his son’s non-verbal communication. As the parent tuned into his son’s way of communicating, things got easier.
5. Embedding language support into everyday routines
Parents are more likely to support language development if activities are part of everyday life. Routines such as mealtimes, shopping, getting dressed, or walking to nursery can offer rich opportunities for interacting.
Practice example:
J spoke with a busy parent about how everyday moments provide valuable opportunities for quality communication. Together, they chose a routine - mealtimes - and discussed how the parent might engage with the child. They decided that she would:
- comment on what the child was doing
- wait for a response
- repeat the child’s words, extending when they felt able to
Questions for reflection:
- Think of a language-support strategy that you modelled to a parent recently? How might you follow it up with them?
- Do you talk with parents about the language opportunities in daily routines? Could you talk with a parent to use one of these to help embed the child’s language at home?
Want to know more?
Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Supporting communication and language in the early years (downloadable PDF summary of the evidence)
East London Research School: Video of Interactive reading and ShREC in action
EEF Early Years Toolkit: Parental engagement (EEF)