Being able to share ideas and feelings, and understand the needs of others, are some of the key skills that children are developing at this age. The ability to develop understanding of the world around them, through listening and talking as well as observing, helps children to establish meaning and extend their thinking. Good social communication skills help children to develop confidence as their positive, social interactions enable them to develop friendships and learning skills.

Children who are growing in confidence and are able to share their feelings are ready to learn.

Encourage children to:

• Play rhyming games and sing rhyming songs in order to practise hearing the sounds and patterns within words and language. This builds the foundation skills that children need in order to learn to read.

• Read with you and share stories. Children are never too old to be read to! By reading with your child, you are enabling them to experience more complex language and new words. They are also learning to extend their attention span for longer periods of time as well as the rules of conversational turn-taking.

• Retell a favourite story over and over again. This is a great way to help your child develop their creative language skills as they grow in confidence to retell the story using their own words.

• Follow simple instructions and take turns. This can be done through games such as ‘I spy’ and board games.

• Talk about their ideas, needs and feelings or ask a grown up for help if they need it.

Listening Skills

Listening underpins all language development and social interaction and children can be helped to develop their listening skills, focusing on the following 4 areas:

• Looking at the person who is talking

• Staying quiet

• Sitting still

• Listening to all the words

These skills can be practised with activities such as:

• What’s different? Change one thing about your appearance while your child has their eyes closed (e.g. remove your watch/ necklace/glasses or change your hairstyle). Can they spot the difference? This is something you can play in a group, too.

• Staying quiet: Hide a musical toy or source of sound in the room (could be music from your phone). Support your child to find the noise by staying quiet and listening carefully.

• Sitting still: Blow bubbles and tell your child to be ‘still as a statue’ while blowing bubbles around them. They have to sit still even if the bubbles land on their hair, nose or beside them. Choose a length of time they have to sit still. When the timer goes, they can pop all the bubbles they want.

• Listen for ‘Go!’: play a game based on ‘Ready, Steady.... Go!’ e.g. ‘Ready, steady …run/jump/hop… Go!’. Encourage your child to listen to all of the words by replacing 'Go' with a silly alternative, such as ‘Ready, Steady, Hop ….bananas!’ Explain that they must only do the action when they hear ‘Go’. Taking turns in this activity can be fun. Let them have a go at being the caller.

Helpful hints:

• Say the child’s name before you speak to them.

• Get down to the child’s level so you are face to face.

• Check the child has listened to what you have said.

• Keep your language simple and instructions clear.