Supporting Older Toddlers’ Learning

Help All Children Participate in Language-Building Conversations

Before watching this video, read the text below. When instructed, watch the segment of video beginning at 2:53 and ending at 5:28.

To start the video in the middle, click the play arrow. Then move your cursor along the progress bar. Click the progress bar when you reach the time you'd like to start.

Older toddlers who use language well have many advantages. They can ask questions, tell stories, explain what they want or how they feel, and negotiate conflicts using words that others understand. Their relatively rich vocabularies impress adults, who respond to their comments and questions with more information and more complex language than they would use with a less verbal child. Other children like to talk with these toddlers as well and include them in their pretend play.

Older toddlers whose language is less developed, or whose strongest language is not shared by others, may be left out of the very conversation opportunities that are most likely to strengthen their language and their interpersonal relationships. Children who tend to be reserved, are new to the group, come from cultures where children are not encouraged to initiate conversations, or have less developed social skills may also be left out. It is especially important that you create intentional language-building opportunities for children who are less likely to participate.

• Use interactive reading techniques to engage all children. While sharing a story, give children lots of opportunities to point out details, chime in on chorus lines, ask questions, and make connections with their own experiences. Build on what they offer by continuing the conversation and pulling in others. Make a special point of including children who may be less likely to participate, giving them conversational openings by referring to their interests and experiences, and giving them the time they need to formulate their thoughts.
• Scaffold pretend play. Create spaces that invite pretend play on themes that interest children and relate to their experiences and the books they enjoy. Help children find and create any props they need. Help children who are less likely to be included to join in by giving them props to share, teaching them what to say, responding to their contributions, and bringing in their favorite toys. When playing an invited role, expand the game by introducing humor, using theme-related vocabulary, or adding a new element. Help children take on roles, speak in character, and respond to others in ways that are appropriate for the game.
• Help children learn new words in all of their languages. It is common for children learning more than one language to know different words in each language. Learning conceptually related words together is helpful to all children, but it can be especially helpful when children are learning words in a new language for concepts that they already know.

In this segment, you’ll see a continued focus on extended conversations. You’ll see how Maria engages all of the toddlers in her group in thought-provoking and language-building conversation as she reads them a familiar story and helps them enjoy a pretend tea party. In the final scene, Maria helps a child who knows color words in English to learn them in Spanish as well.

Now watch the video segment. Begin at 2:53 when Maria gets ready to share a book with her group and end at 5:28 as Kathy gathers her group together to make circles with their bodies. As you watch, look for effective strategies used by the educators in the video and jot down answers to these viewing questions in your Learning Log.

• What do you notice about how Maria invites and responds to children’s participation?
• What do you notice about how Maria makes sure that all the toddlers are included in the conversations and play?

Review

What interactive reading techniques can you use that work well with older toddlers, including those who speak comfortably in full sentences and those who are still learning to do so?

• You can:
  • Ask toddlers to point to pictures and find details.
  • Talk about the pictures with toddlers. Ask toddlers to name or describe what they see.
  • Encourage each child to participate in his own way. Focus on what a child means to say, not how he pronounces the words or what language or communication system he uses.
  • Give toddlers time to repeat new words. Together say words that sound interesting and talk about what they mean.
  • Say and repeat sound effects and repeated lines or choruses together.
  • Pause during reading so toddlers can fill in words they know.
  • Let children interrupt the story to point out interesting details or ask questions. Answer their questions, elaborate on their comments, or ask them to show or to tell more.
  • Connect a story detail or event to something a toddler has recently experienced.
  • Talk with toddlers about how characters in the story might be feeling. Link the conversation to their own feelings and experiences.

What benefits do older toddlers gain from frequent interactive reading, one-to-one or in small groups, and from pretend play with other children?

• Older toddlers:
  • Learn new words, concepts, and facts from books and book-related conversation.
  • Hear rich language and engage in conversations that go beyond the here and now.
  • Learn and practice new vocabulary and storytelling skills as they play with peers and apply what they have learned in one context to another.
  • Through pretend play with peers, learn to take on roles, follow a plan or script, consider others’ feelings and ideas, and negotiate to resolve differences. These experiences build executive function skills, such as working memory (holding things in mind), mental flexibility (looking at something in a different way), impulse control, and focus, that help children continue to be successful learners as they get older.

How can you help older toddlers play out pretend themes together, using props, roles, and dialogue?

• You can:
  • Set the stage. Provide prop collections and appropriate play settings.
  • Offer flexible materials and help children create their own props and settings.
  • Join the play. Play the role in character. Use role appropriate behavior (for example, a customer might ask how much something costs), humor, questions, good manners, and so on as they further a child’s or small group’s game.
  • Give children enough time to finish their pretend play.

How else can you assure that children who may be left out get the benefits of interactive reading and pretend play conversations?

• You can:
  • Find private time to follow up with children individually. For example, in the video, Kerry repeats a boy’s suggestion that they might see “fire police cars” but doesn’t build on it in the conversation. Later she might help him listen for sirens, read a book about emergency vehicles, or play out a pretend rescue with her or another child.
  • Note a child’s interest and bring in related books or pretend play materials.
  • Help children share their interests with others in pretend play or by drawing or demonstrating.
  • Share a favorite book with a child several times; then let him be your helper as you share it with a larger group.
  • Give children something to do during a small group conversation, such as drawing in journals, eating a snack, or sculpting with play dough or sand. It’s easier for a toddler to wait for her chance to talk when her hands are busy.
  • Talk with a child’s family about his unique strengths and interests and bring more of what he likes at home into the child care setting.

Reflect

Think about the infants in your own program as you answer these reflection questions in your Learning Log.

• How do you help all of the older toddlers participate in book-related conversations, pretend play with peers, and other group conversations—especially those who are least likely to do so?
• What did you learn that you will take back to your learning environment and put into practice?