Engaging Children in Meaningful Conversation

Build In Opportunities to Talk

Before watching this video, read the text below. When instructed, watch the video from the beginning to end.

To develop language and conversation skills, young children need many opportunities to talk—with each other, with adults, one-on-one, and in a group. Educators can create opportunities for children to engage in conversation throughout the day.

• Use everyday activities as opportunities for rich conversational talk (e.g., circle time, snack time, story time, and outdoor play).
• Design spaces that encourage children to talk together and share ideas (e.g., in circles, at learning centers, in outdoor play areas, etc.)
• Ask open-ended questions to challenge children to “go deeper” as they express ideas (e.g., Ask, Why do you think that happened? rather than Did you think that would happen?).

In this video, you’ll see center-based and family child care educators highlight opportunities for conversation that occur in their programs. You’ll see how the educators use everyday opportunities to engage children in meaningful talk as they listen carefully, build on what children say, model responses, and observe as children follow their example. 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.

• How do the educators use activities, explorations, and learning spaces to encourage conversation?
• What strategies do the educators use to prompt children to use as many words as possible when they express themselves?

Review

Why is it important to engage children in conversation?

• Conversation helps children express their thoughts, get what they need, resolve conflicts, ask for help, and learn from adults and from one another.
• Children need many opportunities to talk—with each other, with adults, one-on-one, and in groups.

How can activities, explorations, and learning spaces provide opportunities for conversation?

• Use everyday routines to provide rich opportunities for conversation. For example,
  • Circle time or small group meetings offer daily opportunities for discussion.
  • During story time, children can be prompted to talk about what they know from their own lives to make connections between their own experiences and the books they hear read aloud.
• Design spaces and activities that offer opportunities for children to talk together about important ideas.
  • Learning centers can offer activities that require children to collaborate and converse. For example,
    • The Pretend and Play Center encourages children to act out scenarios in their world, such as taking on the role of a doctor or patient, a restaurant waiter or customer, or a shopper in a grocery store.
    • The Block Center gives children an opportunity to cooperatively design structures that become a railroad station, a construction site, a highway, etc.
  • Outdoor spaces and activities can encourage discussion. For instance, bring children to community gardens or plant seeds together.

What strategies can educators use to prompt children to use as many words as possible to express themselves?

• Use open-ended questions to challenge children to “go deeper” as they express ideas. For example, ask, Why do you think that happened? What will happen next? How do you know?
• Model language to foster communication and provide an example for how children can express feelings, tell what they are thinking, share a new idea, and solve conflicts.

Reflect

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

• What strategies do you use to model conversation?
• What did you learn that you will take back to your learning environment and put into practice?