ABSTRACT
Those who teach children in the Early Years and in Key Stages 1 and 2 are meeting them at a most crucial stage in their language development. It is you, for example, who will help them to make important developments in their speaking and listening. So far, many children might only have participated in groups in which the adults understand the children so well that they know what they want to say almost before they have said anything at all. You can help them to use language to reach out to others and to increase the range of speech tasks they can accomplish. The Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading by Rose makes the following point:
The indications are that far more attention needs to be given, right from the start, to promoting speaking and listening skills to make sure that children build a good stock of words, learn to listen attentively and speak clearly and confidently.
(Rose 2006: 3) Some fortunate children will come to you already enjoying songs, nursery rhymes and stories. Some will have little or no experience of these. For all of them, you can extend their enjoyment and help them to become independent readers. Crucially, this means helping them not only to learn how to read but also to know what reading has to offer them in all aspects of their lives. Some will already have the confidence to write, even if this means making marks on the paper to share what they want to say. Again, many will depend on you to start them off and to build up the range of purposes for writing that they can confidently tackle.