Spoken Language
Top 10 Tips For Developing Oracy
1. Read books every day getting the children involved, finishing off sentences and rhymes, chatting about pictures and plots and characters.
2. Show and tell ask the children to talk about their favourite toys or other objects from home. Prompt them to be descriptive with questions such as ‘How does it work?’ and ‘Why do you like this toy?’ etc.
3. Sing songs Singing songs and recognising simple rhymes helps to extend children’s vocabulary and develops their memory.
4. Describing and guessing games:
1) choose some objects with the children, put them in a bag and get the children to take turns feeling and describing them while the others guess what they are;
2) play ‘What am I?’, in which you describe something and the children work out what it is (eg “I’m red and made of metal, I stand on the pavement and you put letters in me”).
5. Role-play and pretending games; you could get the children to dress up as characters and act out a play (using a made-up plot, or perhaps one from a book), or you could encourage them to use puppets to tell a story.
6. Time to Talk: setting aside a specific time of day to talk with your child. Conversational opportunities to pick up concepts, events, words and stories. Following up on your child’s questions and comments often leads to the best talk.
7. Modelling listening: Show children how to listen by listening carefully yourself. As much as possible, give a child your undivided attention – and if you can’t listen at a particular moment, explain why and promise that you will listen to what they have to say later.
8. Follow directions: Following instructions is a part of everyday life. It is the child’s ability to act on requests by others. At home, parents ask children to do things around the house (e.g. “Put the cup on the table”) and at school teachers ask their students to follow commands within the classroom (e.g. “Go to your bag and get your lunch”)
9. Facial expressions: Think about your non-verbal communication – your facial expressions, body language and tone of voice are great ways of showing your child that you’re interested in what they say as well as helping them to keep their interest.
10. My turn, your turn: Encourage turn taking. Encourage turn taking during games, you can make it clear what you’re doing by explaining “my turn now” and telling your child when they’ve done well at waiting for their turn.