What support can you give your child at home?

Speaking and Listening

One of the best things you can do for your child's learning is to spend time talking to your child. At this stage in their development they are constantly learning new words and will be exploring ways to build sentences and put words together through trial and error. It is important at such an early stage in their development that we model good conversation skills eg encouraging eye contact and my turn, your turn conversation (back-and-forth) conversation.

Ideas for discussion:

• Get them talking about toys they are playing with
• Ask them for their opinion about things - what is their favourite piece of equipment to play on in the park and why?
• Chat together about what you need to buy from the shop and encourage them to help you find items

Read, read, read

Reading is a crucial part of a child's development as it brings so many benefits to them and you! Through reading, your child will hear lots of words that they might not be as likely to come across in everyday conversation. Reading also provides a valuable opportunity for your child to develop their attention and listening skills along with their understanding of how stories work.

Ideas to enhance attention and listening skills:

• Encourage your child to talk about pictures, or to make predictions about what will happen next
• Why not encourage your child to recognise and read print when you are out shopping, on the bus or in the park?
• For more advice and ideas, click on the links below which provides some excellent ideas on reading for 3-4 year olds and storytelling. 

Songs and Rhymes

In the Early Years we do not worry about how good our singing voices are when teaching the children new songs and rhymes. The most important thing is to have lots of fun together as it will help your child develop early language skills.

Click on the link below to find out about the Bookstart Rhyme Challenge.

A World of Numbers

Give your little ones some easy ways to start understanding numbers with familiar items.

The key to successfully developing early maths understanding is to ensure the learning opportunities you provide reflect children's own understanding of how we use numbers. Number lines for no reason, for example, can make maths seem alien and distant. Look to real-life for inspiration:

Point our numbers you see when you are out and about and encourage your child to do the same. Look for bus numbers, prices and house numbers. When shopping, ask your child to select the number of apples or bananas you need - they're helping you out and learning at the same time.

Dressing Up

Dressing up and role play are great opportunities for talking and listening and for imaginative play. On a practical level, a fun dressing up session can help your child to practice getting themselves dressed. You can fit in a bit of training with those tricky zips, armholes and buttons.