Saturday, 3 October 2015



speech language EYFS
Arthur doing the actions for 'incy wincy spider'



speech language EYFSspeech language EYFS






speech language EYFS

What is communication?

Communication can be Verbal or Non-verbal


  • Noises which are symbolic (eg, 'moo')
  • Words
  • Sentences
  • Leading someone by the hand
  • gestures
  • touch
  • pointing
  • facial expressions
  • eye contact


speech language EYFS

speech language EYFS

Language for babies:

speech language EYFS



  • waving hello or goodbye
  • kissing or blowing kisses
  • pointing
  • clapping for a song
  • licking their lips for food
  • shaking head for 'no'


  • Switch lights on and point saying 'lights'

speech language EYFS makaton


Language for children, an example: 








Communication difficulties:




speech language EYFS

Listening and attention:


  2. Personal - tiredness, hunger/thirst, overly excited



  1. Make your language simple so it is easier to process
  2. Repeat yourself, activities, key words
  3. Give information or instructions in smaller chunks
  4. Exaggerate intonations or certain words and facial expressions 
  5. Speak slower
  6. Use the child's name to keep their attention
  8. Maintain eye contact

Speech immaturities, incorrect use of words or tenses:



Child: "You rided a bike didn't you?"
Adult:  " yes, I rode a bike!"

Child: "him want to play"
Adult: " he wants to play? ...

Child: " The pen runned out of ink!"


adult: " I've got a car too"

speech language EYFS


Speech sounds:


  1. babbling sounds
  2. vowel sounds
  4. c,g,w,h
  5. s,z
  6. f,sh
  7. j,ch,l
  8. v
  9. r
  10. scr, str
  11. th


speech language EYFS


Sarah x


Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


  1. A fascinating insight into the young mind #KCACOLS

  2. Really helpful post. My daughter has autism and is still pre-verbal, so a lot of this is close to my heart. Regarding the speech immaturities like 'rided' though, I think it's worth mentioning that while these are wrong, they're wrong for a positive (and fascinating) reason: they show that the child is understanding and applying grammatical rules like the past tense correctly (Well, it would be correct if it wasn't an irregular verb).

    Something that I have found useful with my daughter is actually talking less, but trying to make what I do say more relevant and meaningful. When you've got a child who is delayed, it's very easy to panic and talk and talk and talk, but sometimes this just becomes noise and nothing is taken in. #justanotherlinky

    1. Absolutely - I once read a quote which said " every unnecessary word pours over the side of a brimming mind" which reminds me of what you are saying. I totally agree

  3. Wow - great detailed and informative post on communication in children! #KCACOLS

  4. Great post and full of great information. Communication with our little ones is so important. Thanks for linking up to #justanotherlinky xx

  5. Wow this post is really interesting and helpful for other parents. Speech development for kids is an important subject. It is fascinating to know how the non verbal signs of communication have the same importance as the verbal communications. Another big problem is also when you are trying to teach your kids 2 languages. For some reason it delays the process of speech. I had this problem with my eldest daughter. She didn't talk properly until she was pretty much 3 years old. I would like to do things better this time around with my second daughter. She is only one year old but I can see that she is using a lot of non verbal signs which is fantastic. I will use this information with my little one. Anyway, thank you so much for linking up with me at #KCACOLS. I hope to see you again next Sunday!! :-) x

    1. Thanks Franca - I've had the same experience with children I have taught who speak two languages - generally speaking later. I'm not an expert in the area but I do know that the most important thing is to make sure that children are completely fluent in one language - this makes it easier when dealing with a second language - so for example i taught a child who's parents were polish and they spoke English but not fluently so it was best for them to speak polish fluently at home and for the child to speak English at school.

  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

  7. Great post! I studied language and langauge acquisition at Uni and it is such an interesting topic. I always tell people not to worry too much if their child doesn´t hit all their language targets at the ´set´ time as chronological ages are never a good measure of a child´s language development which is why researchers use the MLU (mean length of utterances) to measure a childs progress! #justanotherlinky

    1. I agree Jane - I think it's a shame that we have a one size fits all level for the children to reach by the end of foundation stage (regardless of where they started from) which relies heavily on communication and spoken language.

  8. Such a fab and useful post. It actually takes me back to when I studied at uni for child development and then did speech and language therapy course as well. So true in it all. Thanks for linking up with us on the #bigfatlinky hope to see you there this week

    1. Thanks Martyn - nice to have that confirmation from one who has had speech and language therapy training!


Would you like to subscribe to my blog posts?

Enter your email address:

(check your spam folder for confirmation link)