1. Speaking prompts www.earlybirdyeducation.com
This is a useful prompt to ensure that ‘Speaking’ is covered and taught effectively towards the month age band.

2. Relate as many experiences to their personal home life as possible e.g. setting up the home corner with familiar resources, pictures of their local environment, pictures of their families, map of their local environment.
This will ensure that the child have a positive, welcoming environment which will help them feel secure and confident to talk about what they can see.
Provide a rich text environment by ensuring all areas of learning are provided with key words, labels, pictures and books to support that topic or theme.
Designate reading sessions daily whereby an adult can share a book with the class, group or individual.
The more exposed a child is to reading the richer their vocabulary will be.
Encourage role play/ pretend play in the setting. Have real objects and pretend they are something else e.g. box for an aeroplane.
This will encourage children to use their imagination and use talk to express their ideas and thinking.
Speaking
• Beginning to use more complex sentences to link thoughts (e.g. using and, because).
• Can retell a simple past event in correct order (e.g. went down slide, hurt finger).
• Uses talk to connect ideas, explain what is happening and anticipate what might happen next, recall and relive past experiences.
• Questions why things happen and gives explanations. Asks e.g. who, what, when, how.
• Uses a range of tenses (e.g. play, playing, will play, played).
• Uses intonation, rhythm and phrasing to make the meaning clear to others.
• Uses vocabulary focused on objects and people that are of particular importance to them.
• Builds up vocabulary that reflects the breadth of their experiences.
• Uses talk in pretending that objects stand for something else in play, e,g, ‘This box is my castle.’
When working with the children ensure to join in with their play. Model the correct language, vocabulary and questions.
The more the children are exposed to this the more they will begin to use it in their everyday narrative.