According to the Early Years Foundation Stage framework (England), and

bearing in mind that children develop at their own rates and in their own
ways, children typically develop the following things within these age ranges:

16-26 months

 Copies familiar expressions, e.g. Oh dear! All gone!

 Explores and experiments using senses and whole body.

22-36 months

 Listens with interest to the noises adults make when they read stories.
 Is interested in others’ play and is starting to join in.
 Runs safely on whole foot.
 Is aware that some actions can hurt or harm others.
 Repeats words or phrases from familiar stories.
 Recites some number names in sequence.
 Experiments with blocks, colours and marks.

30-50 months

 Responds to simple instructions, e.g. Put your toys away.

 Can catch a large ball.
 Notices what adults do, imitating what is observed and then doing it
spontaneously when the adult is not there.
 Can play in a group.
 Holds books the correct way up and turns pages.

40-60+ months
  Uses a pencil and holds it effectively.
 Extends vocabulary by grouping, naming, and exploring the sounds of
new words.
 Writes own name and other things such as labels or captions.
 Constructs with a purpose in mind, using a variety of resources.
What is the danger of using the above statements as a checklist for
childhood development?

How far do you agree?

How far do you agree with the following statements about child
development and learning?

 Babies understand language about twice as fast as they speak.

 Children can’t really learn a language if they are playing.

 An adult’s brain is far more active than a three-year-old child’s brain.

 Children learn best when they are interested in something.

 Children pick up languages best if there is a context and reason to use

it.

 Never force a child to speak. They will speak when they are ready.

How young children learn best

We've looked at early childhood development and how young children learn. Now, we're going to look at how
young children learn best and what this means for very young children who are learning English as an
additional language. In this video, Catherine Stewart, head of Early Years at the British Council School in
Madrid, talks about how very young children learn best, the advantages of learning things when we are very
young, and the benefits of learning an additional language at a very young age. While you are watching, note
down in your observation journal some of the things you find interesting about what Catherine has to say. Are
you surprised by anything she says?
They learn best when they're engaged, motivated, and challenged.

It's the teacher's responsibility to plan interesting play-based activities that all children find interesting. So it's
very important that you know your children very well and find out what interests them first. You may think
that the class likes dinosaurs, when perhaps they prefer cars, or dolls, or something else. So it's very important
that you see what the children enjoy using and that you plan activities around those sort of areas as well.
Challenge, of course, is very important. Children must be learning at their ability as well so that their
challenged or that they're helped if they have some difficulty in areas as well.
I think because they're so inquisitive and everything is fun for an early years child-- so as soon as you put a
new activity out, they tend to go straight to it. So actually, you lucky in this moment. You've got a captive
audience. So if you put something that's interesting out and while they're playing there, then you can go
towards them and put in the second or even third language if that's what the aim of the activity is.
Well, I think there can never be any harm on hearing another language. When children are engaged and
motivated like I've mentioned earlier, sometimes they're so young, they're actually not communicating in any
language at that time. So if you go in and you’re, say, teaching English, you can be putting in language, talking
to them in English, asking questions, and they're often quite unaware that you're speaking a different language.
So whatever language you're putting in there, they're picking up and taking on board without feeling threatened
by it, because they're enjoying the activity they're doing. They're engaged and motivated.

Young children and language

development

How children acquire language

We're now going to take a deeper look at how young children acquire language. In this video, education
consultant and writer Tracey Chapelton talks about how young children acquire language. She also talks about
current research that highlights the benefits of children learning an additional language when they're very
young. She then goes on to explain why young children are so successful at picking up an additional language.
After watching the video, we'll get you to look back at the responses to the statements about child development
to see if any of your opinions have changed.

We, as babies and young children, acquire language through being exposed to it.

We are surrounded by adults who speak the language or other people in the family who speak the language for
a purpose, who use the language for a purpose. And they interact with us in playful ways using language. And
so we acquire it in a very natural way through hearing it.
For example, just thinking of the game of peekaboo-- when a mother plays a game of peekaboo with the child,
there's a whole lot going on there. It's more than a game. The baby is hearing the way English, or the language,
sounds, is possibly learning about what that means-- peekaboo, that mummy disappears, then she comes back--
and also learning the structures of the language.
Because by playing over, and over, and over again, that language is being hardwired into the baby's brains.
And Early Years advisor Julie Fisher says that babies begin to understand about twice as fast as they
speak. So understanding is key to language acquisition. Being exposed to the language is key. And on that
note, looking at a study carried out by associate professor Meredith Rowe in 2012, she found that a child's
vocabulary was influenced at 30 months by the language that they had heard a year before. And again, at
42 months, the language was influenced by the sophisticated language that they'd heard a year before.
And likewise, again at 54 months, their vocabulary and language was influenced by what they had heard
the year before. And so this study was quite conclusive, and children need time to process language. And that
might involve going through a silent period just to understand what's going on, and to tune into the sounds of
what they're hearing, and to make sense of the language they're hearing.
Dr. Patricia Kuhl says that by 3, a child's brain is twice as active as an adult brain. So we're talking about
taking advantage of this very active period in the child's brain. Not only that, current research in brain imaging
technology has proven that the relationship between a child's exposure to a language and their brain
development is interdependent. So when a baby is born, their ears are open to all the sounds of every
language in the world. And then as these neural pathways are strengthened, according to what languages they
are exposed to, these neural pathways either are strengthened, or they weaken and die off.
So essentially, learning a language or an additional language at a very young age has the advantage of-- the
child is tapping into their natural abilities to hear the sounds of another language. And also I would say
that when they're very young, they're not thinking about the language. They're just hearing it naturally, and it's
a tool for them. It's a means of communication, so they're not affected by thinking about whether it sounds silly
or if it's used in an authentic way. So they're not inhibited.
Very young children love playing with sounds. They love hearing new sounds. And when they hear a new
song, they like to join in. They move their bodies to the sounds, so they enjoy rhymes and songs. They enjoy
the rhythm of a song or a chant. So they're naturally drawn to this. They're fascinated by language, and they're
not afraid to play with language. So they have the advantage of, for example, saying all the sounds that an
animal makes, or the sounds in the forest, and the sounds that they hear around them, and the sounds of new
words, and unfamiliar words from an unfamiliar language to them-- they're not afraid to play with that.
Whereas, perhaps, older learners or older children might be more inhibited and thinking, why am I doing this?
This is silly. Young children are just having fun. And they're also not afraid to repeat things. And so this
constant repetition of language really helps them hardwire their brains to remember structures, and
language, and vocabulary sounds, pronunciation. And so they're doing all of this in a playful natural way
and really building the blocks for future language learning success.

Recommendations and advice

Based on what we’ve seen this week, here is some advice for parents and
educators.

 A child who is not speaking may be actively listening and may need
time to process what they are hearing before saying anything. It is
important to value listening as well as speaking by giving the child lots
of exposure to the language.

 Non verbal responses from young children are perfectly acceptable.

They show that the child has understood the message.

 Don’t force a child to speak, they will when they are ready. Forcing a
child to speak before they are ready could actually delay language
development.

 Be genuine in your interactions with young children.

  Use mime and gesture as you would if you were talking to the child in
their home language.

 Value the home language. The skills that children develop while
learning their home language are transferable to an additional language.

Want to know more?

If you want to know more about how children learn and how they
acquire language, or you have completed the activities with time to
spare, have a look at the links and videos below.

 Read this article on how to help young children learn English as

another language.

 Watch What do babies think? by psychologist Alison Gopnik.

 Watch The linguistic genius of babies by professor of speech and

hearing sciences Dr Patricia Kuhl.

 Read this article about how talking to babies and young children builds

their brains.

Different types of play

There are many different types of play.

You may have heard terms like heuristic play, solitary play, parallel play and
cooperative play. However, for the purposes of this week, the following
definitions might be useful:

Adult-led activity: the adult has planned the activity and is in control,

staying with the child while the activity takes place

Adult-initiated activity or play: the adult sets up the resources or the

activity and guides the experience
Child-led play: the activity or resources are freely chosen by the child. The
child is in control of the activity. This type of play is often referred to as
open-ended play.

 Can you think of the benefits of each approach?

 How might the children benefit from having an adult set up
activities or initiate play?
 What might be the advantages of child-led free play?

Write down your ideas in your journal of observations and share some of
your thoughts below.

What do you think?

These quotes on play are from internationally renowned expert on early
childhood and play Tina Bruce:

Pretend play typically becomes established between two and four years, and
then (providing it is encouraged) burgeons and takes off between four and
seven years.

Play should take its educational place within the education system and
should not be confined and constrained to existence only in ‘out of
education’ situations.

Children who are used to following an adult’s lead and can follow adult-set
tasks do not learn how to think for themselves, to be flexible thinkers with
imagination, creativity and problem-solving skills.

 How important do you think it is for children to be able to play?

 Can children play and learn English at the same time?