Oracy Skills - Giving everyone a voice

Everyone has a voice but not everyone is always heard. How can we make sure that every child gets the opportunities to develop, use and build oracy into their skill sets? In this blog, Sal McKeown explores ways in which we can develop those all important oracy skills to achieve this.

I came across a shocking statistic recently. In 2019, the National Literacy Trust noted that, ‘in some inner-city classes, disadvantaged children contribute, on average, just four words per lesson.’ (Cited in reports by the English Speaking Union & Voice 21)

As we know, talk is fundamental in nurseries and it supports children’s development as they hear and repeat good models of speech. But as children go into school and move through the key stages, writing replaces conversation. Literacy gains currency and those children who have not cracked oracy are in danger of falling even further behind.

Teachers talk a lot! Research by ‘The British Psychological Society’ shows that: ‘Teachers ask between 300–400 questions a day and most of these questions are lower order, which are simply questions that check for comprehension and knowledge and are often just a memorised fact. Most questions are answered in less than a second, often by the teacher!’

Those that ask the questions often hold the power. Let’s look at how to shift the balance so that teachers save their voices, and children have a say and get the opportunity to extend their oracy skills.

Question time

You might want to start by observing what is going on in your setting. How much time is spent building oracy into the day? How much time do children spend speaking, how much time listening and how much time doing neither? Look at what happens when teachers and early years’ practitioners ask questions and check:

• Who makes eye contact
• Who is listening
• Which children seem to have understood
• Whether a child makes an appropriate response in words, facial expressions, body language
• Whether the practitioner makes a response verbally, thumbs up, clapping etc.
• Whether the pace of the activity is appropriate
• Whether the member of staff looks at each child equally or pays a little more attention to those children who are the most vocal

When questions don’t help

Post lockdown, some children struggle with being part of a group. They withdraw into themselves if they feel they are in the spotlight. But others are quiet because they do not have the language at their disposal to understand and to make a response. Ofsted reports indicate that children born during the pandemic may also be slower to respond to facial expressions because their earliest experiences outside the home were with people wearing masks that hid their mouths.

Oracy goes beyond learning to pronounce words, speak in sentences and use appropriate vocabulary. It is a tool which helps children to thrive, even in settings where they feel out of their depth. It is about children using language, in all its forms (including non-verbal communication for some children), to communicate, to develop friendships, to be themselves and to show what they can do.

Things you might try to develop oracy in your setting:

• Providing an ongoing narrative to the activity that is not in question format but still models good syntax and appropriate vocabulary.
• Focus on group interactions: singing songs, call and response, nursery rhymes and rhymes.
• Songs with actions, such as ‘Wind Your Bobbin Up’ and ‘Miss Polly Had a Dolly’ encourage children to join in, even if they do not know the words.
• Music making is another great aid to language development. Tapping out rhythms helps them learn patterns and become attuned to intonation, the rise and fall of language.

• During circle time (an ideal time to incorporate oracy skills), demonstrate a simple rhythm such as stomp, stomp, clap. Go round the circle with each child taking turns.
• Build better listening and concentration skills in older children. Get them to stand up while you read a familiar story such as Goldilocks. Ask them to listen for a word such as ‘big’ and when they hear it to jump up and down. Children who respond at the wrong moment sit out. Choose a different word and repeat until you have a winner.

Meeting children’s needs

It takes a lot of repetition before learning takes place so don’t keep changing tack. Provide regular opportunities to revisit words, songs and activities so they are more firmly embedded in children’s memories.

Look out for children who need some extra attention. Some children flourish if they have a little time on their own with a trusted helper in a quiet or sensory space, away from other children. Just five to ten minutes a day can make a difference to a child who is insecure, overwhelmed by lights, noise and the busy-ness of a setting.

You don’t need to sit down to have a chat

Developing oracy skills in our young children is important for future success so start early. Crawling is a milestone in a baby’s development and gives them their first taste of independence. They start to make decisions about where they are going but their horizons are still very limited.

Once they are on their feet they can look around and this provides more stimulation. Their hands are free so they can gesture and point. These are pre-verbal forms of communication. It is easier for them – and you – to make eye contact. Studies show that adults talk more to babies who walk. A walking baby initiates conversation by bringing things to you. In turn, this encourages you to talk to them and they hear new words and sentences.

Taking a closer look

Children learn through their senses in early years but sometimes things are just too small for them to appreciate the finer details or intricate patterns. Magnifying glasses are a good choice for early years as they let a child examine an object close up without handling or destroying it. Children will develop their oracy skills as they ask questions, make links to their own experiences and discuss their observations.

Books matter

Books let children enter worlds they have not seen or imagined. Children’s Books offer vocabulary not usually encountered in day to day speech and a chance to play with words and sounds. Think of the ‘Swishy Swashy’ and ‘Squelch Squerch’ of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

However, according to research conducted by the National Literacy Trust, almost a million children in the UK do not have a single book of their own at home. They say that the gap between children who have free school meals and those who don’t has widened: ‘Pressure on household budgets due to increasing food and energy prices has a direct impact on families’ ability to support reading at home.’ Look at lending books to families for a week or for a weekend.

Capture the moment

It is so exciting hearing your own voice, especially for the first time. The trouble is we often make a performance of it and children get self-conscious and dry up. There are so many great tools for recording speech so that we can now do it on the spur of the moment. For a shy child this can be a big break through. Catch them talking to a friend, chatting to teddy or making a phone call on a pretend phone. Send it to their family and encourage them to record talking moments on a mobile and share them with you.

This can be especially important for children who do not talk at nursery/school. If a child does not speak, it is easy to assume that there are issues within the family. However, selective mutism usually starts between the ages of two and four when children move outside the home. It is an anxiety disorder which triggers a freeze response so the child perhaps will not make eye contact and shrink into themselves. Encourage the child to find a way of communicating so they nod or do thumbs up for yes, shake their head for no. Ask if they will whisper the answer to you.

What did you do at nursery/school today?

When parents collect children, staff often spend a few minutes telling them about the day. They might talk about something funny that happened or pass on news or share concerns. But this is all adult-to-adult chat. You might want to use labels or cards to jot questions down that could spark a conversation on the way home.

Photographs and memories

Pictures from home or little videos of nursery activities give a chance for a child to see themselves. It also reinforces their sense of their place in the family and in the setting. It can be reassuring for a child who finds it difficult to settle to have a picture of home, their mum or a family pet. It also gives them something to talk about with staff.

At the age of three or so, children develop episodic memory where they recall past events. Memory is sometimes quite selective as a child remembers details such as pink ice cream or a playground ride. In some cases, these may be examples of wishful thinking but they are still excellent pegs for conversation!

So much of our chat with children is in the here and now where there are plenty of visual clues and prompts. Talking about the past and the future is more demanding. Neither you nor they can see what is being talked about so it needs to be more detailed. You can help draw them out with ‘what?’, ‘when?’ and ‘where?’ questions. A photo is also helpful here. You might want to look at recordable photo albums or an interactive mat where they can have their picture and record a conversation as well.

These days there are many resources, toys and tools that can act as stimulus to encourage talking in babies, toddlers and reluctant speakers. Try some of these strategies in your setting and see how children gain in confidence, find their voice and develop important oracy skills needed for later life.

Further blog posts that you may be interested in:

If you have enjoyed reading this blog on oracy and would like to find out more about developing oracy skills, then why not click on the link below to take a look at some of our other blogs written by Michael Gardner, Sal McKeown and other teachers and practitioners from a range of nurseries and settings. Click here for further blog posts on oracy.

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