Page 93:How to extend language and conversation ... The ShREC Approach

 Page 93:How to extend language and conversation ... The ShREC Approach 

As I have most definitely mentioned previously, particularly in my pages regarding the EYFS, the early years is based upon language and developing conversation and understadning through daily high quality interactions. From group teaching, highly modelling new language, words, sounds and numbers through 'My Turn, Your Turn' to out daily continuous provision interactions, today I am going to share how I promote and highly model language and conversations through my daily purposeful interactions. We use the ShREC approach.

What is the ShREC approach?

Quite simply

Sh - Shared Attention

R - Respond

E - Expand

C- Conversation

This approach was developed by the EFF. The Education Endownment Foundation. As mentioned previously in my researched based posted this Education Endownment Foundation is an independant charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. The developed ShREC approach is a simple and memorable set of specific evidence informed strategies that can be integrated into everyday practice. 

Let's break down what ShREC is...

Sh - Shared Attention: This is fundamentally showing an interested in what the child is focussed on to establish the grounds of the interactions. 

R - Respond: This is crucial. How we respond is vital is driving and developing interactions. It is our role to encourage and stimulate meaningful response leading onto E - expand.  

E - Expand: This is where the interaction is developed with the child. Your back and forth conversation, scaffolds and adapted to the need and the level of development of the individual you are working with. 

C- Conversation: Conversation varies and looks different between every interaction. Examples include further questioning and using phonically awareness to develop indepedance in forming this back and forth flow. 

Here are 5 practical examples that I use often in my practice to enhance my provision and inspire the ShREC approach in day to day practice.

1. The additional to natural resources such as orange peels and a pestle and mortar for children to develop sensorial awareness and conversation through observation. 

2. Having building blocks in all areas of provision to support developing imaginative plat and using an object to represent something else. It is crucial to use the correct terminology here such as cuboids and cylinders. 

3. Using 'purple books' - These are wordless books. Yourself and the children will talk through the pages and using the ShREC approach to enhance conversation, reasoning, prediction and interactions. 

4. Placing a variation of measuring cylinders in a water tray. This develops making mathematical cross subject links with children being able to explore capacity, length, weight and height through their interactions with various tools such as pipettes and tubes. 

5. A simple one. Talk, talk, talk ... sing, sing, sing!

To sum up point 5, it is said that by the age of 10, to be on track for age related expectations, children should have a vocabulary of around 40,000 words. To achieve this, children should be exposed to around 10 new words a day. So let's get started!

Miss Yeoman