Educators intentionallyThe educator acts in a planned, thoughtful and purposeful way. use mathematical language when interacting with children. This helps children to understand and use mathematical vocabulary.

They can do this explicitlyThe direct and intentional teaching of new words and their meanings., by dedicating time to teaching children carefully chosen mathematical vocabulary and definitions.

Educators can also do this implicitlyIntroducing, using and repeating new words, to indirectly teach and reinforce their meaning., for example, by thinking aloud with children while solving problems together. This helps children to develop their expressive mathematical language.

This approach underpins the other approaches in the Early Mathematics theme. Given the emphasis on vocabulary and language, educators could use practices similar to those in the Communication and Language theme of the Evidence Store.

The evidence indicates that children who have good mathematical language also do better in maths.

Based on the evidence, educators should:

• use mathematical language in an intentionalThe educator acts in a planned, thoughtful and purposeful way. way (for example, explicitlyThe direct and intentional teaching of new words and their meanings. teaching mathematical vocabulary or narrating their mathematical observations and reasoning)
• encourage children to practise mathematical talk by saying out loud what they are thinking
• use this approach at the same time as the others in the Early Mathematics theme.

In the evidence, educators used the following practices:

• Thinking aloud: verbally expressing thought processes to make them explicitThe direct and intentional teaching of new words and their meanings. (for example, the educator might say ​‘This curved block was too wobbly to use at the bottom of my tower. I think I might try the cuboid block next,’ or encourage children to explain their own thinking)
• Narrating: providing a running commentary of an experience (for example, ​‘I can see you are stacking the cups inside one another. You started with the big, blue cup and put the orange cup inside it’
• Naming and labelling: providing a spoken word for an object, concept, action or skill (for example, describing something using mathematical vocabulary: ​‘this tower is tall,’ ​‘the book is behind the chair’, ​‘the box is a cube’).

Educators could also consider using storybooks, rhymes, and games to develop children’s mathematical language, as there is promising evidence to support this.

We spoke with educators, who described a range of additional practices they use while delivering this approach. These include:

• RepetitionIntentionally repeating and reinforcing a taught concept in different contexts, over time.: intentionallyThe educator acts in a planned, thoughtful and purposeful way. repeating and reinforcing a taught concept in different contexts, over time (for example, reinforcing mathematical vocabulary at appropriate times during daily routines and play, using words such as ​‘large,’ ​‘long’ or ​‘behind’)
• Extending: repeating a word or phrase used by a child and adding additional words to support their understanding (for example, when a child says ​‘bike’, responding, ​‘That is a large bike’)
• Questioning: prompting children to think, respond, or join in (for example, ​‘Can you tell me about the different ways you have used shells to make 5?).