“I wonder if…”
“Maybe I could.…”
“What if I…”
In the early years, many of us understand just how important children’s communication and language skills are in supporting their overall development. Language development plays a crucial function in multiple elements of children’s self-regulation. For example, Development Matters tells us that children can use language to focus their thinking and plan their learning.
Promoting Talk about Learning
The Self-Regulation and Executive Function theme of the Early Years Evidence Store includes a new approach, ‘Promoting talk about Learning’. This approach is defined as educators encouraging children to plan, monitor and reflect on their thinking and learning.
Some educators may recognise this as one element for developing children’s metacognition. This means supporting children’s developing awareness of their thinking and learning, which, over time, enables them to adapt and adjust their actions.
So, where might we begin to support children in developing these important skills?
Approach in Action
Recommendation 3 from the EEF’s Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning Guidance report is that educators should model their own thinking to support children’s cognitive and metacognitive skills.
One relatively simple practice we can apply to bring children’s awareness to their own thought processes and learning, is ‘thinking aloud’.
Research evidence suggests that adults and children thinking aloud together can promote children’s executive function, self-regulated learning and their pre-literacy skills.
Thinking aloud might include wondering, narration, commenting and questioning:
- Explaining our thought processes (“I would like my tower to be quite tall, so I’m going to need some long blocks”).
- Asking ourselves questions (“I wonder if my tower will get knocked over if I start building it in the middle of the carpet? Maybe it would be better to build next to the wall, to keep it safe?”)
- Narrating our actions (“I am going to start by building the bottom of my tower. I am making sure it is flat to make my tower stable”).
Modelling thinking aloud can increase children’s capability to explain their own thought processes and plans, to support their self-regulated learning.
To see what this could look like in practice, review the approach video titled “But That Wouldn’t Be Fair?”.
As you watch, consider the following:
- When do you observe Nichola modelling thinking aloud?
- What do you notice about the type of language Nichola uses when thinking aloud?
- What do you notice about the children thinking aloud?
To explore the other practices Nichola uses in this video, review the ‘Practices in Action’ section afterwards. How might you use these videos to Promote Talk about Learning in your setting?
Want to know more?
Explore the Self-Regulation and Executive Function theme in the Early Years Evidence Store.
Read Louise’s blog about how metacognitive talk can support learning in the early years.