Area / Importance / Things to try
Core skills (all learned skills) / Under-pin all learning
i)Attention / Attention skills develop in a particular order. Until children can sustain attention (i.e. concentrate) they cannot be effective learners in a group. / If you have children who clearly are not at this stage, much of what you
try to deliver will be ineffective. Consider running a time-limited
attention and listening group which will develop all 5 core skills.
[link here to the introduction to our pack]
Such groups also lend themselves very well to:
  1. focussed vocabulary extension work(link to introduction to our pack)
  2. Phonological awareness activities[link here to Sparrk]again –
  3. the vocabulary associated with phonological awareness (beginning/end/same/different/rhyme etc) can be tricky for
  4. a number of children

ii) Listening / More than just hearing sounds, it involves being able, over time, to understand and interpret them too
iii) Memory / Store and recall increasing amounts of information in order to be able to act upon it
iv) Discrimination / Perceive and interpret the differences between sounds on a variety of levels (phonemes, words and at sentence level)
v) Sequencing / Recall and produce information in the right order. Sequencing skills require reliable memory skills
As a general rule of thumb, by the age of 5, children will, typically, be able to routinely listen and attend well and have a reliable auditory memory of 5+‘chunks’ of information. This stands them in good stead for progressing well with synthetic phonics – where remembering, discriminating, sequencing and reproducing 3 and then 4 + elements is necessary as a child moves towards achieving full articulation of whole words.
Comprehension / Children need to understand what they hear (and eventually read) to not only carry out instructions but also to make progress in every curriculum area. / Work from basic vocabulary lists to ensure that early words and
categories are in place. The Down Syndrome blah has excellent
resources click here

Now look at the concepts required across the various curriculum
areas (maths in particular) and consider introducing pre-tutoring
groups. Follow the developmental sequence and build in plenty
of opportunity for children to generalise what they learn
click here for extensive vocabulary lists for
all Key Stages across the curriculum
Vocabulary building (closely linked to understanding) / Think about vocabulary in terms of maths too. Children will not make progress if they don’t understand the words used – some examples include: more, fewer, several, a bit, lots, comparatives such as bigger than.
Sentence building / Oral sentences come before written ones / Use a visual system to help prompt children to include the basic
parts of speech [link to…]
Joining sentences / Again – children need early narrative skills (to be able to string together a sequence of sentences) as a pre-cursor to writing stories / Use pictures or role play to develop a running commentary:
even where sentences are largely joined by ‘and’, early narrative
skills are emerging.
Social interaction and turn-taking / ‘Bold Beginnings’ makes specific reference to this. As part of the comment within the report, the authors allude to the ‘use of language’ as a wider function than just the conversational aspect. / Early turn-taking games lay the foundations for the importance of
verbal/interactional turn-taking
Use of language / As language comprehension develops and children get to grips with making sentences, they then begin to learn to use language for a range of ever-increasing (and sophisticated) functions:
  • Describe
  • Explain
  • Comment
  • Initiate: draw an adult’s attention/ask for help
  • Question
  • Speculate
  • Problem-solve
  • Persuade
  • Influence
  • control
  • theorise…..
/
  • Think about ways in which children can practise basic language use
  • Create ways in which they can experiment with more
  • refined and complex language functions
Language gives our thoughts a voice.
Play / Play provides a safe place for children to practise as they embark on the language functions identified above / Structure play opportunities so that children can practise their use of language. Home corner and shop are regular fixtures as good settings ring the changes with seasonal and topical tableaux. The water area moves on from simple pleasure derived from splashing: it provides a wealth of opportunity to explore basic concept vocabulary across the curriculum.