This session will investigate the fundamental importance of interactions and language enrichment within Early Years Practice, closing the gap and paving the way for literacy. Although the term ‘Language Enrichment’ is very broad, understanding more about the detail of communication and language development, along with the incremental steps children need to take, will make our practice more targeted, purposeful and differentiated. This understanding also ensures our practice is inclusive but also progressive.

The session will allow Leaders, Practitioners and EYFS Teams to look at all children’s starting points with different aspects of language before considering:

• how communication is established with children who are more difficult to engage.
• the language load used within interactions.
• how vocabulary is added and develop semantic links developed.
• the value of verbs in interactions, language development and for promoting talk.
• using targeted language enrichment to model and facilitate grammatical structures, to expand vocabulary and sentence length and to manage speech sound changes.
• the value of targeted commentary as opposed to questioning