Language Facilitation and Support

In this video exemplar, the teachers pause to give the children an opportunity to respond. Some children may need more time while others may need less, so it is important for teachers to listen attentively and wait patiently while children attempt to verbally respond to questions.

Talk with Me is a three-part series of courses designed to provide teachers and caregivers of infants and toddlers with the skills and knowledge to support language development. Participants will learn about language milestones, theories, and long-term outcomes through video segments, expert interviews, and research-based resources. (6 hours)

The video exemplar highlights moments throughout the day classroom teachers can communicate with children. Routines such as hand-washing, center time, and small groups provide teachers with opportunities to have meaningful and rich conversations.

This course focuses on key elements of encouraging children’s talk: responsiveness, rich content and stimulation, and emotional support. Practitioners will learn scaffolding strategies for children’s talk that will encourage them to flourish within the classroom environment. (6 hours)

In this video exemplar, the teachers initiate a conversation based on a child’s interest and then they pause for the child to have a chance to respond. Teachers can engage in one-on-one conversations by asking questions about a child’s interest and allowing the child the opportunity to respond as their turn.

In this video exemplar, the teachers expand on the children’s interest by adding words and specific information. Teachers can deepen or expand on children’s initiation by providing more specific information or building on a child’s background knowledge.

In this video exemplar, the teachers restate and then extend the children’s attempts to communicate. Teachers can deepen or expand on children’s initiation by providing more specific information or building on a child’s background knowledge.

Teachers notice and respond positively to individual children’s gestures, vocalizations, and comments in this video. They build children’s oral language skills by attentively and appropriately responding to their communication attempts.

In this video exemplar, the teachers use a variety of questions to communicate with children during the day. Teachers can initiate conversations with children by asking open-ended and closed-ended questions across various activities, routines, and contexts.

This professional development video from the WGBH Educational Foundation shows how infant and toddler teachers can have meaningful conversations by imitating and then responding to children’s signals. Teachers can respond to children’s nonverbal and verbal signals to facilitate language across various contexts.

This video from the WGBH Educational Foundation shows the importance of communicating with infants throughout the day. From this video, infant teachers can see how to provide infants with language stimulation during the day’s routines and activities.

In this video exemplar, the teachers narrate children’s actions and use descriptive language to label different objects and activities. Labeling an object, activity, or action builds children’s vocabulary so they are more likely to use those same words when communicating with others.

In this video exemplar, the teachers use language and asks questions to expand on the children’s interests. Teachers can make comments and ask questions in response to something a child has said to build the child’s language.

In this series of exemplar video segments, teachers showcase providing verbal praise to infants, toddlers, preschoolers and after school children throughout the day. Their use of positive responses, feedback and praise encourages a continuation of desired behaviors.