How good are your children's listening skills? Many childcare practitioners I meet believe that in recent years there's been a steady deterioration in children's ability to listen attentively. This is worrying, because if children can't listen then their language development will suffer and so will their ability to learn.
This is why the BBC is producing two new pre-school series to help develop language and listening skills. The first, a 28-part radio series called 'Listen and Play', was launched this month. A CBeebies television series, 'Razzledazzle', follows next spring.
But why are such programmes necessary? For the past few years, I've been part of a group of independent educational consultants working on the Foundations of Literacy project. We've concluded that changes in our culture since the 1980s have led to a decrease in the time adults spend interacting with young children, which could have serious long-term effects.
Changes include the decline of the extended family, different working patterns, the advent of all-day television, computers and mobile phones, the decline of family mealtimes - even the proliferation of central heating, which means families no longer get together in the one warm room in the house!
Without appropriate levels of adult-child interaction, children's language and listening skills may not develop as well as they should, and they might be at risk of difficulties with literacy, indeed all learning, later on.
In our book Foundations of Literacy, summing up our findings and recommendations for practice, early years consultant Ros Bayley and I identify seven areas we believe require structured attention in the pre-school years:
* listening and attention skills
* spoken language
* music and movement
* storytime
* learning about print (including emergent reading and writing)
* phonics
* preparation for handwriting.
Listen up
With the proliferation of visual media over the past 20 years, most schools have overlooked the potential of audio resources. Yet if we want to develop children's aural discrimination, auditory memory and attention span, radio is the ideal medium.
'Listen and Play' is a delightful combination of listening games, songs, rhymes and stories - an updated version of 'Listen with Mother'. The recommendations of the Foundations of Literacy project are applied throughout the programmes, and there is a Foundations of Literacy audio pack, providing the programmes on CD along with other teaching materials.
The ingredients that prepare children for successful literacy learning are also enormous fun. As is clearly stated in the Primary National Strategy's recent publication Playing With Sounds, experience of rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and language play are vital foundations for the teaching of phonics. There's also growing research evidence that singing, moving to a beat and action rhymes develop important skills, including auditory memory, essential for literacy learning. And listening to stories, joining in with sound effects and repeated lines, is an ideal way to build up children's attention span while familiarising them with the patterns of written language that they'll need for reading and writing.
These activities have long been part of pre-school practice, but these days they have become critically important. Until the aforementioned cultural changes occurred, most young children experienced plenty of song, rhyme and stories at home. From babyhood, parents entertained and soothed children with nursery rhymes and songs, and bedtime rituals usually included stories and lullabies.
Nowadays these have been superseded by visual media and in many homes the old repertoire of rhymes and songs has been forgotten. A recent survey found that 40 per cent of children aged four and under have a TV in their bedroom. Children are now entertained or soothed by moving images on a screen and bedtime stories have often given way to bedtime videos.
Times change, and we must change with them, but if we are to ensure all children have a sound foundation for literacy and learning, language and listening, then development must be at the heart of pre-school practice.
Sue Palmer is an independent literacy consultant
FURTHER INFORMATION
* Foundations of Literacy Sue Palmer and Ros Bayley (Network Press)
* 'Listen and Play' broadcast details and full programmes for a week after initial broadcast www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio
* Foundations of Literacy audio plus pack by Sue Palmer and Pie Corbett (BBC School Shop: telephone: 0870 8308002 or www. bbcschoolshop.com )