50 Things to do before you’re Five

According to the Education Endowment Foundation Early Years Toolkit, studies of communication and language approaches in the Early Years “consistently show positive benefits for young children’s learning, including their spoken language skills, their expressive vocabulary and their early reading skills.” Furthermore, “on average, children who are involved in communication and language approaches make approximately six months’ additional progress over the course of a year. All children appear to benefit from such approaches, but some studies show slightly larger effects for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

One exciting project which aims to develop children’s language skills is 50 Things to do Before You’re Five. Soon to be launched in Bradford, it is led by St Edmund’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre and Bradford Birth to 19 Teaching School Alliance. It supports families and practitioners working with the under-fives to offer rich experiences in which to develop vocabulary and language skills.

They will do this by creating a program of activities, following consultation with the community, parents, children, health and social care practitioners. Each suggested activity will lead to an affordable experience which will promote talk. Examples of the 50 Things include: blowing bubbles; walking through a bluebell wood; going to an outdoor market. The activities will be chosen to offer memorable, enjoyable experiences but all will be designed to instigate vibrant talk.

The example of blowing bubbles illustrates the kind of experience they will suggest and there is huge scope for talk which originates from this. There are opportunities arising to talk about physics, chemistry, biology, motor skills, shape: all of which can support deep discussion. Each activity will come with prompts for dialogue and vocabulary to use.

We know that the most effective interventions of any sort require expert practitioners to support. Bearing this in mind, 50 Things will be backed up with peer to peer support for parents and training by teachers and Early Years practitioners for their peers. They are recruiting 100‘champions’ to support the program and to spread the word. Not only will these activities support parents in ensuring their children have rich and memorable language experiences, the materials will be useful for staff in a range of early years settings, from state nursery schools to private settings. That way, a consistent approach can be taken.

Working with partners in health, social care and education, 50 Things to do Before You’re Five aims to reach around 20,000 under 5s and 100,000 people when we take into account family members, carers and professionals. There will be a launch in Spring and we look forward to seeing how this exciting project progresses.

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Read more from the EEF on Communication and Language Approaches