: Building Foundations: Scaffolding Interactions in the Early Years Explore how to effectively put evidence around improving communication and language in EYFS to work.

It is Friday afternoon and the children in EYFS are enjoying the outdoor provision. There is a rush of sudden excitement in the mud kitchen when a child exclaims ​“I can’t believe it I’ve found a fossil!” What then unfolds is a delightful interaction between the adult and children working within the provision.

The children look closely at what they have found but they have a problem… they can’t get it out of the ground! The adult facilitates this discussion as they try together to solve the problem. ​“Maybe we need a brush as it could be quite fragile” she says. In response, the child is unable to contain her excitement telling her friend they need ​“a paleontologist’s brush!” Her friend scurries off returning with a brush. At this, the adult quietly reiterates with some of the other children what the girl meant by paleontology. Together they try to brush away the soil. ​“I wonder what kind of fossil this might be?” the adult ponders. The children discuss some of the dinosaurs they know, highlighting some of their features. ​“It could be a brachiosaurus!” says one child. The adult very expertly engages in a conversation about why they think this, gently directing the child to other possible solutions by encouraging them to think about some of the characteristics of other dinosaurs. Finally, the child and her friend agree it is probably a T Rex because ​“it has sharp teeth so obviously eats meat!!”

This kind of interaction between a child and adult happens daily in many EYFS settings throughout the country, yet is invaluable in scaffolding children’s conversation and enriching vocabulary. High quality scaffolding in this way, can only be achieved when the adults in the setting clearly know the children well and what they can and cannot achieve. The key to success is ​‘The Goldilocks Principle’, providing challenge that is not too much and not too little but ​‘just right’.



So how do practitioners effectively scaffold interactions?

The EEF latest supporting materials on ​‘Improving early education through high quality interactions’ introduces the STAIRS approach to scaffolding. The aim of the STAIRS approach is to provide educators with a simple and memorable set of strategies to embed research evidence into everyday practice.

What can this look like in practice?

There are excellent examples of what this may look like in practice on the Early Years Evidence Store and in particular- EEF | Self-Regulation and Executive Function section.


Take for example the clip entitled ​‘Digging for worms’ within the ​‘Creating and navigating challenge’ section. The practitioner is supporting 3 – 4 year olds dig through some ice to find worms. Let’s see how the ​‘STAIRS’ approach is put into action within this interaction.


S- The practitioner is down at the child’s level and shows genuine interest in how the child is using a plastic spade to try and break the ice to be able to dig for worms.


T- She asks: ​‘How do you think we could get rid of all this ice?’ She makes sure the child has time to think and respond without jumping in too fast. When the children suggest using some water to melt the ice, she shares the positivity and responds by repeating the child’s suggestion and adding ​‘Good idea!’.


A – When the child realises that their idea of using a digger to break the ice doesn’t work, Rachel gently takes over and encourages the child to try something new by sharing another child’s idea of using water. This effectively avoids any frustration.


I – Rachel ensures the children understand what the end goal is by encouraging them to use the water to melt the ice so that they can dig for worms and she talks WITH the children so she can highlight the most important aspects of the task. She uses feedback to sensitively show to the children that using a spoon to put the water on is not the most effective way and instead praises them when they use the jug to pour on more water to melt the ice quicker.


R- During this interaction, the practitioner helps the children reflect on how well they are progressing towards the goal of being able to collect worms. She highlights the fact that there is now a lot of water and maybe this is preventing the worms from coming out. The children then remove some water so progress can be made.


S- Throughout, she encourages the children to do as much as they can without her. She allows them to try ​‘splashing the water’ out even though this is unlikely to be a successful approach and then offers just the right amount of support by capitalising on another child’s idea of scooping it out which she encourages and allows them to do independently.



Questions to reflection:

Are practitioners within your setting regularly scaffolding conversations to maximum effect?

Are they using STAIRS to inform their practice?

Is training needed to support all practitioners in reaching this level of expertise?

Further reading

https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/production/documents/pages/supporting_childrens_mental_health_and_wellbeing_in_the_early_years.pdf?v=1728474575


EEF | Self-Regulation and Executive Function- for video clips that show how practitioners use scaffolding to ​‘thrive together’ and ​‘avoid frustration’.

https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/production/documents/pages/supporting_childrens_mental_health_and_wellbeing_in_the_early_years.pdf?v=1728474575


EEF | Self-Regulation and Executive Function- for video clips that show how practitioners use scaffolding to ​‘thrive together’ and ​‘avoid frustration’.