: Shared Attention: A Core Mechanism in the ShREC Model EYFS Blog about the ShREC model

On a Wednesday morning the Reception classroom is filled with the noise of chatter and laughter- the noise of children engaged in their play. A little boy sits alone in the playdough area meticulously rolling the dough. An adult nearby notices, pauses and quietly sits at his level on the stool next to him. She doesn’t interrupt, she simply watches and quietly comments. The little boy smiles and places some of the dough in front of the teacher and quietly explains that he is making breakfast for the puppets he has lined up along the table. What began as silent lone play, develops into a meaningful interaction.

It is moments like these that are at the heart of early years. Positive interactions are one of the most important skills that we can gift our children.

Staff at Werneth Primary School are well trained in sustained shared thinking strategy, with a solid understanding of how and why strong interactions are fundamental to developing children’s self-regulation skills, build secure relationships and expand vocabulary, and why these are especially important in tackling disadvantage. Yet, we sought to deepen our understanding by further exploring the individual components that make up a ​‘good interaction’ by unpicking and focusing on each stage of the ShREC model.

Using the EEF’s EYFS toolkit, we began reflecting on our current practice, looking at how we could further develop how we implement the first stage of the ShREC model-Shared Attention.

Tuning in to what our children are telling us is the foundation to a strong interaction. It is the beginnings of creating a warm, responsive relationship with a child. Children know when we are invested in what they are sharing, showing and telling us.

We looked at how we could realistically minimise distractions for staff to enable them to actively tune into the children.

One way in which we addressed this was by timetabling our Reception classes into different areas of provision. As both classes share one large classroom, the space can become noisy due to the conversations, play, and fun that are part of the day-to-day running of any Reception class.

Our Reception is now timetabled so that each class accesses the indoor and outdoor provision at different times of the day. As a result, the number of children in the classroom or outdoor area is halved at any given point. This had an instant impact on the number of good quality interactions we were able to successfully navigate. With fewer distractions, staff were able to clearly show that they were actively listening to children by getting down on the child’s level, turning their body towards the child, maintaining warm and appropriate eye contact and showing a general interest.

As our understanding of the children and how they play developed, we were able to create meaningful episodes of ​‘shared attention’ that built on their interests, providing activities that engage and entice them. Children felt comfortable and confident, enabling them to interact more voluntarily.

We carefully reflected on which children engaged in interactions more frequently. It wasn’t surprising that the children with wider vocabularies and stronger self-regulation and executive functioning skills were the ones who actively sought out or initiated conversations. Of course, we continue to interact with all of the children across our EYFS, but we now had a specific focus: children with weaker self-regulation skills, narrower vocabulary and reluctant talkers.

The Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY) report found that:

These became our ​‘spotlight’ children, the ones that we ensured had interactions with practitioners more frequently, this included building in opportunities within routines such as lunch times and break times.

Shared Attention is a powerful tool that when done right, leaves children with a positive feeling of emotional security, a sense of belonging and wellbeing, and increased confidence.

We noticed that our ​‘spotlight’ children became increasingly capable and willing to actively seek out interactions with staff. It is clear from the smiles on their faces and their positive body language, that they began to associate interactions with feeling valued and heard. They enjoy interactions with adults and other children alike.

Seeing the positive impact on children’s social and emotional development, we are now implementing the ShREC model across all key stages of the school — so that those small moments of noticing, pausing, and truly listening can happen for children every day.