Supporting families and educators to “recognise moments when media viewing becomes an interactive and educational experience”. Image Credit: Helena Lopes.
By Laura Green
As a speech pathologist passionate about children's language and speech development, I’ve often found myself wavering between traditional methods and the growing presence of technology in our children’s lives. There was a time when I was highly sceptical of screens. I was convinced that when considering the impact on young minds, under no circumstance, could the positives outweigh the negatives. However, over the years, I’ve come to see the immense potential that well-chosen and controlled screen time holds for enhancing learning and fostering joyful connections.
The journey from scepticism to acceptance wasn't easy. It was only through research and first- hand experiences that I’ve come to appreciate the benefits that intentional and guided media use can bring. Today, I celebrate the moments when media viewing becomes an interactive and educational experience. I’m excited to share how we can use screen time, particularly through engaging shows like "Bluey," to support language development and foster meaningful interactions.
The Challenge of Communication Delays
In Australia, the number of children entering school with communication delays is growing. Speech pathology services are overwhelmed, with waitlists for public services ranging anywhere from months to over a year.
This is highlighted in a letter written by Speech Pathology Australia’s CEO, Gail Mulcair, to the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care. She emphasised the high number of children entering Australian schools with inadequate communication skills. Unfortunately, the research shows that in most cases these children fall further behind.
What can we do when we are faced with these challenges?
When it comes to building children’s communication skills, research encourages parents and teachers to focus on increasing the quantity of quality, positive, reciprocal, and meaningful interactions. So, how do we measure the quality of a conversation? How do we know that our interactions are meaningful?
Let’s break it down
Quantity
- When it comes to quantity, more is always more. Find little moments throughout the day, whether it’s during the morning dressing routine or while tidying up a completed activity, to engage in these serve-and-return interactions.
- This can be more challenging in an early childhood education setting with high numbers of children. Often, the ones who need the most interaction are the least likely to seek it out. Ensuring that each child gets enough opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations is critical.
Quality
- Quality interactions involve various factors, including the types of questions asked and the vocabulary selected.
Questions
- Ask a variety of questions – Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?
- Minimise questions with single word responses e.g. What flavour was your cake?
- Who was at your birthday party? Did you have fun?
- Avoid test questions E.g. What is this called? What shape is that?
- Use open-ended questions (i.e. those to which the answer is flexible) .E.g. What was the most exciting part? Tell me all about your birthday cake.
Vocabulary
- Model a variety of words – verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions.
- Avoid empty words (e.g. this, that, there).
Meaningful
- We all know the saying “It goes in one ear and out the other.” Too much blame is put on the listener. It’s time to consider the speaker’s role in ensuring the conversation is meaningful. Engaging children in topics that interest them and are relevant to their experiences helps retain their attention and interest.
Reciprocal
- Reciprocal conversations are back-and-forth exchanges that builds on each other’s responses. The research encourages us to ‘strive for 5’, meaning there are 5 back and forth exchanges on the one topic.
- Extended pauses are key in allowing a child to take their turn. Remember, it takes time for children to process and make meaning of what has been said and then formulate and deliver their response. Giving them the space to do so, particularly those children with delayed language, will make all the difference. This type of interaction is crucial for language development, as it allows multiple opportunities for a child to talk, as well as teaching them how to continue a dialogue.
Speech pathologist, Laura Green uses a range of creative early years teaching strategies including puppet play. Image credit: Laura Green.
Positive
- A positive relationship is key to fostering effective communication. Children are more likely to engage in conversations when they feel valued and understood. Instead of traditional test questions, try asking ones you don’t know the answers to (e.g. I wonder what the tooth fairy does with all those teeth?). This positions the adult as curious, signalling to the child that we are genuinely interested in hearing what they have to say. Building a supportive and encouraging environment helps in developing strong communication skills.
Beyond a focus on increasing the quantity of spontaneous quality interactions, attention should be given to setting up planned and purposeful activities to allow for language rich conversations.
Harnessing Screen Time for Language Development
Screens are everywhere—even in the lives of our littlest learners. As parents and educators, we are always seeking ways to use this technology to support children’s language and literacy development. Here’s how we can make the most of this resource.
The Magic of Intentional Screen Time
Selecting high-quality content is essential to making the most of technology in early childhood education. Look for content that is age-appropriate, educational, slow-paced and encourages participation. Ideally the watch time is kept short, so digital story books or shows with shor episodes are best. “Bluey” is a perfect example, hence a popular choice in early childhood centres, plus the bonus elements of rich language, relatable experiences, and a clear narrative structure.
Igniting Conversations: Moving from passive to active viewing
Planning is necessary to ensure we select the right media for the intended purpose. Ask yourself, “What is our goal for the viewing?”.
Pre-Viewing
- Read the Title: Introduce the episode by reading and discussing the title. Children can make guesses about the content based on the title alone. It is always fun to see what the children come up with when there is an unusual title, such as Bluey’s “Turtleboy”.
- Prior Knowledge: Discuss what the children already know about the topic to support comprehension.
During & Post Viewing
- Freeze Frames: Discuss specific moments by pausing the video. You can screen shot these moments for discussion later in the day. For extra fun, introduce a magic ‘freeze’ wand that gives a child the power to choose when to pause.
- Connect to Experiences: Draw parallels to children’s own lives. For example, "Stickbird," can prompt discussions about the child’s own experiences at the beach.
- This will not only help children to comprehend what they watch, but will allow children to share personal stories, leading to meaningful reciprocal interactions.
- Literal Questions: Ask questions about what is happening in the episode to ensure comprehension. A puppet, like the infamous “Unicorse” from Bluey, could interrupt or miss parts of the show needing information from the children.
- Inferential Questions: Encourage children to think beyond what is explicitly shown. For example, in the episode “Rain”, when Bluey is soaking wet ask "Why do you think Mum is trying to stop Bluey from going inside?".
- Make Predictions: Pause to ask children what they think will happen next. Encourage the children to justify their answer by asking “Why do you think that?”. Support flexible thinking by encouraging various guesses. For example, in the episode “Rain”, ask “What else might Bluey use to build the barrier?”.
- Explore Emotions: Pause to identify the characters emotions. Copy the emotion focusing on both face and body. Extend learning by asking “How do we know they are feeling …? What shows us this?” and encouraging children to share a time they experienced that emotion.
The wordless episode "Rain" offers a unique opportunity for rich storytelling and discussion. By watching the characters' actions and expressions, children can develop their language skills as they share their interpretations of the story and make predictions around what might happen next. Image: Ludo Studios.
Vocabulary Building Beyond the Screen
In education, we often discuss three tiers of vocabulary. ‘Tier 1’ being simple everyday vocabulary, ‘Tier 2’ words occur frequently across different contexts and often have multiple meanings, and ‘Tier 3’ word are used rarely in relation to a specific subject area. ‘Tier 2’ vocabulary are considered most important for academic success. Integrating these words into various contexts can significantly boost children’s language skills. Select ‘Tier 2’ vocabulary from "Bluey" episodes and use them in different activities throughout the day. For example, use the word ‘collapsing’ in relation to towers built in the ‘construction’ area, when placing multiple cars on a weak bridge, or when squashing cardboard boxes for the recycle bin.
Research by Beck, McKeown, and Kuvan (2021) shows that exposure to Tier 2 words across multiple contexts helps children understand and use these words more effectively.
Connect to Experiences: Draw parallels to children’s own lives. Invite children to share their experiences at the beach. Allow children to build on each other’s ideas. You can also draw parallels between familiar preschool activities, for example, the sandpit, or even set up a sensory tray activity to represent elements of the beach
More Ideas
- Volume Off: Watch an episode without sound. You can start with the episode “Rain” which has no words. Encourage children to discuss what the characters are saying, thinking, and doing.
- Captions On: Turning on captions helps children connect spoken and written language, enhancing print awareness. Draw children’s awareness to the text by rewinding to see if the words remain the same or different or looking at the same scene another day.
- Act It Out: Watch an episode multiple times and encourage children to re-enact scenes from episodes, promoting complex language use.
- Pick an Item: Choose an item that is used in the episode and encourage the children to explore how it can be used in a different way. For example, in “Space”, a ball of string is used as a ‘tether’. Could it be a scarf? A fishing line? A kite?
- My Story: Use an episode to introduce a problem and stop it there. Encourage the children to come up with their own ways to solve the problem and write the story together. For example, in “Slide”, the children need to stop the bugs from entering the water slide.
- Objects and Symbolic Play: Use toys and props to represent characters and settings from "Bluey," enhancing imaginative play and language skills.
Additional Speech Pathology Resources
- The Hanen Centre: Monthly language and literacy-building tips for educators and parents to use during everyday interactions.
- Book Share Time: Use this catalogue to search for picture books specifically chosen to build language and early literacy skills. You can search by age group, language goals or theme. Suggested questions and language goals are also listed for each book. Visit Play School Story Time on ABC iview to see which books from the Book Share Time catalogue are featured in episodes.
- Speech Pathology Australia: This poster provides an overview of children’s communication development between the ages of 12 months to 5 years
Other shows I love:
Kangaroo Beach
- Content is relatable to children’s everyday experiences which facilitates discussions beyond the here-and-now
- Animations clearly capture character emotions
Ginger and the Vegesaurs
- Simple narrative structure
- Uses varied vocabulary, including Tier 2 words
Play School
- Models extended imaginative play, which can be easily reenacted in the preschool setting
- Explores symbolic play, challenging children to use items beyond their everyday functions
About the author
Laura Green is an experienced Speech Pathologist and Founder of Lipsy Loo Learning. She has a special interest in early childhood education. In addition to developing online early learning programs aimed at teachers and parents, Laura provides consulting services as well as professional development seminars to early childhood teachers.