Table Top Talking

Introduction

*This [booklet] is a result of activities carried out in Early Years and Key Stage 1 classes.

*Practitioners worked with children to develop skills of conversation, develop ideas and thoughts, to stimulate expression. This may lead to children wishing to further express language through a permanent medium of mark making and writing.

*If children are to become competent writers, then we need them first to be active thinkers and good communicators.

*Young children who are encouraged to talk and listen to others, will be able to clarify their thoughts and express themselves with imagination and clarity.

*Through the process of oral communication, children develop a rich and extensive vocabulary, create a coherent sequence of ideas which will be the motivation to want the permanence of the written word.

Table Top Talking will support development of;
‘Language for communication and thinking’
FSP scale points 4 – 8
‘sustain attentive listening and responding with relevant comments….(SP 4)
‘use language to imagine and recreate roles’….(SP 5)
‘use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking’…(SP 7)
‘speak clearly and with confidence’….(SP 8)

The ‘Talking Table’ resulted from work carried out by Fleur Griffiths, a former educational psychologist, who was commissioned by Hartlepool LA to improve speaking and listening skills in young children by modelling conversational principles with small groups of children.
(version published in TES, February, 2005).








How does it work?
An adult sits at a table and invites a group of children to come and sit with him/her.
The table top can be covered in a variety of ways; paper, textured fabric (velvet, sacking, printed fabrics or pictures), or corrugated card or shiny paper.

Various props can be put on the table that will interest and stimulate young children.
The adult can start off interaction by handling one of the props and asking children what they think it might be, what it could be used for;
‘shall we try it?’
or
‘once upon a time…’
Interaction begins, guided by the adult who supports and develops various ideas from the children, all the times introducing the ‘rules of conversation…..listen to others respectfully.
The adult can support children who may be reluctant to join in talking to start with, can support vocabulary development and be aware of of children for whom English is a second language.
It may be that the adult has a puppet who can invite curious questions about the children. He probably has a name, may have a bandaged leg. He may be wearing a rain coat or a party hat.
The table may be covered with paper and various pens, crayons and pencils are available if children want to draw, write and tell a story across the table top.

Practitioner comments

* Initially the children tended to only talk when they held an object and the comments described what they were holding, such as ‘it feels bumpy and sharp’, when describing the log. It wasn’t until all the objects had been taken out of the ox, that children engaged in conversation. One girl immediately started to tell a story with the objects to herself…’the shark was climbing on the log’..

* There was a reluctant speaker in the group and a child who is autistic and had no speech. The reluctant speaker enjoyed looking at the objects and laughed when the other children put on masks, but did not engage in conversation. It was only when I said ‘look, the shark has lost its tail’, that he looked closely at the shark and said ‘look at his face…he is crying!’
This was the most I had heard this child say in one go.
The boy with Autism, showed visible enjoyment, looking closely at the objects, smiling, laughing, so all signs of non-verbal communication.

* A very reluctant speaker was part of the group today. She appeared engrossed in other children’s storytelling but was not verbally participating herself, playing the role of onlooker, but she did stay for the duration of the entire session. The following day this child came into Nursery and asked where the was the ‘story telling box’, as she called it. Initially she was reluctant but later was retelling known stories to both adult and peers.

* We had very successful ‘Talking Tables’ with lots of imaginative storytelling, as well as excited and interesting conversations about various objects’.

* It helped children to develop children’s questioning skills greatly and their descriptive skills as well.

* It takes us back to the child as the focus of attention rather than curriculum delivery.

* Friendships can develop and children feel they belong to a small group.

* Children’s imagination and vocabulary have developed

* All children can take part and it has something for every level of ability.