Talking and Learning with Young Children

This really is a book about talking and learning with young children. A refreshing awareness of early learning and language as a partnership between young children and adults permeates the text.

Every chapter is shaped by conversations and exploratory talk and the key message for all practitioners is that such detailed conversations and opportunities for Sustained Shared Thinking (SST) can take place in busy early years settings.

It is all a matter of priorities!

Marian Whitehead Language and Early Years Education Consultant

The author’s wide experience of working with young children and his fascination with their development shines brightly throughout this book. Michael brings together research findings, theoretical understanding, and authentic examples of practice to provide a treasury of information about how adults can best support young children’s communication using language. The many practical examples make clear how to recognise the potential in everyday events to develop detailed conversations with children.

Marion Dowling Early Years Consultant
This book is a fantastic read, I have learned a lot both as a parent and also towards my professional knowledge as a 0-3 Learning and Development Officer for a Local Authority. I particularly like the way Michael includes points to reflect on and practical tasks as they enable you to really understand the theory he has written about/advice he has given and experience it for yourself.  The extracts of conversations also bring the theory to life too.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with an interest in how children learn and how adults can promote children’s learning and development. Kelly Yeun 0-3yrs Learning and Development Officer
This book is fantastic for students of Speech and Language Therapy, early years practitioners and anyone involved with young children, or indeed anyone who is fascinated by the way we learn to interact with our world using language. It’s probably the best summary of the theories behind how and why children communicate that I’ve come across. There are useful points for reflection and discussion to embed and personalise the reading for those who wish to explore the ideas further. Michael Jones brings the theory to life with everyday examples we can all identify with to help our learning and understanding. Similar books often leave you feeling as if the author is using the book as a platform for showing how complicated the process is but there’s no patronising here, just excellent, practical information which we can use. It makes everyone realise that there is opportunity for developing communication in everyday activities and good ways to encourage that. I have no hesitation in recommending it… indeed I already have!   Libby Hill Director of Small Talk Ltd, Speech and Language Therapist

From the very start, Talking and Learning with Young Children has a positive message: ‘It is fun to talk, for the sake of talking’ and has a focus on joint learning between adults and children, rather than adults hijacking the conversation... As you would expect from such an experienced observer of children and raconteur, there are plenty of beautifully written examples of children’s interactions, in fact there are examples and case studies on almost every page. In addition, there is a very useful glossary at the end of the book... I think this is a book you could read just for the sheer joy of it – you don’t need to be doing a course or studying language development. It would certainly be a very valuable addition to the st...