Three tips to help young children talk about the school day

Rose Akachi, head of Early Years at Dubai British School Foundation, talks about ways to encourage your little one to talk about their school day.

October is a busy month in Foundation Stage for children, parents and teachers. It is the settling time, where secure relationships are made, routines are embedded and children begin to develop their independence.

As a parent, it is great to see your child happy and settled in school but it can sometimes be tricky to get information from young children about their day at school. Often when a child is asked what they did at school, a common response is, “I played” – which is great, but limits the conversation.

Getting children to open up

Here are some suggestions that may help you to start a conversation with your child, encouraging them to talk about their school day.

Use the apps

Most schools and nurseries use apps or programs such as Seesaw and ClassDojo to share photos, videos and updates. Show the photos to your child and talk about what you can see. For example, try saying, “I can see that you played outside today. What did you make in the sand?” It is much easier for children to recall what they did when they have the video or photo in front of them.

Be direct

Another way to encourage your child to talk about their day is to ask more direct questions such as, “Who did you eat lunch with today?” or, “What story did you read in class?”. Even more abstract questions like, “ What made you laugh today?” can be great jumping off points for kids to start talking. Modelling some examples of things that you have done in the day may also help your child to talk about their day. Simple references like, “Today, I went to the supermarket to buy some fruit and then I went to the gym” can open a dialogue and get your child thinking back over their own day.

Make time to talk

Creating time to talk can lead to more thoughtful discussions. This may be on the journey home from school, during dinner time or in the calm time before bed. Once your child becomes more confident at talking about their day, you could begin to ask more open ended questions, such as, “That’s interesting, tell me more about…”.

These may seem simple, but subtly integrating these three small things can really help little ones in remembering, opening up and verbalising what happened in school each day, allowing you to know more about their experience and keep an eye on how they’re finding school week to week.

Image Credit: Dubai British School Foundation