Talking Partners

[sphil]

Are there any primary teachers or TAs on here who use this? DS1's teacher has just suggested that he does it to improve his oral skills and I'd like to know the sorts of activities involved so we can practise (in a fun way) at home.
TIA

Talking Partners is often used as an intervention programme for
children who lack confidence.
children who need extra support
Children who don't have English as their first language
Gifted and talented children to extend their learning.
It provides accelerated progress in spoken language which has a significant impact on reading, writing and behaviour.

Talking Partners is usually a targeted 10 week support programme that focuses on speaking and listening skills.

1 adult works with 3 children for 20 minutes three times a week.
It can be used with children from reception through to year 6.
It provides opportunities to develop purposeful talk which builds on prior experience.

Thanks Mrz - any idea about specific activities used?

I'm not sure it could be delivered at home all our staff did training with ROWA

Talking partners is a special programme we use it to encourage reception children to talk and to improve the way they describe the world around them, their personal feelings and opinions. It encourages children to listen more attentively, to ask questions for clarification, to participate in role play and discussion, to relate stories and to report on activities carried out. Children are more confident in their class work and to speak, listen and write more. Teachers have seen noticeable improvement in children's use of descriptive language and accurate sentence structure.

As a parent I would imagine you do talk to your child a great deal and this will support the programme.

The children are encouraged to make their speech more accurate, livelier and more confident.

DS1 is articulate but tends to ramble a bit when he speaks or give a huge preamble before actually answering the question or giving the info. He's also not always aware of the social signals of the listener (so he might start speaking when someone's back is turned, for example).

I think his teacher wants to use it to help him become more concise and effective when he speaks - they see it as a strength of his in a way, as he has a mind full of ideas and a wide vocab - it's just the delivery that needs work at times.

All the children in our school have 'talk partners' .I think they discuss ideas with one another.Is that something different ?

Mine's the same as Katiestar.