This document provides suggestions for teachers to create opportunities for children to express themselves through talking. It recommends having children talk about themselves, objects around school, pictures, and stories. For pictures, children can discuss what they see and predict outcomes. Stories should allow children to relate to characters, imagine events, and recreate the story. Role playing story characters develops communication skills. Teachers should let children speak fully, show interest, and respond by elaborating on what was said and asking for more details.

1. Let’s talk!
Creating opportunities for children to express themselves

2. Creating opportunities for expression
Talk
about…
Oneself
Things
around and
experience
in school
Pictures
Stories

3. Talk about oneself
Connect with the lives of children. Ask them about their :
• Thoughts/ideas
• Needs, wishes, desires
• Experiences
• Emotions

4. Talk about objects and experiences in school
Children could accurately observe :
trees
houses
flowers
bee-hives
butterflies
shops
street
taps
drains
…and various other things around them and talk about it

5. Talk about pictures
Each group can be given a picture from :
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Calendars
• Stamps
• Labels
• Posters
Children can discuss the picture within the group and the
spokesperson can describe it to the whole class. Pictures can be
used for creative and analytical talk.

6. Talk about pictures
With the help of pictures we can direct the child to do the
following things:
Finding - Eg. Who is sitting on the chair?
Reasoning – Eg. Why is the girl crying?
Projecting – Eg. What will the little girl say to the lady
selling the vegetables? (projecting into an
imaginary situation)
Predicting – Eg. What will the girl do when she reaches home?
Relating - Eg. Did you ever sit on a bicycle? What does it
feel like?

7. Listening to stories and talking about them
Give the children a chance to :
- Listen to the story
- Relate to the story
- Imagine characters and events
- Complete the story
- Recreate the story and its characters in a meaningful way

8. Role play
Playing the roles of characters in a story develops:
- communication skills
- insight and imagination
- group decision making
- conflict resolution

9. Tips for teachers
• Allow the child to say
the whole thing
• Be interested in what he
is trying to say
• Control your desire to
contradict
• Respond by saying elaborately what the child has said,
bringing in new vocabulary and a richer sentence
structure
• Ask for more information
• Direct the child to a new aspect of the topic

10. • Adapted from the handbook, “The child’s Language And The
Teacher” by Krishna Kumar