Supporting children’s language through shared stories and sustained dialogue

Talk with Tales for Children (TWiTCH)

Context

The UK’s National Year of Reading has focussed attention on the importance of shared book reading. This is timely, as research shows a decline in book engagement at home and at school. However, with effective CPD and a renewed commitment to story time, practitioners can nurture children’s enjoyment of books, and through high quality interactions, nurture vital language and communication skills.

What is TWiTCH?

TWiTCH – Talk with Tales for Children, is a coach based professional development programme that is designed to support early years practitioners skills and confidence in faciltiating conversation during shared book reading time. TWiTCH is designed for maintained and PVI settings with 3‑ to 4‑year‑olds. A TWiTCH coach provides practitioner training and three coaching visits across the year, supported by a TWiTCH champion within the setting.

Each setting receives a resource bag with storybooks, a puppet, a turn‑taking toy and vocabulary cards. TWiTCH is based on traditional tales because they are accessible for 3‑ and 4‑year‑olds and include moral dilemmas that prompt discussion

Funded by the EEF and the DfE, since 2022, TWiTCH has been implemented in 64 nurseries, schools, children’s centres, and PVIs (in West/South Yorkshire, Manchester, and the Midlands) and 20 childminders, reaching 200 practitioners and 2000 children. The 2023-24 pilot study, involving 25 settings across the north of England, was independently evaluated by Durham University.

 Key features of the TWiTCH programme

The programme is organised into nine cycles, each based on a traditional story and lasting 3 weeks. Week 1 focuses on daily reading to build comprehension, using Completion, Recall, open‑ended and ‘Wh’ questions. Week 2 introduces choice‑based activities linked to the story’s dilemmas, supported by the RCRI strategy (Repeat, Check, Reason, Imagine). Week 3 embeds the story in children’s play and offers extra support for children who need to revisit activities.

 The underlying principles

The TWiTCH project brings together the principles of dialogic reading, repeated reading, the Hanen approach and the Philosophy for Children (P4C) pedagogy. Dialogic and repeated reading relate to what the practitioners do in TWiTCH sessions, whilst the Hanen approach and P4C guide how practitioners interact with children during shared book reading.

Dialogic reading – Talking with children about books supports language development by helping them recall information and explore characters’ actions. Dialogic reading draws on C.R.O.W.D. prompts (Completion, Recall, Open‑ended, ‘Wh’, Distancing) and P.E.E.R. strategies (Prompt, Expand, Elaborate, Repeat). These are central to Week 1 activities.

The Hanen approach – Promotes high quality interaction by encouraging practitioners to adopt responsive interaction styles based on tuning in, showing interest, giving children time to think, and supporting them to elaborate their ideas.

Philosophy for Children (P4C) – is an inquiry‑based pedagogy promoting critical, creative, collaborative and caring thinking about conceptual ideas that are contestable, complete and connected to individuals lives. Week 2 engages children in choice-based language games based on contested concepts and moral dilemmas in traditional tales. In Goldilocks and the three bears, for instance, the practitioner asks whether Goldilocks made a good choice or a bad choice when she ate baby bear’s porridge, followed by the RCRI (Repeat, Check, Reason and Imagine) strategy. 

The key findings

The findings showed that the programme was highly acceptable to practitioners.  By the end of the programme practitioners reported increased understanding of the RCRI strategy, and the use of choice‑based activities to encourage children to give reasons (80%).

Outcomes for children included better language and communication, a wider vocabulary, stronger reasoning skills, more confidence to join in, and improved story‑retelling. Practitioners also reported changes in their own practice, such as giving children more time to respond, encouraging a broader range of answers, repeating children’s ideas to show they were valued, and building stronger home–school links through shared stories, parent translation and newsletters.

TWiTCH also influenced practice beyond book sharing, with practitioners incorporating techniques such as giving time and responding to children’s ideas, more engagement, less adult talk, and greater use of open‑ended prompts. Findings were similar across PVI and maintained settings.

How can I get involved?

Take part in the TWITCH EEF funded trial if you are located in the following settings: Liverpool, Manchester, South/West/North Yorkshire, Derby/Derbyshire, Nottingham.  

To find out more visit: https://research.shu.ac.uk/twitchefficacytrial/

To complete an expression of interest form visit: https://forms.office.com/e/Rq3pwJGUiT?origin=lprLink