EARLY YEARS VR CASE STUDY: Early Communication (Student Age 3-4)
“This lesson took place in a nursery class of 23 children aged three to four; there is a high proportion of English as an additional language and bilingual pupils.”
“Our baseline assessments demonstrate a low entry level for most children in communication and language skills; as such, we decided to incorporate as much visual and immersive learning as possible to support and accelerate the children’s language skills.”
Rebecca Combes
Age 3 – 4 Primary School Teacher
PRACTICAL SESSION
In pairs, the children looked at a photograph of some giraffes and talked about what they could see. I then introduced the headset with the track preloaded and ready to use. One child wore the headset and described what they could see using the Giraffes at Riga Zoo image. They then swapped over so their partner could see what they had been describing and talked about the image further – using descriptive language and predicting what was actually happening.
IMPACT ON LEARNING
The initial photograph led to some statements, such as “Look…a giraffe!” and “It’s big” but the conversations were quite limited and short, and vocabulary was not developing as a result of the activity. When the headset was introduced, the children were more stimulated to say what they could see. It led to more imaginative vocabulary, expressive statements and extended sentences.
Child 1: “I can see a man, no…two mans. They are actually feeding the giraffe. There’s another man. He has a green t-shirt on!”
Child 2: “I see a giraffe. I’m scared of it! It’s big! It’s going to eat me! I see the audience too!” This child was referring to the people in the image. This discussion led to finding out more about giraffes and what they eat – luckily not nursery children!
Child 3: “Wow! I see a human. That’s a big giraffe! More humans! I’m on the ground but I’m not on the ground! The giraffe is looking at me and fooding (feeding). They look great!” The children loved using the headsets; feeling around them for the objects in the image and even exploring how to control them – one child worked out how to move the image by tilting his head, “It’s like a steering wheel on a car!”
