<P>Talk Box supports teachers implementing the new curriculum, who are looking for fresh ideas with a focus on teaching talk skills, encouraging discussion and developing articulate children. It sets out different types of teaching involving children learning collaboratively through discussion with peers and centres on step-by-step lesson plans to develop hidden potential across the entire classroom.</P><P>At the heart of the lesson plans is the ''talk box'' - a collection of interesting objects which provide a focus for class discussion and where the activities are based on these linked ideas:</P><P>¿ Young children need their teachers to help them make sense of the world; </P><P>¿ The most effective medium for explaining, discussing, describing with children, is talk;</P><P>¿ Children learn very well from one another when taught how to do so, and are a good resource for one another in the classroom;</P><P>¿ Children may be able to talk, but they are not often aware what sort of talk