Children Centre Knowledge Hub
The New EYFS
Themed Areas:
The Child Maintenance Group have developed a web app designed to help direct separating and separated families to the resources they need during a vulnerable time in their life. The app is in a development phase, and will be collecting user feedback over the next few months to improve and expand the help it offers. Please click below to access the app, and send any feedback you have to sortin
Early Language
It is widely agreed that early language development is critical for future learning and school readiness. There is a wealth of evidence and research that you can draw on and study to support your understanding of this prime area of learning and development.
- The role of language in children’s early educational outcomes – Roulstone, Law, Rush, Clegg and Peters
- The importance of vocabulary in later literacy outcomes – Biemiller; Hart and Risley
- The importance of dialogic book talk in supporting vocabulary development – Dockerell; Wasik, Bond and Hindman; Whitehurst et al.
In our society children need to be skillful communicators and as a foundation years professional you have an important role in ensuring that children have every opportunity and support to become effective communicators.
Every professional has their part to play in supporting early language development:
- Health visitors, in identifying at the earliest age those children who will benefit from additional support and ensuring that they get that help.
- Speech and language therapists have a clinical role in supporting those children with identified speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and increasingly have a role in supporting early years practitioners to manage children’s SLCN through appropriate targeted interventions in settings.
- Practitioners will be engaged with children in high quality language interactions and monitoring their progress in ways as described in the Every Child a Talker Programme.
- All who work with foundation years children have a responsibility to engage mums and dads in supporting their child’s language development.
There is a wealth of information and organisations to support you in delivering high quality language experiences for your children, click the links below in ‘Find out more…’
Reflective questions:
How do you know what the children you interact with need to further their language development?
How do your support mums and dads so they know what they can do to support their child’s language?
Find out more… (click to open)
- Communication Trust – aims to highlight the importance of speech, language and communication across the children’s workforce and to enable practitioners to access the best training and expertise to support the communication needs of all children.
- Book Trust - is a national charity encouraging the spread of literacy through reading. Administers the Bookstart scheme.
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists - the professional body for speech and language therapists in the UK; providing leadership and setting professional standards.
- I CAN - I CAN are experts in helping children with communication difficulties and unlocking their potential and supporting early communication and language. Visit their website to download a range of resources, training courses and find out more about I Can’s Early Talk programme.
- Talk to Your Baby - From the National Literacy Trust, with information for parents and practitioners on improving literacy in the early years.
- Elkan - Elklan aims to improve the interaction and communication skills of children and young people by training those who live and work with them.
- Family and Parenting Institute, Early Home Learning Matters (EHLM) – EHLM brings together the evidence about the vital role played by parents in securing good outcomes for children, and provides practical information about how to plan and implement effective services to involve parents in their children’s learning from birth to age 5.
- PEEP - PEEP-trained practitioners work with parents and carers to support their babies’ and children’s development and improve their life chances, by making the most of everyday learning opportunities
- Makaton - with Makaton, signs or symbols are used with speech in spoken word order. Using signs can help people who have no speech or whose speech is unclear.
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