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Following the links in the document to book on to our Camden Kids Talk trainings. This training is open to anyone working in Camden with young children.

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Camden Kids Talk training offer Autumn 26 

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Screen time for under-fives should be limited to one hour a day, parents told

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New guidance suggests avoiding fast-paced children’s content and sharing screen time where possible.

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CBeebies - CBeebies Parenting, Download – The art of negotiation: Tips for parents from an ex-hostage negotiator

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Bedtime battles to family friction: The expert negotiation tips every parent should know.

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Encourage parents to come to the Imagination Library launch event

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Encourage parents to come to the Imagination Library launch event

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Camden Dads activities and drop-in group

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Join our friendly Camden Dads drop-in group to meet other dads and male carers. Enjoy activities, free swim sessions and get support.

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Help us gather feedback on SEND Services in Camden Family Hubs

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Help us gather feedback on SEND Services in Camden Family Hubs

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Circle of Security details for Spring term - please share with parents who may benefit!

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Circle of Security details for Spring term - please share with parents who may benefit!

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Circle of Security Parenting Group Poster Jan 2026 (3)

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The Speech Lab - Investigating language learning

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The Speech Lab - Investigating language learning

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The Speech Lab - Investigating language learning - BBC Tiny Happy People

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How does peekaboo help language learning? How far can babies see? What is the science behind learning to rhyme? Professor Ben Ambridge and Dr Saloni Krishnan explore the science behind your baby and child's development and language learning in our Speech Lab series.

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ND Waiting Room - a fantastic resource for parents awaiting assessment or whose children have a diagnosis of autism

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ND Waiting Room - a fantastic resource for parents awaiting assessment or whose children have a diagnosis of autism

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Find information about neurodevelopmental support services available in Camden.

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Supporting stammering, speech and language in the early years: Rapid Review

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Supporting stammering, speech and language in the early years: Rapid Review

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Children under 5

Camden offers services to all families with children under 5 years old (including expecting mothers) and specialist services for children with special needs and disabilities

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Camden offers services to all families with children under 5 years old (including expecting mothers) and specialist services for children with special needs and disabilities.
Who to talk to first
If your child isn't attending nursery or pre-school and you have concerns about your child's development talk to your health visitor or doctor. If you feel you need general help or support contact your local Children's Centre.

If your child is going to nursery or pre-school: speak to your child's key worker if you have concerns about your child's progress or contact the nursery's SENCO (Special Educational Needs coordinator).

If health problems are affecting your child's learning: contact your doctor (for example hearing loss).

There is further information on organisations you may have contact with on the right hand side of this page. Some of them accept direct enquires from parents and carers, others are by professional referral only.

To find out about services for children under 5 and their families in Camden's Children's Centres click here.
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Children under 5 Camden offers services to all families with children under 5 years old (including expecting mothers) and specialist services for children with special needs and disabilities. Who to talk to first If your child isn't attending nursery or pre-school and you have concerns about your child's development talk to your health visitor or doctor.

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For Camden children, this screening tool is used at the Health Visitor 1-year check—the complete speech and language toolkit, from screening to intervention.

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For Camden children, this screening tool is used at the Health Visitor 1-year check—the complete speech and language toolkit, from screening to intervention.

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Delayed language skills lead to under-performance later in life, yet many primary school children have unidentified speech and language difficulties. WellComm can help you to turn this around.
Both the Early Years and the Primary toolkits enable you to quickly and easily identify children needing support. They're quick and simple to use (requiring no speech and language expertise), and the traffic light scoring format of the instant reports makes them quick to interpret.

Both toolkits come with an age-appropriate Big Book of Ideas providing a total of over 150 instant, play-based activities so you can take appropriate action straight away. Activities can be used with parents at home too, so that support is provided whether or not a child is referred to a speech and language therapist

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Both the Early Years and the Primary toolkits enable you to quickly and easily identify children needing support.

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An enquiry service which is part of Speech and Language UK's family support. It is designed to give parents or carers and practitioners a chance to discuss questions or concerns about a child’s speech and language development with one of our speech and language therapists. This service is free.

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An enquiry service which is part of Speech and Language UK's family support. It is designed to give parents or carers and practitioners a chance to discuss questions or concerns about a child’s speech and language development with one of our speech and language therapists. This service is free.

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Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives

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Enquiry service

Our free enquiry service is a confidential phone call with an experienced speech and language therapist. During the 30-minute call, you will be given the opportunity to talk through your concerns and questions regarding your child's development.

Our speech and language therapists will be able to provide you with information on typical development, as well as advice on how to support your child's skills. They will also be able to signpost you to other services.

Following the call, you will receive an email summary with tips, techniques and signposting to other helpful services.
Please note that we open booking slots monthly. This service does not include meeting and assessing children. The speech and language therapist cannot give specific advice on topics such as diagnosis or the provision the child is receiving, but will aim to signpost to services and organisations that can help further.

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An enquiry service for parents or carers and practitioners to discuss concerns they have about a child. A series of webinars designed to give parents the tools they need to support their child.

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By using fun interactive stories we can engage young children and support their communication development. When telling stories in this way we can adapt them to the interests of the child and expand on their responses and ideas. Have a look at these examples and think about what kinds of communication targets they might promote.

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This Speech and language progress checker  provides a few short questions you can answer to see how your baby or child is getting on with their talking and understanding of words.

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This Speech and language progress checker  provides a few short questions you can answer to see how your baby or child is getting on with their talking and understanding of words.

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Early Identification Tools for Parents and Practitioners

I CAN Progress checker 6 months onwards (up to 11 years)

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Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives

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Our progress checkers will provide short questions you can answer to see how your baby or child is getting on with their talking and understanding of words.

It's based on what we know about how talking and understanding of words develops in babies and children. It's not the same as a standardised measure a specialist would carry out but it should give you an idea of how your baby or child is developing and whether you need some support or advice to help you and them.

Choose the right age and answer the questions, at the end, we will let you know how your child is doing and what help is available if you need it.

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Our progress checkers will provide short questions you can answer to see how your baby or child is getting on with their talking and understanding of words. It's based on what we know about how talking and understanding of words develops in babies and children.

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Storytime at Whittington Health NHS Trust

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Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives

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We know that each child and situation is different. We also know there are some questions that come up again and again. Our team of speech & language therapists have written these factsheets, based on our most frequently asked questions from parents, carers and practitioners. Take a look at the downloadable factsheets below for information on a wide variety of topics.

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We know that each child and situation is different. We also know there are some questions that come up again and again. Our team of speech & language therapists have written these factsheets, based on our most frequently asked questions from parents, carers and practitioners.

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How can health visitors and family nurses use Tiny Happy People?

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How can health visitors and family nurses use Tiny Happy People?

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Tiny Happy People is a BBC website full of advice health visitors and family nurses can share with parents and colleagues on a range of early years care concerns. We cover everything from bonding with babies and toddlers, to speech and language development, to play ideas, as well as offering practical help with parents' routines including changing nappies, bedtimes, feeding, weaning and potty training.

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Tiny Happy People is a BBC website full of advice health visitors and family nurses can share with parents and colleagues on a range of early years care concerns. We cover everything from bonding with babies and toddlers, to speech and language development, to play ideas, as well as offering practical help with parents' routines including changing nappies, bedtimes, feeding, weaning and potty training.
Across the Tiny Happy People site, you'll find videos modelling best practice that you can show to parents and families on visits. These are all evidence-based and have been quality-checked by panels of professionals including health visitors, midwives and speech and language therapists.

We also offer parents knowledge of how simple play and chat benefits babies and toddlers' development.
Below you'll find a suggested selection of resources you might find useful to share with families at various contact points, as well as some sections that you might find useful around SEND and speech delays, bilingual families and parents' behavioural concerns. Just click the visit title in the menu to jump to the right resources for you. As well as the below website resources, you may want to recommend our accessible, warm and welcoming Instagram and Facebook channels to parents you work with - just suggest they follow @bbctinyhappypeople.

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How can health visitors and family nurses use Tiny Happy People?

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Tiny Happy People is a resource from the BBC full of content health visitors and family nurses can use to refer parents to on a range of parenting topics.

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Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

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Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done.

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Does father involvement increase children’s educational attainment at primary school?

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Does father involvement increase children’s educational attainment at primary school?

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Paternal Involvement and its Effects on Children’s Education

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Child Development Team Communication Padlet 

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Child Development Team Communication Padlet 

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Click below to find more suggestions for children with communication differences

CDT Communication Padlet

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কথা বলতে সাহায্য করার জন্য গল্প ব্যবহার করুন

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কথা বলতে সাহায্য করার জন্য গল্প ব্যবহার করুন

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Using Stories to Support Your Child’s Communication (Bengali version)

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Discover a wide range of resources, publications and downloads to support use and implementation of AAC and AT

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Whether you want your child to speak Polish, Spanish or Punjabi, being bilingual is a great skill to have. But how do you go about it? And will there be any issues in their language development if you do?

It's a common myth that you should only speak to children in the language that they will be taught in at school.

Evidence suggests that it's better to speak to your children in all of the languages that you speak at home as they're more likely to pick these up early on.

We spoke to Speech and Language Therapist Monal Gajjar about bringing up bilingual children and she answered some of your most common questions.

Watch our video for a general overview on raising a bilingual baby, or have a look at the specific questions underneath for a bit more detail.

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Bilingual babies: Your questions answered by a speech and language therapist

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Should you speak more than one language in the house? Do bilingual babies talk later? Speech and language therapist Monal Gajjar talks about bringing up children in bilingual households.

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How can early years practitioners use Tiny Happy People?

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How can early years practitioners use Tiny Happy People?

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How can early years practitioners use Tiny Happy People?

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Tiny Happy People is a resource from the BBC full of content early years practitioners can use in settings and refer parents and carers to.

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A video highlighting what it's like to have DLD, a condition more common than autism (but less well-known).

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Darcie's story - a video about Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) #2in30

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Find out more about Camden Early Years' Speech and Language Therapy Service 

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Find out more about Camden Early Years' Speech and Language Therapy Service 

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Early Years Service leaflet oct 19  Final

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My name is Garbagh Kaur, my husband is Herrai Singh. We have 2 children, one is called Gurmukh Singh. What?

I'm just looking, oh my god.

I thought you did something with your leg!

One is called Gurmukh Singh, he is 6 years old, the other is Sunmukh Singh, he is 3 years old. And we live with Herrai's mother.

We use music while we're teaching them Punjabi.

The singing it helps because you're gonna repeat. When they're singing the hymns they're picking up words.These words then come back into their language when they're speaking as well. Times have changed and when I was younger and I learnt

You were told to do things and that was it. Whereas now, it's not that easy. I think you have to change the way that you interact with your children.

Sitting down, singing, having fun. Teaching through fun is more beneficial. If he's not going to enjoy it, there's no point in forcing him. I think a parent really has to grab a child's strengths.

We teach Sunmukh using the blackboard.

I think the main advice that we can give any parents who are bilingual is starting them off young and also within your home, try and speak it as much as you can, because it is very difficult once they start school.

They're learning at school in one way, they're learning another way at home. It's the same life. Just two different environments really.

I really want them to be very academically clever so I can retire.

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Garbagh and Herrai talk about using fun activities to help their children learn Punjabi.

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SENDIASS Newsletter - December 2023 by Camden Learning | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for educators, nonprofits, businesses and more

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Linked to the English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) educational programmes, this is a simple, organised collection of themed daily activities for 3-5 year olds, including videos for Early Years children too.

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Linked to the English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) educational programmes, this is a simple, organised collection of themed daily activities for 3-5 year olds, including videos for Early Years children too.

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Our first book!

What we do

In the face of adversity comes extraordinary things. We hope EYFSHome will be one of them for the many young children and their families home-educating over the next few weeks.

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We offer a simple, organised programme of activities, advice and support and a much needed community for all those looking after
3-5 year-olds and their siblings.

Explore the rest of the site

Curriculum

Advice

& support

Join our community and follow us

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Our first book! What we do In the face of adversity comes extraordinary things. We hope EYFSHome will be one of them for the many young children and their families home-educating over the next few weeks. ​ We offer a simple, organised programme of activities, advice and support and a much needed community for all those looking after 3-5 year-olds and their siblings.

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Tiny Owl - Story TimeThis is a YouTube channel featuring crafts and activities for small children, as well as videos of librarians reading aloud children’s stories.

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Tiny Owl - Story TimeThis is a YouTube channel featuring crafts and activities for small children, as well as videos of librarians reading aloud children’s stories.

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An independent, global publisher of beautiful multicultural picture books for EVERYONE! New videos every Friday. Established in 2015, our energy and passion stems from our belief that stories act as bridges - providing pathways to new experiences whilst connecting us to here and there. Our stories are visually rich and conceptually meaningful.

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Early Years Social & Emotional Learning Activities Created by Partnership for Children, this is a selection of play-based activities to promote young children's social and emotional development.

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Early Years Social & Emotional Learning Activities Created by Partnership for Children, this is a selection of play-based activities to promote young children's social and emotional development.

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We have developed a selection of play-based activities to promote young children's social and emotional development and wellbeing.

Watch our short videos for an introduction to the activity cards with some top tips and tricks for successfully implementing the activity cards at home and school.

Resource Set 1 are designed for parents, carers and family members of children aged 3-5 years to take part in at home

Resource Set 2 are designed for Early Years practitioners and teachers to deliver to children in school or nursery

The activities are based on our Skills for Life programmes

The activities support with children's transition back to nursery/childcare/childminders or starting school

These activities are also available to download in:

Thanks to funding from Oldham Opportunity Area the activity cards are free to download.

IMPORTANT:

These resources or any portion may not be reproduced, relabelled, or used in any commercial manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author. Permission is not required for personal or professional use, such as in a coaching or classroom setting.

The free resources provided on this website are available to be downloaded and shared but may not be uploaded to other websites. If you wish to share on your website please post a link only.

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We have developed a selection of play-based activities to promote young children's social and emotional development and wellbeing. Watch our short videos for an introduction to the activity cards with some top tips and tricks for successfully implementing the activity cards at home and school.

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Inspired by artists, Starcatchers’ Wee Inspirations are fun, creative ideas to engage little ones at home without a lot of kit, stress, or pressure.

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Inspired by artists, Starcatchers’ Wee Inspirations are fun, creative ideas to engage little ones at home without a lot of kit, stress, or pressure.

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Starcatchers' Wee Inspirations are fun, creative ideas to engage little ones at home without a lot of kit, stress, nor pressure to 'achieve' anything. They are inspired by artists who work across Starcatchers' different areas of work including our productions and Wee People, Big Feelings project.

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 Professional and volunteer resources. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to share Tiny Happy People with your networks and families you work with. Below you will find a range of resources from social media packs to downloadable resources (printing guidelines can be found here).

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 Professional and volunteer resources. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to share Tiny Happy People with your networks and families you work with. Below you will find a range of resources from social media packs to downloadable resources (printing guidelines can be found here).

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Resources for professionals and volunteers

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On this page you will find a range of resources that you can download for your nursery, baby class or business that will help spread the word about Tiny Happy People.

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Trusted NHS help and advice during pregnancy, birth and parenthood

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Trusted NHS help and advice during pregnancy, birth and parenthood

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Skip to main content Young children love it when you chat, play and read with them, even if you think they're too young to understand. You can turn almost anything into a game. And every little thing you do together will help set them up nicely for the day they start school.

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Speech and Language UK - Children's Communication Charity

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Speech and Language UK - Children's Communication Charity

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This charity provides a range of resources for professionals

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Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives

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How can professionals support children's talking and understanding of words?

Speech and language skills are vital for all children. Without these skills they will not reach their full potential.

Professionals who work with children are key to identifying when they are having difficulties learning to talk and understand words. This includes early years practitioners, teachers and health visitors. Across the UK, for 1.7 million children learning to talk and understand words feels like an impossible hurdle - this increases to one in four for those children living in disadvantaged areas of the UK. I t's therefore essential that you understand how to identify and better support these children.

If you have concerns about a child's talking and understanding of words, you should use our Progress Checker, and talk to the parents or carers to decide how you can best support the child to develop these skills. Our series of factsheets list useful techniques to use on a daily basis with pre-school and school-aged children.

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How can professionals support children's talking and understanding of words? Speech and language skills are vital for all children. Without these skills they will not reach their full potential. Professionals who work with children are key to identifying when they are having difficulties learning to talk and understand words.

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If you have concerns about a child’s talking and understanding of words, you should use our Progress Checker, and talk to the parents or carers to decide how you can best support the child to develop these skills. 

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If you have concerns about a child’s talking and understanding of words, you should use our Progress Checker, and talk to the parents or carers to decide how you can best support the child to develop these skills. 

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Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives

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Speech and Language UK: Information and support

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Speech and Language UK: Help for parents and families

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WellComm: Ideas for encouraging language development with 2-year-olds

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WellComm: Ideas for encouraging language development with 3-year-olds

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We answered your questions on speech and language development

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We answered your questions on speech and language development

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We answered your questions on speech and language development

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We asked this question over on our Instagram page and received an overwhelming amount of responses, which we have answered below.

All of the answers were provided by Speech and Language Therapists Janet Cooper and Monal Gajjar.

It's completely natural to worry about your child's language development and we hope the answers below help with your queries and ease your worries.

The easiest sounds for children to learn are the lips together sounds like 'p', 'b' and 'm.'

These might be followed by sounds made with your tongue at the front of the mouth like 'n', 's', 't' and 'd.'

Sounds that are further back in the mouth, 'k' and 'g', or need more complicated movements like 'ch', 'j' and 'sh', often come much later on.

First, when you're playing together or sharing books together, try not to ask questions. When we ask 'what's that?', children can feel tested, so it's more helpful just to point to and name things. Or even better, see what your child is most interested in and name that.

Lastly, have fun playing with animal noises, transport noises, making sounds like 'mmm', 'yuck!' with pretend food. Lots of sound play helps develop early words in a fun way!

Speaking clearly is really tricky for little ones as they are still practising listening, thinking about sounds and then moving their muscles to make the sound.

It is normal to make lots of mistakes particularly in the early years.

If they make a mistake - for example saying "poon" instead of "spoon" - be positive about their attempts but always model it back afterwards, so they can hear how it should sound. So you could say, "yes it's a spoon".

Don't ask them to repeat the word at this age or tell them they have said it wrong as this may put pressure on talking and put them off trying.

When children are first born their brain is not fully developed. Every experience helps make new brain connections that will shape the way they develop. They need lots of opportunities to practise and learn skills both for walking and talking.

If your child has started making progress in both at the same time, they have probably made these early brain connections through the opportunities you have provided. Carry on offering them experiences to keep this up.

This is very commonly experienced by parents who have a second child. Firstly, because they have an older child to compare the second child with, but also more commonly we often see the younger sibling getting fewer opportunities to use their communication skills.

We would suggest you set aside some time every day with your younger child, where they can have your undivided attention and don't have to compete to speak.

During this time, follow their lead and comment on what they're doing. Play games where they can be in charge, for example when blowing bubbles, you are only allowed to blow the bubbles when they say 'go'.

If they say words that are not clear, the best way to help is to repeat what they have said using the right words and sounds. There is no need to ask them to say it again.

Also, remember every child develops differently and this is ok.

Using dummies occasionally in the first year is unlikely to cause any long term impact on speech, but if dummy use persists or if it is used a lot it can affect the way the sounds at the front of the mouth, like 't' and 'd', are made. Children will often swap these for back sounds like 'k' and 'g'.

Children who use dummies (and bottles) a lot after 12 months may also be more 'dribbly', have more chance of getting ear infections which will affect speech and may have slushy speech - particularly the 's' sound.

Best to use it only if it is really needed and aim to be gone by one.

Screen time has its place but it needs to be balanced with real-life opportunities and experiences.

Lots of children repeat sounds or hesitate over their speech while they are learning to talk and this can be part of a normal 'non-fluent' phase.

Usually, this improves as they become better at talking and can think of the sentences they want to say. Keep calm, try not to bombard them with questions and slow your own rate of talking down a little to show you are listening and interested in what they are saying.

Keep an eye on how this develops and if it persists into school age you might want to seek advice from your local Speech and Language Therapy service.

Selective mutism is anxiety around talking. Very often children are capable of talking but go into a 'fight or flight' feeling when in a speaking environment outside their trusted circle. This can often lead to total silence and the more pressure you put on them to talk, the more anxiety builds up.

The main thing is to build trust and confidence and put no pressure on speaking. Do as much as you can to help them feel relaxed and give them opportunities to join in non-verbally (without needing to speak).

You might want to gradually introduce new people outside of the family circle into games and situations where there is no pressure on speaking.

Tongue ties present differently in each child. Not all children with tongue ties have speech difficulties.

Generally, if your child has had or is having difficulty with feeding due to their tongue-tie, then intervention to release the tie would be advised. Your health visitor or GP will be able to guide you with this.

In many cases, as children grow with their tongue ties, their mouths very easily adapt and they have no problem with speech sounds.

We do need to use the tip of our tongue to make certain speech sounds, like 't', 'd', 's' 'sh' 'th' 'l' - so if your child is not able to make these sounds, and you are sure they should be at the age they are, have a look to see if they are having difficulty raising their tongue tip to make these sounds.

You may also notice that they have difficulty chewing or eating certain types of food, find it hard to lick an ice cream and can be messy eaters. If this is the case, ask to be referred to an SLT so they can take a look and provide the right advice.

There are lots of everyday tips to support children with speech difficulties.

Apraxia of speech is difficulty coordinating the movements for speech even though there is nothing wrong with the muscles.

Speech sound disorder covers a range of speech difficulties including difficulty discriminating sounds, difficulty storing the right sounds and choosing and blending the correct sounds for speech.

For either of these it is helpful to encourage lots of listening activities- listening to sounds around them, hearing rhymes, working out what sounds words begin and end with.

It is also great to have fun making sounds to practise all the movements you need in a fun way such as pulling funny faces in a mirror, copying tongue movements , blowing raspberries, sucking through a straw and blowing bubbles.

Some children benefit from having a visual clue when they are trying to find the correct sound so you may need to show them how the sound is made or use a hand signal such as 'cued articulation' to support their speech sound learning.

It's not the same as a standardised measure a specialist would carry out but it should give you an idea of how your baby or child is developing and whether you need some support or advice to help you and them.
If you are following all of these bits of advice and your child is still not progressing, you may need a referral to a speech and language therapist. Most speech and language therapy departments can be accessed via your local NHS service. You can often make the referral yourself, but it is always good to check first with your child's health professional, GP or nursery practitioner.

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We answered your questions on speech and language development

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What is language development? What are language development milestones for babies and toddlers? Find answers to some questions you might have about your child's language and communication development. From dealing with stammers and lisps to baby sign language. We have all the answers here.

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Baby Bonding Drop In for 0-6months

Will be running over the holiday period at Kilburn Children’s Centre & Family Hub

1 Palmerston Road NW6 2JL

and

Harmood Centre & Family Hub

1 Forge Place, Ferdinand Street NW1 8DQ

Please note

The Drop In at Hampden Children’s Centre, 80 Polygon Road, NW1 1HQ

last session Friday 20th December 2024 and will return on Friday 10th January 2025

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Quiz: How does children’s language develop?

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Quiz: How does children’s language develop?

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Every child is different and will develop skills in their own time. Some may be quicker at physical things like crawling, whilst others are chatterboxes from very early on.
However, there are some recognised key language learning milestones that children usually follow, as described by the children's communication charity, .

These are set out in the quiz below - can you work out the likely age of each child based on their language skills?

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Quiz: How does children's language develop?

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Every child is different and will develop skills in their own time. Some may be quicker at physical things like crawling, whilst others are chatterboxes from very early on. However, there are some recognised key language learning milestones that children usually follow, as described by the children's communication charity, .

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We have created a series of bilingual quick tips, in 19 different languages, for parents and early years practitioners to help children develop good talking and listening skills.

If the language you need isn't listed below, we have created a blank template for each topic so that you can adapt it to the desired language. Please do send any new translations of the quick tips to talktoyourbaby@literacytrust.org.uk so that we can share them more widely with families, nurseries and schools.

If you are working with multilingual families, our Time Together booklet has been translated in to 22 different languages and is packed with fun and simple activities that support language development.

Don't forget - we have lots more free early years resources created by literacy and communication experts.

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Bilingual quick tips | National Literacy Trust

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Our bilingual quick tips cover topics including playing with your baby, sharing books with your baby and talking to your baby in your own language.

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Words for Life | National Literacy Trust

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Activities and support for parents, children and young people to improve language, literacy and communication skills from home.

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Ages zero to three are the most important for lifelong mental health and well-being.

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Ages zero to three are the most important for lifelong mental health and well-being.

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CHILDREN who are struggling to learn how speak after the Covid lockdowns can still catch up, therapists have said. A new task force is now in place to help them work on speech and language development.

Camden Kids Talk was launched in 2021 in the wake of coronavirus. The initiative aims to draw together a range of local health and social services that work to improve the speech, language and communication skills of children.

"We know that language difficulties are quite strongly linked with social deprivation and we know that the pandemic and austerity have exacerbated that," said project co-leader, speech and language therapist Kathleen Cavin.

"Those difficulties were there before the pandemic as well - it's not purely because of that - but we do know that if we put things in place, absolutely some of those children are going to catch up," she said.

The school closures during lockdown meant many young children missed out on learning key early communication skills.

Ms Cavin said this week: "Thinking about preschool children, there were just not the opportunities to interact with their peers."

She said "early talking" has "an impact on academic outcomes. If we look at the vocabulary of children when they're around five, studies have shown that we can predict at a population level how they're going to do in their key GCSEs."

In March, a council report found the pandemic had left many children in the borough with underdeveloped social and emotional skills. It was reported that some nursery school age children were pre-verbal.

"Some children were described by the teachers as merely 'grunting' in response to questions," the research found.

SEE ALSO PANDEMIC DISRUPTION LEAVES SOME PUPILS ONLY 'RESPONDING WITH GRUNTS'

Camden Kids Talk aims to combat this phenomenon by encouraging parents to get involved from an early stage.

"I think sometimes it's easy to think about communication as starting when a child starts talking, and we're really keen to get the idea across that it starts in the womb," Ms Cavin said.

Speech and emotional development are closely linked, Ms Cavin said, adding parents can help their child "name the feeling" as a fix. "One of our tips is around naming the feeling. That's thinking about: 'what are you expressing right now?' They might be in the middle of a meltdown. As an acknowledgement, say: 'it makes you angry when you have to leave the park', and by acknowledging the feeling... it gives them the vocabulary that they can then talk about their feelings."

Parents can also reduce screen time to improve their children's speech and language abilities.

Ms Cavin said: "One of our tips is 'screens away, it's time to play'. But we absolutely acknowledge that we live in a world where screens are part of that, and screens can have some educational value. But what we're saying is it doesn't replace those interactions that you have with your child."

Speech and language therapist Cat Choate said: "One of my favourite - and one of the most important - tips is to speak your home language at home. The research has shown us that speaking one language at home and then a different language at nursery definitely doesn't cause speech, language and communication difficulties."

Any parents needing a bit more help to support their child can visit their local children's centre.

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Children struggling to speak after Covid lockdown

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Need a Tiny Happy People Video  to support your planning or work with a parent ? Look no further..... 

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Need a Tiny Happy People Video  to support your planning or work with a parent ? Look no further..... 

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Copy of Tiny Happy People Video Content - 23.03.23

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Super Stories Support Communication Development 

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Super Stories Support Communication Development 

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Watch this video to find out more about how stories help develop all kinds of communication skills, from attention to understanding and talking

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Using Stories Slides and Both Stories ENGLISH

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Join the web’s most supportive community of creators and get high-quality tools for hosting, sharing, and streaming videos in gorgeous HD and 4K with no ads.

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One of the most significant changes I've made is showing empathy when Neil expresses his emotions. For example, instead of punishing Neil when he is acting out, I take him aside and talk to him to understand why he is acting this way.

By taking this new approach, I've found that Neil's outbursts are less frequent. He understands that he can talk to me about his feelings without the worry of being shouted at. He is also learning how to better manage his feelings because we use lots of words to describe them together.

Adopting more age-appropriate expectations has played a massive part in building Neil's self-esteem. Before, I used to expect Neil to put on his shoes by himself with little to no help and got frustrated when he couldn't.

Now, I talk Neil through each step, and we put our shoes on together so he can see how I do it. Sometimes he is successful and sometimes he isn't. Either way, I hug him and tell him I'm proud of him. By doing this, I'm showing Neil that he should be just as proud of the effort he puts into tasks as he is of the results.

I also let Neil take part in our decision-making now. I let him choose things like where we go on our days out, what he eats for dinner, and what outfit he wants to wear. This has allowed him to embrace his independence.

Letting Neil choose between a couple of options has helped his decision-making skills, which is something that I hope will benefit him greatly at every stage of his life.

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Alister's Story: How I changed my parenting attitude

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Alister, 25, has a two-year-old son, Neil. He talks about changing his parenting attitude from a stricter approach to one based on empathy.

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Need a Tiny Happy People Video  to support your planning or work with a parent ? Look no further..... 

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Need a Tiny Happy People Video  to support your planning or work with a parent ? Look no further..... 

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Copy of Tiny Happy People Video Content - 23.03.23

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Need a Tiny Happy People Video  to support your planning or work with a parent ? Look no further..... 

# data[].attributes.subject
Need a Tiny Happy People Video  to support your planning or work with a parent ? Look no further..... 

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Copy of Tiny Happy People Video Content - 23.03.23

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If you know a new dad with a social media account, there's a good chance you'll have seen him proudly holding his newborn child in the maternity ward.
He may even be holding baby right next to his bare chest for skin-to-skin contact , which is perfect to build a paternal bond from the earliest possible stage.

But this is a relatively new experience, certainly in the UK, where a dad's presence during birth, and directly afterwards, has become more and more common in recent years. Not so long ago, dads weren't even encouraged to be in the same room as their partner to witness babies arriving.

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The changing ways dads have bonded with kids

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Joining mum in the birthing room is a relatively recent experience for dads - how has dad's role in birth and bonding changed over time and why?

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 Free virtual online Tiny Happy People 'Champions Training' sessions for professionals and volunteers. Find out how to register below...

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 Free virtual online Tiny Happy People 'Champions Training' sessions for professionals and volunteers. Find out how to register below...

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Hundreds of fun, simple activities , organised by age, showing families how to support their children's language development.

There's also child development content , showing parents and carers why supporting language learning is important. It's all about children's amazing brain development and how they understand the world around them.

As well as tips and advice from health visitors, speech and language experts, healthcare professionals and early years practitioners covering a wide range of parenting topics.

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Champions Training for professionals 2024

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Find out how to become a Tiny Happy People Champion as an early years practioner or healthcare professional.

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How Tiny Happy People can support home learning environment. 

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How Tiny Happy People can support home learning environment. 

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Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

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Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done.

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The Communication Passport is aimed at all those wishing to improve speech, language, and communication outcomes for young children. Use it as part of your new starter induction programme or as part of SLC skills review.

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MOSAIC Child Development Team: Waiting Well letter to parents 

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MOSAIC Child Development Team: Waiting Well letter to parents 

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The myth of speech delay in bilingual toddlers: Top tips for speaking two languages to baby

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Does speaking two languages to a baby confuse them? It is a common myth is that speaking more than one language confuses children and can lead to speech delay. In fact, being able to speak more than one language has plenty of advantages…

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Welcome to Mosaic Child Development Team (MOSAIC CDT)

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Welcome to Mosaic Child Development Team (MOSAIC CDT)

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Learn a new word every week and be inspired to get signing. The sign for 29th May - 4th June 2023 is To Cook.

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How family can help learn about language and culture

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Priyanka and Keyur explain how family members help their daughter learn Gujurati and about different customs.

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Sensory bag activities are fun and can support children who dislike touching certain things, while still encouraging them to explore. Making them at home enables you to explore together and have something that your child can play with at the end. Creating a sensory bag is easy, you will need heavy duty zipper sandwich bags and you can use such things as hair gel or shower gel, glitter, paint, tape, sequins, pom poms, bead or buttons that you have at home.

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How to share Camden Kids talk Padlet with parents .

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How to share Camden Kids talk Padlet with parents .

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Camden Kids Talk for Mums, Dads and Carers 

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Camden Kids Talk for Mums, Dads and Carers 

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We have developed a Padlet to share SLC resources with parents.  To share the padlet please share the QR code or share the link .

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If your child has a disability or more complex needs, you might worry about others judging them on appearances. You may choose to explain their behaviours or not, you know best.

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1037.326 - Camden Kids Talk A4-Resource-sheets- All on one PDF

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Top Tips Resource sheets.  Designed to be used with mums, dads and carers to support discussions on everyday activities that promote Speech, language and communication. You can download them here.

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Top Tips Resource sheets.  Designed to be used with mums, dads and carers to support discussions on everyday activities that promote Speech, language and communication. You can download them here.

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1037.326 - Camden Kids Talk A4-Resource-sheets- All on one PDF

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Using Tiny Happy People to help with speech and language targets

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Tiny Happy People is a resource from the BBC full of content that can help if you’re waiting for an SLT referral or have been set speech and language targets by an SLT.

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Words for Life | National Literacy Trust

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Activities and support for parents, children and young people to improve language, literacy and communication skills from home.

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Singing songs and rhymes with your toddler

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For parents of children aged 18 months to 2½ years

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For parents of children aged 18 months to 2½ years

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Speech and Language UK's enquiry service - You can book online!

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You can now book and manage appointments using our booking page.