However some children’s speech sounds may develop more slowly or in an unusual way. For example ‘har’ for car or ‘oo’ for spoon, ay-ee for baby. These children may need extra help to develop their speech sounds.

There are different stages to work through, which include both listening to and producing speech sounds. It is important that the child is confident at each stage before moving onto the next.

Speech sounds are the sounds we use for talking. We use our tongue, lips, teeth, and other parts of our mouth to create different speech sounds.

This is a fee resource that has assessment and intervention games and resources. Perfect for Early Years, supporting children with SLCN and literacy difficulties in Primary phases too.

social communication difficulties and anxiety disorders.

The method aims to increase independent child-led communication. It consists of sustained,consistent turn-taking whilst developing collaboration with peers to achieve a shared task withinset rules…at the same time as having fun!

Home Language Profile template

Welcoming refugee children

For advice contact andree.race@essex.gov.uk

In the UK around 20% of children speak or understand more than one language. You might hear the terms ‘bilingual’ or ‘English as an additional language’ used to talk about these children.

In the past, some professionals told families to only speak English at home.  Now we know that this was not helpful advice. We have strong evidence from across the world that speaking more than one language is good for children for many reasons.

Advice for families

EAL Assessment guidance

Gaps in language and emotional skills can have a negative impact on behaviour as well as mental health and self- esteem. Language for Behaviour and Emotions provides a systematic approach to developing these skills so that young people can understand and work through social interaction difficulties

1. The Autism Central website (https://www.autismcentral.org.uk/hubs/essex-county-council) which has a huge range of information and guidance. 

2. Weekly online group sessions  

3. 1:1 support calls for more personal support.   

This is a free, all age service and does not require a diagnosis. Visit the website to find a wealth of information and to book online and 1:1 sessions

Courses are delivered online live & face to face at various locations across Essex and some flexible learning classes

Watch families in the film below to see how they use simple techniques to help develop their children's language skills. These techniques can be used at any time during everyday routines and play.

Every smile, cuddle, chat and game makes a huge difference, helping them learn to communicate, develop confidence and make friends.

Find lots of ideas, easy tips and activities you can do together with your child.

We get millions of children reading by supporting families to start sharing stories and books together from the earliest possible age.

Find out more about our work

One webinar takes place every week, and you can attend one or all of the webinars depending on the age of your child and your interest in the different topics.  In each webinar, they will talk through a range of targeted activities and approaches that you can put into practice with your child at home.

The programme helps practitioners to build parents’ knowledge and confidence so that they can help their children with reading and writing and create a positive early home learning environment.

This online short course is free and a great place to start learning about children and young people’s speech and language development.

The session will explain Tiny Happy People's approach, show you easily shareable content on the website and highlight the key language techniques and resources that you'll want to share.

The object is closely associated with and comes to represent another object, activity, person or event. These objects need to be used consistently to give your child information about what is going to happen and can be used to support the development of a child’s understanding

Early Years Based Information Carrying Word Pack is a rich resource of pictures and interesting activities to promote the vocabulary, speaking and listening of a wide range of children through the principle of Information Carrying Words.

For those unfamiliar with Information Carrying Words, the concept provides a structured framework which helps children increase the amount of information they can remember. At the same time EYBIC will develop their knowledge and language of everyday topics

for the early years foundation stage

SLCN Page Tiger

https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/educators-and-professionals/resource-library-for-educators/creating-a-communication-supportive-environment-early-years/

Tips for supporting communication skills in children aged 18 months to 5 years

Visual supports are visual items used to support communication skills. They include pictures, symbols, objects, gestures or actions, signs and written words (just to name a few). 

Imagine you are putting together a tricky bit of furniture. To help you put it together, you might look at symbols showing what tools you need and diagrams showing how everything slots together. You might also read the instructions and watch a video online to see how to do it. These are all examples of visual support- things we can look at to help us understand.  

We find visual supports helpful and so do children, especially if they have challenges with learning to talk and understand words

This resource supports schools and settings to deliver the Ordinarily Available.

This training is aimed at Pre-school, nursery, child-minder and EYFS settings.

Training link to the video on BLANKS interventions.

This set of Speech, Language and Communication Progression Tools cover ages 4-10 and support staff in identifying children who may have challenges in talking and understanding words.

Our CuBIC training and accompanying word pack incorporates Information Carrying Word principles to use with curriculum topics (eg History, Geography and Science) for pupils aged between 4-7.

By using the Information Carrying Words (ICWs) concept it provides a structured framework to facilitate the control of the number of words in a sentence that a child has to understand in order to carry out an instruction.

The activities can be implemented with individual children or small groups.

This beautifully illustrated resource is designed to help speech and language therapists, education staff and the wider workforce to assess and develop the verbal reasoning skills of all under 5s and primary aged children who experience difficulty understanding what is said to them

The webinar is divided into 6 parts. Each part is approximately 10 minutes each – it’s best if you watch each part in order.

Attention and listening is being able to listen and focus on specific tasks or sounds.

It can be a tricky skill for young children to learn.

Why are attention and listening important?

Good attention and listening skills help with:

• Social skills

• Understanding language

• Following instructions

• Learning to communicate

• Speech sounds

• All areas of learning

All children will develop attention skills at different speeds.

https://thinkingtalking.co.uk/word-aware/

Word Aware books provide practitioners in schools with a complete package to effectively teach vocabulary. In this short video one of the authors explain the Word Aware approach, which is a structured process for teaching vocabulary that has been developed and refined by working with thousands of schools, teachers and educational practitioners over many years. It is an evidenced-based and practical approach that can be applied to any curriculum to enhance word learning and is suitable for use with children from ages 3 to 11 years.

https://thinkingtalking.co.uk/lfbe/

This practical, interactive resource is designed to be used by professionals who work with children and young people who have Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs and Speech,Language and Communication needs.

Gaps in language and emotional skills can have a negative impact on behaviour as well as mental health and self- esteem. Language for Behaviour and Emotions provides a systematic approach to developing these skills so that young people can understand and work through social interaction difficulties.

It is designed to be used by teachers and SENCOs to complement the assessment systems that their school already has for all pupils

• EY SLCN Awareness

• Makaton Level 1 and Level 2

• Supporting young children's social communication skills

• Supporting children learning English as an additional language

• Talk Boost training

• Elklan training

With its focus on Early Years Literacy, Narrative Skill Development for Ages 3-5, this popular pack contains lesson plans, activities and picture resources to teach the Narrative framework to children entering reception class. The resource is aimed at developing children’s speaking and listening skills through narrative

One of our best-selling resources, this fun and colourful pack aims to develop children’s speaking and listening skills through narrative.

Designed to support and build narrative skills, moving from spoken to written stories, this popular pack “From Oral to Written Narrative” goes beyond the simple narrative framework which may be familiar to younger children. It provides a fun set of colourful illustrated resources to further develop children’s use of descriptive language for character and setting.

There are key skills that schools expect children to be learning before their first day. Practising these will make your child’s journey to Reception as positive as possible.

If your child is already at nursery, in pre-school, or with a childminder, those professionals will work with you and your child to help get them ready.

There’s lots you can do at home to build your child’s confidence and independence, helping them feel emotionally and practically prepared to start school.

The Communication Supporting Classroom Observation Toll was developed as part of the Better Communication Research Programme (BCRP) in 2012.

• The observation tool is designed to profile the oral language environment of the classroom, and can be used in an observation of a classroom or a learning space by someone other than the adult working with the children.

• The observation tool can be used in Early Years learning spaces, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms.

This is a telephone line staffed by a qualified Speech & Language Therapist for two hours per day (9.30 – 11.30am Mon – Fri) with a voicemail facility for messages outside of these hours.

The purpose of this access to advice line is to give easy access to a qualified Speech & Language Therapist for pre referral advice/support/reassurance for parents/carers, other professionals, settings and schools. The areas the access to advice line will be able to help with are;

·       Discussing typical speech, language and communication development where callers may be concerned about a child

·       Signposting and sharing advice about speech, language and communication development, hints and tips to try at home and in setting to support further development

·       Giving advice and resources about activities to strengthen your child’s communication skills to avoid the need for a formal referral into the service

·       Advising on whether a formal referral into the service is necessary and if so the route to arrange this

The access to advice line number is 01702 578601 (Mon – Fri 9.30 -11.30am)

This line will be new and therefore will evolve as we get feedback from those accessing it but we are hoping this will allow easier access to advice, reassurance and support for children and young people where there is a speech, language or communication concern.

This access to advice line is in addition to our existing referral pathways and advice and support available via our website https://www.eput.nhs.uk/services/childrens-speech-language-therapy/ and Facebook page @EPUTchildrenssltservice