Starting nursery can be a very exciting time for children and families.
Shared experiences and activities at nursery, stay and play or playgroups offer the opportunity to share lots of time with other children; to listen, to look, to chat, to read and to join in language rich activities.
Good provision is about having knowledgeable practitioners and professionals who work together to adapt the learning environments and routines. This slowly builds upon the understanding and skills needed for the next phase for that child throughout the year.
Early Years settings in Dudley provide many opportunities to support children’s communication development and other foundational skills through a range of approaches including those set out below.
First Words Together
First Words Together supports babies and toddlers who may need early help with speech, language and communication before the age of two.
This universal programme builds parents’ and carers’ awareness and confidence in supporting early communication leading up to babies’ first words.
The programme also builds knowledge and confidence in early years practitioners and professionals. Practitioners are trained to deliver weekly sessions that include evidence-based, fun activities based around five top tips, to build the foundations of communication that parents can easily repeat in the home. This then encourages positive change to a child’s home learning environment.
Early Talk Boost
Early Talk Boost is a targeted intervention aimed at 3-4 year old children who need help with talking and understanding words, helping to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. The programme aims to accelerate children’s progress in language and communication by an average of 6 months, after a nine week intervention.
Children who are selected to take part in the intervention will attend three sessions per week during circle/story time, each lasting 15-20 minutes delivered by an early years practitioner. The sessions include activities that cover the foundation skills in speech, language and communication that children need for learning and understanding new words, as well as having conversations.
Further information can be found in the documents below: