CYPOP 24 and Unit 301:
Support children and young people’s
speech, language and communication skills
Learning Outcome 1
Understand the importance and the benefits of adults
supporting the speech, language and communication
development of children and young people
Pre-unit activity
• Arrange to watch an activity in your setting for a
short period of time; approximately 2-3 minutes
• You may find a structured observation sheet useful
for this
• Make a note of the activity and who was involved
• Write down as much as you can of the language of
the adult and the language of the child or young
person
• Audio recording will help you to do this accurately
but you will need appropriate permissions
Pre-unit activity
Follow up and reflection
•
•
•
•
•
How many questions did the adult ask?
Who said the most?
How long were the child’s sentences?
How well did the child understand?
What helped support speech, language and
communication?
Why is it important to support and extend children and young
people’s speech, language and communication development?
• Speech, language and communication skills are vital
building blocks for other areas of their development
• Speech, language and communication are central to
children and young people’s ongoing development
into adulthood
• The impacts for children and young people who have
difficulties with speech, language and
communication are many and varied
Speech, language and communication skills continue to
be central to development and learning
Play
Reading &
writing
Learning
Social
Speech,
language &
communication
Behaviour
Emotional
Thinking
Problemsolving
Activity 1a The positive effects of adults supporting
speech, language and communication
 Speech, language and communication
 Play
 Learning
 Social development
 Literacy
 Behaviour
 Emotional development
 Self confidence
 Thinking and problem-solving
Activity 1b How can you support and extend children and
young people’s speech, language and communication?
Different
ways to
support &
extend SLC
What affects speech, language and communication
development? Research evidence shows…
• The amount of • The more they hear, the more time their parents
spend talking with them and the more types of
language
words they are exposed to, the more children use
children hear is
important
• Children seem to develop strong language skills
when parents ask open-ended questions, ask
• What adults say
children to elaborate, and focus on topics of interest
to children is
to the child. Responding to what the child is talking
also important
about and having familiar routines also promote
shared understanding.
• Co operative
• Conversations about how people feel and how that
interactions are
affects what they do, are important in learning
very important
social communication skills
Discussion point 1
• The evidence on the previous page is from a
study looking at the way parents supported their
children's speech, language and communication
development.
• Which of the points do you think are also relevant
for people who work with children and young
people and why?
Activity 1c Quick quiz
1. When can you
support speech,
language and
communication?
2. When should you
extend speech,
language and
communication
•
•
•
•
•
•
Any time – all the time!
In everyday routines and conversations
In all activities, play and social times
Set up specific opportunities/ activities
1:1 and in groups
When children are talking with you or
with other children
• Use your judgement, based on knowing
the child and what they need
• Where you can and it’s appropriate
Key principles
• Listen to and value the contributions of children and young
people
• Consider their level of development – where they are now
and where next
• Model good communication
• Make language learning fun
• Work with parents and carers
• Include speech, language and communication in your
planning
• Make the most of opportunities throughout the day
• Keep an eye and make a note
Key principles – children and young people learning
more than one language
• The principles of ways to support and extend children’s
speech, language and communication apply to just the same
children and young people learning more than one language
• Bilingualism is an asset
• Home language has an important and continuing role
• As with developing a first language, understanding is in
advance of talking.
• Language diversity should be acknowledged and celebrated
• The demands on children and young people who are learning
English as a second language should be recognised and
considered
Ways to support and extend speech, language and
communication
• There are 5 areas in this section, looking at some of the
different ways adults support and extend speech, language
and communication
1.
Supporting speech, language and communication of babies
2.
Supporting speech, language and communication of young
children
3.
Some ways to support speech
4.
Some ways to support language – adapting and scaffolding
5.
Some ways to support communication
• You’ll need refer to different age ranges in your portfolio
Supporting the speech, language and communication of
BABIES
• Attachment is crucial to support communication
development
• Give babies time to process and respond
• Opportunities for early communication – eye
contact, sound-making, turn-taking
• Using ‘parentese’
• Rhymes and songs
• Shared attention
• Running commentary for every day events
Activity 1d - Supporting the speech, language and
communication of YOUNG CHILDREN
Learning to Talk, Talking to Learn has 10 top tips:
1. Get the child’s attention first
2. Make learning Fun
3. Use simple repetitive language
4. Build on what the child says to you
5. Demonstrate rather than criticise
6. Imitate the child’s language
7. Use all the senses to teach new words
8. Give the child time to respond
9. Be careful with questions
10. Use the full range of expression
Activity 1d - Supporting the speech, language and
communication of YOUNG CHILDREN
• Choose a technique. Discuss with a partner your
thoughts about this technique
• If you work with young children, which of the
techniques do you currently use?
• Choose one technique you haven’t used before and
make a plan to use it in your setting.
• When you have tried this out, discuss with your
group how you used the technique and how effective
it was and make a comment in your portfolio
Ways to support and extend children and young
people’s speech, language and communication
There are many ways to support and extend children’s
speech, language and communication. Adults can
support and extend them:
 In everyday routines and conversations
 In activities and events that are happening anyway
 In specifically planned activities
 In 1:1, pairs and groups
 When children are talking with you or with other
children
Supporting and extending children’s SPEECH – a few
ideas
•
•
•
•
Develop awareness of sounds in the environment
Encourage good listening skills
Play around with rhymes
Make sound pictures or have a sound table, with
pictures or objects which start with the same
sound
• Model the right response rather than correcting
their speech – “I taw a tat” – “you saw a cat?
How exciting..!”
Transfer into practice 1
Think of an activity which already happens in your
setting.
Think of one way you could support a child’s speech
through that activity
Think of how a you could suggest a parent could
support their child’s speech
Supporting children and young people’s LANGUAGE
• Language includes talking and understanding.
Adapt your
language
Scaffold their
language
Activity 1e - Adapting your language
In small groups, listen to and have a look at the
following information and the question which follows
it. (Don’t worry, it’s meant to be complicated!) Then
think about the five questions below
• How easy is it to understand?
• What makes this the case?
• Could you answer the question?
• How ‘good’ was this question?
• How did you feel about the activity?
Activity 1e - Adapting your language
Epistemology is generally characterised by a division of
two competing schools of thought: rationalism and
empiricism. The rationalists sought to reconstruct
critically the total of human knowledge by the
employment of such ‘pure’ reasoning from
indubitable axioms. The empiricists took direct
acquaintance with the ‘impressions’ of senseexperience as their bedrock of infallible knowledge
Q1: Was rationalism one of the schools of thought?
Adapting your language – key things to think about
How much you
talk
How many and
what questions you
ask
What spaces
there are for
children to talk
How long your
sentences are
Adapting
your
language
How much time children
have to think about
what you say
How complicated
your sentences
are
How many new or
complex words
there are
Adapting your language - questioning
Too many questions and certain types of questions can
inhibit language and communication
Children may not join in
They only give answers
May say less
Quality may be lower
Fewer opportunities to talk with others
Less opportunity for exploring and
expanding thinking and language
• Try to
comment,
not
question
• Think about
question
types
Activity 1f - Adapting your language- Exploring different
ways of talking with children
This is from a research study looking at 5 different
ways of supporting and extending talking.
• For each one, consider…
• How well does the approach support and extend the
child’s language?
• How could the adult improve their questioning or
interaction?
• How often do you currently use each approach in
your talk with children?
Activity 1f
Interaction style What was child’s Does this Why/ why not
language like?
work?
Enforced
questions
Two-choice
questions
Wh questions
Personal
contributions
Phatics
1 Enforced repetitions
Child says: ‘biscuit’
Adult says: ‘say “please can I have a biscuit”
Child says: ‘biscuit’
2 Two choice questions
• The adult asks the child a question where there are
only two choices – this includes either yes/no
answers or ‘forced alternatives’
Adult: ‘Is that an elephant?’
Child: ‘no’
OR
Adult: Is that an elephant or a giraffe?
Child: ‘Giraffe’
3 – ‘wh’ questions
• Adult asks a question starting why, what, when etc
Adult: ‘Who’s that?’
Child: ‘daddy’
Adult: ‘where’s he going?’
Child: ‘shop’
Adult: ‘why?’
Child: ‘car’
4 – Personal contributions
• Adult avoids asking questions, but gives their personal
contributions around something that the child is interested in.
Adult: I went to the park at the weekend
Child: Me too!
Adult: I played football with Rosie
Child: I played on the swings
Adult: oh, I’m a bit too big for the swings
Child: not me, I can go so high
Adult: so high you touch the clouds…
Child: even higher…
5 - Phatics
• Adult tries to say nothing with any ‘content’, just “makes the
right noises”. They try to avoid questions and take the child’s
lead
Adult: Hey, look at that…
Child: It’s a princess
Adult: aha…
Child: she’s gonna get eaten by the dragon
Adult: oh no, scary …
Child: but she doesn’t taste so good
Adult: yuk…
Child: she tastes like slugs
Adult: disgusting – even for a dragon
Child: yeah, cos he likes marshmallows
Activity 1f– answers – which work well?
Interaction
style
What was child’s
language like?
Does this Why/ why not
work?
Enforced
questions
No different

The adult’s language was too
complex for the child to copy
Two-choice
questions
Only one word
answer
 
The questions are very restricting
Wh questions
One word –
directly answers
question
 
Can make child passive
Useful if child understands question
words
Personal
contributions
Longer sentences
More involved
 
Child was interested and had time
and space to make contribution
Phatics
Child says more
than adult

Lots of space for child to lead
Adult leaves options open for child
Starts to sound like a story


Scaffolding children and young people’s language
Scaffolding describes how adults provide support to enable
children to achieve and develop their skills. There are
many ways to do this; some examples are:
• Adding to, or extending what a child says
• Modelling examples
• Encouraging children to rehearse and practise
• Breaking tasks or skills down into smaller steps
• Teaching and helping children to learn new words
• Providing structures for giving information or telling
stories
• Using visual prompts or props
Some examples of extending a child’s talking
Child/young person says
• There’s a bus
• I can see a big spider
• I can’t play football today.
My leg hurts
Adult says
• Yes, it’s a big bus
• Me too – he’s enormous
• Oh, you can’t play football
because your leg hurts
Some examples of extending children and young
people’s language - vocabulary
•







Teach children new words:
Use all the senses – real objects if you can, or pictures if not
Talk together about its shape, colour, texture
Talk together about what it does, what it’s similar to, what it
means
Talk together about how this links to what they already know
– give examples and the context
Talk about the structure of the word – how many syllables it
has, what it starts with
Help them to use it.
Reinforce the new word regularly
Vocabulary
Guava
Starts with ‘g’
It smells,
tastes, feels
like…
It’s juicy
2 syllables
Shaped like a
pear
Orange colour
Pips inside
Fruit
Grows in hot
countries
You eat it
Supporting children and young people’s
COMMUNICATION
Communication skills can often be taken for granted. Some
ideas:
 Model and demonstrate good communication skills
 Make skills explicit
 Talk about and practise communication for different
situations, events and purposes
 Give children and young people clear roles when working in
groups – eg the summariser, the note-taker, the introducer
 Ensure there are well structured opportunities for children
and young people to communicate with each other
 Learning through play
Discussion point 1.1 Working with parents, carers and
families
Why is it important to work with parents, carers and
families in supporting a child or young person’s
speech, language and communication?
Think of three ways you could effectively work together
Working with parents, carers and families some ideas
Share ideas,
advice,
information
Model ideas
and examples in
practice
Talk about how
their child is
progressing
Ways to
work with
parents
Offer
workshops,
sessions or
events
Invite them to
come and watch
communication in
action
Listen to their
ideas and
concerns
Portfolio task 1.1
• Prepare some leaflets or posters, showing how
adults can support and extend children and
young people’s speech, language and
communication development. Make sure you
include general key points as well as any for the
specific age groups
• Include information on the positive effects of this
support too.
Transfer into practice
• Learning outcome 2 looks at how to put the ideas from
Learning outcome 1 into practice.
• Choose one of the methods you have found out about and try
it out in your setting. Make a note of the context, activity and
child you were working with. Note or record (with the
appropriate permissions) a short section of your interaction
and consider:
• What you did and said:
• What the child or young person did and said:
• What the good parts of this method were:
• What you might do differently next time:
Learning outcome 2
Be able to provide support for the speech, language
and communication development of children and
young people
Reflection on transfer into practice
• Work in small groups to share experiences of trying
out different methods of supporting and extending
speech, language and communication in your
settings.
• Note down the key points from your discussion
Supporting speech, language and communication
development
What adults do
How policies and
ethos reflect
speech, language
and communication
How parents and
families are
involved
How the
environment
supports
communication
How children and
young people are
involved
Activity 2a – considerations for supporting speech,
language and communication
• When you choose ways to support children and young people’s
speech, language and communication, it is important to
consider a child or young person’s:
Specific needs
Abilities
Home language
Interests
• In pairs, choose one of the points and discuss why it is an
important consideration. Share your thoughts with other groups
to cover all four.
Planning how to support speech, language and
communication in your practice and in your setting
• Speech, language and communication can be supported
through everyday routines, in conversations and activities which
are happening anyway as part of your setting
• Specific activities, events and games can also be planned to
support speech, language and communication skills in particular
• Speech, language and communication are so much part of what
we do with children and young people, that it can sometimes be
taken for granted
• Including speech, language and communication in your planning
keeps it at the forefront of your mind and firmly in your practice
Planning should include 1
• How will the physical environment support speech, language
and communication?
• What are the roles and responsibilities of staff in supporting
speech, language and communication?
• How are children and young people’s views included in what
you do?
• How can parents, carers and families be involved in supporting
speech, language and communication too?
• It is also important to consider what training and development
are needed to best support children and young people’s speech,
language and communication
Planning should include 2:
• The child, young person or group you are working with
• Their age
• Any resources you would use
• The adults involved
• The activity and its aims
• The methods you will use and why you are choosing them
• How you will evaluate what you did
Evaluation should include:
• Thinking about what you did, saw and heard
• Thinking about how well you felt this worked
• Finding out how others thought it worked – this would include
the children and young people involved, maybe colleagues and
parents or carers
• Thinking about what you might do differently next time
Portfolio task 2.1
• Make a plan showing examples of how you will support speech,
language and communication in your practice. This could either
be through planning specific activities, through how you will
change your everyday practice, or both
• Demonstrate at least three different methods of supporting and
extending speech, language and communication in your setting
• Explain how effective you thought your support was, using your
own evaluation and feedback from others
• You could complete this activity through using a reflective diary
if you wish
Learning Outcome 3
• Understand how environments support speech, language and
communication
The environment
• Communication
friendly
• Role
• Skills, knowledge
• Development
• Communication
central
Physical
Policies
and
ethos
Adults
Child/
young
person
• Involvement
• Views
Policy and ethos
• It is important for settings to value speech, language and
communication and to see it as a central part of what they do
with children and young people
• If speech, language and communication are well reflected in the
policies and ethos of a setting, it can support effective practice
The physical environment
Space
Noise levels
Light
Visual
support
Opportunities
Resources
• Opportunities for supporting need to happen and be effective
• Clear planning to develop the environment
• Actions to take this forward
Activity 3a – key factors for a communication supportive
environment
• You could do this activity individually, in pairs or small groups
• Use one of the recommended resources
• Highlight the key factors it describes which provide a supportive
speech, language an communication environment
• Share what you have found with another person, pair or group.
Adults in the environment
• Learning outcomes 1 and 2 have focused on the ways in which
adults can support speech, language and communication
• The roles of adults working with children and young people are
important, as well as their skills and knowledge. Identifying
training and development needs and then meeting these is also
important
• Parents, carers and families should also be considered
The child or young person
• Children and young people are at the centre of our practice in
supporting speech, language and communication development
• It is essential to ensure they are fully involved and there are
ways and opportunities effectively used to gain their views
within your setting
• This applies to all children and young people, including those
who are very young or who have very limited spoken
communication.
Transfer into practice
• Thinking of the key factors of an environment which supports
speech, language and communication, what does your setting
currently do well?
• Identify two things which could be introduced, improved or
extended
• How could you go about doing this in your setting?
Portfolio task 3.1
• Make a plan for an environment which effectively supports
speech, language and communication. You could make a
drawing or perhaps use photographs of an existing setting (with
appropriate permissions if necessary)
• Using relevant evidence, label your plan with the key factors
which will support speech, language and communication
• Include some information which explains the importance of the
environment in supporting speech, language and
communication
Learning Outcome 4
Be able to recognise, and obtain additional support for, children and
young people who have speech, language and communication needs
Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
• Most children follow the expected pattern of development for
their speech, language and communication at the expected times.
Some, however, do not. These are described as having Speech,
Language and Communication Needs - SLCN
The importance of recognising children and young
people with SLCN
• In your group, discus why it is important to recognise children who
may have speech, language and communication needs. Try to
include the following ideas in your discussion.
Intervention,
help or
support
Impact
Early
identification
Recognising children and young people who may have
SLCN
• Recognising children and young people is based on
Having a good understanding of the ages and stages of speech,
language and communication development
Observing and recording what a child can do, as well as the things
they may find difficult
Considering speech, language and communication if a child or
young person is having difficulties in ANOTHER area of their
development or life
Getting the views of the child, young person and their parents
Using tools and resources to help you
Sharing any concerns with others
Children and young learning more than one language
• Children and young people do not have SLCN simply because they
are learning more than one language. Additional language learning
is not an indicator for SLCN, nor are limited English skills, where
the home language is developing as expected
• However, some children who are learning more than one language
will have SLCN.
 This is because developing speech, language and communication
skills is difficult for them whatever the language and they would
have difficulties whether they were learning 2 languages or one
 It is really important to identify these children's needs, but it can
be quite difficult
Every child or young person’s SLCN will be different and
individual
May be in
one, more
or all areas
of SLC
Will vary in
terms of the
level of
need and
the impact
SLC may be
the only or
primary
need OR
part of
another
condition or
need
Skills may
be delayed
or
disordered/
atypical
May be
short-term
OR
persistent
Activity 4a George and Karim
• Read the written profiles of these two boys.
• Decide, for each, whether you think their needs
lie in speech, language or communication or
perhaps a combination
• From their profiles, is there anything else which
you think is particularly interesting about either
boy
Activity 4b Ben and Jermaine
• Read the written profiles for both of these boys.
One boy’s needs are part of a wider disability;
one boy’s difficulties are only to do with speech,
language and communication at this point
• Decide which is which and discuss why
• At the moment, Ben’s needs have not yet been
recognised. Why is it important for Ben’s needs to
be recognised as soon as possible?
Indicators of SLCN
Difficulties with
Play
Social interactions & relationships
Speech
Literacy
Language
Behaviour
Communication
Confidence and self-esteem
May indicate Speech, Language and Communication Needs
Recognising SLCN – two possible approaches
Ages and stages resources
• Check to see if the child is at
the stage you would expect
for their age
• If not, see what stage they
are at in the different areas
of speech, language and
communication
• Look at ways to help and
seek advice and support
Indicators checklists
• Using your knowledge and
observations of the child or
young person, highlight the
behaviours on the checklist
which the child/ young
person shows
• Seek advice and support on
ways to help
Activity 4c – recognising SLCN
• Working in small groups, choose one ages and stages
resource and one checklist
• Discuss the resources in your group. Think about what
they cover and how they might work to recognise if a
child has speech, language and communication needs
• Are there particular advantages or disadvantages for
each?
• Which do you think might work best in your setting and
why?
Raising concerns
• If you work with young children, you may be the first professional to
have concerns. Raising these effectively will support early
identification and intervention, which are crucial to support
children’s development and minimise the potential impacts
• However, this may also be the case if you work with an older child or
young person.
• Many children and young people have had their speech, language
and communication needs MISSED completely
• Lots of other children and young people may have been identified as
having a DIFFERENT need
• For some, their difficulties only really come to light in
primary or secondary school
Raising concerns and gaining additional support
Note
examples
Gain help
from others
(Eg SLT,
SENCo)
Raising
concerns
and getting
help
Add support
Observe
Monitor
Talk to
others
Talk to
parents,
child/ young
person
Activity 4d - Processes and procedures
• In pairs, discuss the processes and procedures in your setting for
raising concerns and accessing additional support for children and
young people with SLCN
• What were the similarities and differences between the
processes?
• Based on your learning from this unit, are there ways that you feel
the processes and procedures could be improved? If so, what
would you suggest and how might this be implemented?
Additional support for children's SLCN
Who might offer
additional support?
In your setting
(e.g. You, language
lead, senior
colleague, SENCO)
Outside your setting
(e.g. Speech and
Language Therapist,
SLT or teaching
assistant, advisor)
What might that additional support be?
Changes to the environment
Using interventions, approaches or
strategies
Further assessment
Speech and Language Therapy
Programmes designed by a specialist
Working with other adults & support staff
Training or information for staff
Work with parents
Portfolio task 4.1
• Prepare a briefing for a new member of staff explaining the
processes and procedures to follow if there are concerns about a
child or young person’s speech, language and communication in
your setting
• Include information on the range of SLCN that there may be and
indicators which may suggest a child or young person has SLCN
• Explain the processes and procedures for your setting to access
additional, specialist support for children’s SLCN in your setting
• Your briefing could be written or verbal. You may find it useful to
use diagrams to illustrate the processes and procedures
Hello
2011 is the National Year
of Communication
‘Hello’ is a national campaign run by The Communication Trust,
complementing the Government’s commitment to support children
with speech, language and communication needs.
Please visit www.hello.org.uk for more information on how you and
your setting can help improve the communication skills of children
and young people – so that they can live their life to the full.