Learning Outcome 1
Understand the importance of speech, language and
communication for children’s overall development
A simple model:
What is speech, language and communication?
Children put together what they have heard, and UNDERSTAND
Children plan and organise what they will say
Children use words to
share meaning - TALKING
Children hear,
attend and listen
Children make and use
sounds to form words SPEECH
Using language to interact with other people – COMMUNICATION
Children have to want, need and be confident to communicate
Activity 1a: What are speech, language and
communication?
• In small groups, use the cut out cards and decide if they are
speech, language or communication skills
• There may be differences of opinion and some might overlap
• Feed back to the whole group and discuss your answers.
Activity 1a:
Speech, language or communication?
Babbles
Puts his arms up when he’d like
you to pick him up
Says ‘teddy gone’
Smiles at you
Asks for a drink
Tells a story
Answers a question
Takes turns in conversation
Follows a story
Says that spider starts with ‘s’
Gives you the right toy when
you ask for the big teddy
Says ‘tat’ for cat
Activity 1a:
Possible answers
Speech
Language
Communication
Babbles
Says ‘teddy gone’
Takes turns in conversation
Tells a story
Puts his arms up when he’d like
you to pick him up
Says ‘tat’ for cat
Says that spider starts with ‘s’
Asks for a drink
Answers a question
Follows a story
Gives you the right toy when
you ask for the big car
Smiles at you
Speech is…
The sounds we use for talking
As well as the sounds we use, it also includes
factors such as:
o fluency
o volume
o intonation and stress on different words
o pitch
Language includes…
Understanding and talking use the following:
• Words (vocabulary) and their meanings
• How words go together – their order and how this can change
meanings (e.g. the difference between statements and
questions)
• Grammar – for example how word endings change meanings
(e.g. past tense)
• Sentences joining together to make sense – narratives, stories
we share with each other
• Higher level skills such as reasoning,
inference
Communication involves…
• Non-verbal communication – for example body language, facial
expression, eye-contact, gesture and signing
• Conversational skills and rules – for example listening, turn-taking,
knowing when and how to start (and finish) talking, how to change
topic and using language in different ways.
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 children are described as having
speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
SLCN: Quick quiz
1. How many
children have
SLCN?
1. Around 10% of all children
have long-term SLCN
2. Why might
children have
SLCN?
2. Many different factors e.g.
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
In areas of social disadvantage, 50% or more
may have delayed language
Hearing difficulties
Learning difficulties
Autism
Cleft palate
Limited stimulation
Poor adult modelling and interaction
For some, we don’t know
First steps in identifying SLCN
Speech
• Does the child make the sounds you’d expect for their age?
• Can you understand the child’s speech as you would expect
for their age?
Language
• Does the child understand the words, information,
questions and stories you would expect for their age?
• Does the child use the words and the length of sentence
you would expect? Can the child get across what they
want and need as you would expect for their age?
Communication
• Does the child get involved in communicating with others
as you would expect for their age?
• Do they make eye contact, take turns and enjoy talking
with others as you would expect for their age?
Portfolio task 1.1
• Develop a glossary for your setting, explaining the terms:
−
−
−
−
Speech
Language
Communication
Speech, language and communication needs
• Give an example of how you might use it in your setting
How speech, language and communication skills
support other areas of development
Activity 1b: How do speech, language and
communication skills support development
• In pairs choose one of the areas of development
• Using the summaries you have developed and any other
information you have:
− Note down 2 ways in which you think speech, language and
communication skills are important for this area
− It would be useful to think about some children you know to help
with this
− Share these with your group.
Activity 1b: Speech, language and communication skills
support these areas...
Learning
Behaviour
Speech,
language and
communication
skills
Social development
Emotional development
Portfolio task 1.2
• Design a poster for your setting, showing how speech,
language and communication skills support children’s:
−
−
−
−
Learning
Social development
Emotional development
Behaviour
What are the impacts of SLCN?
• Given the close relationship between speech, language and
communication and all areas of development, the impacts for
children with SLCN may be significant and wide-ranging
• As a group, think of any impacts for children with SLCN.
Activity 1c: Potential Impacts
Speech
Language
Communication
Activity 1c:
Potential Impacts – possible answers
Speech
Language
Communication
• People misunderstand what’s
being said
• Don’t understand what’s said,
so do things wrong
• Don’t know how to join in
• Have to repeat things a lot
• Miss out on learning
• Can get frustrated, or
aggressive
• Tune out –working out
language can be so tiring
• Have difficulty making and
keeping friends
• Don’t enjoy talking, so can opt
out
• Struggle to learn to read – can’t
work out what sounds are at
the beginning of words
• Struggle to understand or
recognise rhyme
• Struggle to work out patterns in
words to help learn to spell
• Copy other children so hide
difficulties
• May get chosen less to play in
games
• Limited talking - their message
doesn’t get across
• May get invited to fewer play
dates or parties
• Can’t share ideas or express
needs
• Other children may avoid them
• Can become passive
• Can get frustrated
• Other children don’t want to
play with them
• Doesn’t have a solid base for
future learning
• Finds playing with others
difficult
• Following rules can be difficult,
so problems in settings/school
Portfolio task 1.3
Choose one of the three children described in the learner materials
• Using the format provided:
1. Record any strengths you notice from the profile
2. Highlight the child’s speech, language and communication
needs
3. Describe how these needs may affect the child’s development
now and in the future
Transfer into practice 1
• Identify one thing which you feel has been particularly
interesting or useful
• Identify one thing in your practice that you will change as a
result of what you have learned
• Comment in your portfolio on how it changes your practice and
what the outcome was for the children you are working with.
Learning Outcome 2
Learning outcome 2
• Understand the importance and benefits of adults supporting
the speech, language and communication development of the
children in your setting.
Pre-section activity
• Arrange to watch an activity in your setting for a short period of
time; approx 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 during this activity
• Audio recording will help you to do this accurately but you will
need appropriate permissions.
Pre-section 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 children’s speech,
language and communication development?
• Because of its relationship to all areas of learning
• Because of the impacts for children if we don’t.
Activity 2a: How do you support and extend children’s speech,
language and communication?
Different
ways to
support &
extend SLC
What affects language development?
Research evidence shows:
• The amount of language
children hear is
important
• What adults say to
children is also
important
• Co operative
interactions are very
important
•
The more they hear, the more time their parents
spend talking with them and the more types of
words they are exposed to, the more children use.
•
Children seem to develop strong language skills
when parents ask open-ended questions, ask
children to elaborate, and focus on topics of
interest to the child. Responding to what the
child is talking about and having familiar routines
also promote shared understanding.
•
Conversations about how people feel and how
that affects what they do, are important in
learning social communication skills.
Making a big difference
• The skilful communication of practitioners with children is
seen as an indicator of quality in early years provision.
Quick quiz
1. When can you
support speech,
language and
communication?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Any time – all the time!
From when children are tiny babies
In everyday routines
In all activities and play
1:1 and in groups
Set up specific opportunities/activities
1. When should you
extend children’s
speech, language and
communication?
•
Use your judgement, based on knowing the
child and what they need
Where you can and it is appropriate
•
Supporting the communication development of babies
• Attachment is crucial in supporting communication
development
• Give babies time to process and respond
• Opportunities for early communication – eye contact, soundmaking, turn-taking
• Using ‘parentese’
• Rhymes and songs
• Shared attention
• Running commentary for every day events
Techniques and approaches 1
Watch the clip from Learning to Talk, Talking to Learn
Its top 10 techniques are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Get the child’s attention first
Make learning fun
Use simple repetitive language
Build on what the child says to you
Demonstrate rather than criticise
Imitate the child’s language
Use all the senses to teach new words
Give the child time to respond
Be careful with questions
Use the full range of expression
Activity 2b:
Questions and activities from DVD
• Which of the techniques do you currently use?
• Discuss with a partner which of the techniques you find
particularly useful and why
• 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.
Activity 2c:
Techniques and approaches 2
• Different ways to support and extend speech, language and
communication
• Choose one of the techniques or strategies you have learned or
read about
• Plan a brief presentation, explaining and demonstrating how
you would use this technique to support speech, language and/
or communication
• Highlight what age of child this might be particularly good for.
Techniques and approaches 3
Exploring different ways of talking with children
There are 5 different ways of supporting and extending talking:
1. ‘Enforced repetitions’
2. Two choice questions
3. ‘Wh-’ type questions
4. Personal contributions
5. Phatics
Activity 2d:
Techniques and approaches 3
• 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 2d: Follow up – Which work well to support
and extend language?
Interaction style
Enforced
questions
Two-choice
questions
Wh questions
Personal
contributions
Phatics
What was the
child’s language
like?
Does this
work?
Why/ why not?
1. Enforced questions
• 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 2d Answers: Which work well to support and
extend language?
Interaction style
What was the child’s
language like?
Does this
work?
Why/ why not?
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

Transfer into practice 2
• Choose either personal contributions or phatics and try this
technique out in your setting
• Make a note of the activity, context and child you were working
with
• Record (or ask someone else to) a short section of yours and the
child’s language in this activity
• What do you notice?
• Evaluate how well this worked and make a note in your portfolio.
Summary: what works well to support speech, language
and communication?
Techniques with a child
What settings can do
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Training for practitioners
• Language interventions
• Language embedded throughout the
Encouraging the quieter children
Using many different types of words
Taking child’s lead
Routines for understanding
Conversations about feelings
Open-ended questions
Children asked to elaborate.
day
• Structured activities
• Communication groups
• Parent programmes
Supporting the speech, language and communication of
children with more than one language
• All techniques and approaches to support speech, language and
communication are equally useful for children with more than one
language
• Speaking more than one language is a great opportunity
• It is important to value the child’s home language
• For children with very limited English, think about the best ways to
engage them – maybe learn some key words in their home language
• Consider the best ways to involve parents
• Children learning more than one language DO NOT
have SLCN UNLESS they are having difficulties
learning their home language as well
Portfolio task 2.1
• Choose 3 different activities or daily routines from your setting
• Show ways that adults can support speech, language and/or
communication
• Include at least one supporting method and one method which
extends speech, language or communication
• Explain why these methods will help speech, language or
communication.
The benefits of supporting children’s speech, language
and communication
• We have looked at why it’s important to support children’s
speech, language and communication development:
 Because of its relationship to all areas of learning
 Because of the impacts for children if we don’t.
Portfolio task 2.2
• Complete the chart, showing the positive effects for children
and their families when children's speech, language and
communication is supported
• You could include information about the different areas of child
development in your answers.
Speech, language and communication development
• Speech, language and communication each have expected
patterns of development and follow a typical order
• Many of the skills build upon each other
• Children may, however, develop these skills at their own pace
• There are a number of useful resources, which outline the
expected pattern of development for children’s speech, language
and communication
• Knowing and using these resources will help to check if a child is
following the typical pattern and is at an appropriate stage for
their age.
Activity 2e: Ages and stages
When would you expect a child to..?
• Use 20 single words
• 15 - 18 months
• Express emotions using
words as well as actions
• 2 - 3 years
• Follow a simple story without • 4 - 5 years
pictures
• Know between 200-500
words
• 18 months - 2 years
• Use sounds to babble
• From 3 - 6 months
If you are concerned about a child’s speech, language
and communication development…
• Your setting may have a process in place for discussing concerns
and putting actions into place for children who may have SLCN
• If you have concerns, use your observation skills to note down
examples of why you are concerned and check these against
developmental charts
• It’s important to appropriately involve parents if you have
concerns and your setting should have guidance on this.
Portfolio task 2.3
• Choose 2 different children of a similar age, but who have
different levels of language
• Complete the ‘all about me’ sheet for each child
• Identify ways you would support each child in your setting
during settling in and planning, based on their language levels.
Learning Outcome 3
Learning Outcome 3
• Be able to provide support for the speech, language and
communication development of the children in your setting.
Portfolio Task 3.1
Providing support for speech, language and communication – a case study
• Choose 3 children you work with
• Outline their levels of speech, language and communication
• Demonstrate how you support and extend their speech, language and
communication, highlighting the different methods you used
• Include at least one example of 1:1 work with a child and one example of
working in a group
• Include at least 2 day to day activities which are happening in your setting
• Evaluate how well the support worked.
Developing a Case Study
•
•
•
•
•
There are a number of skills needed when developing a case study
Observation – watching what the child, and others involved, do and say
Recording – making a careful note of your observations and the context
Checking– using information on development to see if a child is on track
Analysing – using your observations and being clear about what you have
found out, using examples to explain
• Evaluation and reflection– what went well, what the child’s successes were
and what you could improve next time.
Learning Outcome 4
Learning Outcome 4
• Be able to contribute to maintaining a positive environment that
supports speech, language and communication.
The environment
Physical
environment
• Available opportunities
• Communication
’friendly’
Adults
• Interactions and support
• Practitioners and parents
Child
• How they can get
involved
• What they think – their
views
Physical environment
• Making opportunities available – through planning and
throughout the day
• Including a range of child and adult-led activities
• Toys, resources and activities
• Communication ‘friendly’ – for example
 space, light and layout
 noise levels
 visual support
 clear and consistent routines
Adults
• Using techniques and approaches, based on a good knowledge of
the child’s level of development
• Finding out more about speech, language and communication –
ongoing professional development and training
• Knowing role and responsibilities relating to speech, language and
communication
• Crucial role of parents in supporting language.
Child
• Following child’s lead and interests
• Listening to their views
• Involving them in planning and making decisions.
Portfolio task 4.1
• Using relevant materials, design a booklet for your setting
showing why and how the environment is important in
supporting children’s speech, language and communication
development.
An environment that supports speech, language and
communication
• Include
>
Information on WHY it is important
>
A checklist of key factors which support communication
>
Evidence of how your setting provides an environment which supports
communication and examples of why this support is effective
>
Two ways your setting could develop its communication environment
further with suggestions on how to do this.
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.
Thank you
For more information please visit
The Communication Website at
www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk
To view all the resources within this pack, along with
further support and information please visit
www.talkingpoint.org.uk/eymp
This website will be updated regularly.