Speech language and communication

Speech, language and communication are vital skills for life.

Starting Life Well are:

• creating language rich environments that encourage all children to enjoy and achieve
• providing Early Years Workers with knowledge and skills to benefit all young children's communication development
• promoting early identification of young children with speech, language and communication needs
• delivering early intervention for young children with speech, language and communication needs in the most appropriate setting
• supporting parents and carers to make the most of every language learning opportunity

Children don't learn to talk by accident. A child's vocabulary at three years of age is a powerful indicator of how well they will achieve in later life.

Top tips for talking

Starting Life Well service is supporting parents and childcare providers to help children in Salford develop their speech, language and communication skills.

Why do we need to help children in Salford to develop these skills?

• Children don't learn to talk by accident
• A child's vocabulary at age three is a powerful indicator of how well they will achieve in later life

The top tips are available as a download below.

Time for a Rhyme

Starting Life Well in Salford promotes Time for a Rhyme

Babies and children love it when we sing to them. Most songs for young children rhyme and this is no coincidence. They tune babies and children into the sounds of the language that we use. Rhymes and playing with sounds help to build vocabulary and are vital for speech development.

Training sessions to support childcare providers in this project have been held.

Time to Rhyme resource sheets are available for you to download. There are three rhymes available in each week's download.

• The first rhyme is suitable for the youngest children (the adult generally sings and acts out the rhyme with the child)
• The second rhyme invites the child to take a stronger lead in the performance of the rhyme
• The third rhyme expects a higher level of physical and oral participation from the child

Every child a talker (ECAT)

A child's ability to develop language depends on being immersed in a rich environment of words, sounds, rhythm, and verbal and non-verbal expression from birth. However, there are still many children starting school without the extended volcabulary and communication abilities which are so important for learning and for making friends.

Every child a talker is designed to improve the skills and expertise of the early years workforce in early language.

It aims to:

• Increase practitioners' knowledge and understanding of early language development and support best practice, leading to improvements in children's language acquisition
• Raise the understanding and expertise of early years practitioners across the whole setting and equip them with the different skills and knowledge needed to work with both children and parents
• Support the development of enriched language environments within settings
• Increase the involvement of parents in their children's learning and will help to develop stronger home learning environments

ECAT monitoring sheets and an ECAT poster are available to download.