It is widely agreed that early language development is critical for future learning and school readiness. There is a wealth of evidence and research that you can draw on and study to support your understanding of this prime area of learning and development.

Find out more from research:
  • The role of language in children’s early educational outcomes – Roulstone, Law, Rush, Clegg and Peters
  • The importance of vocabulary in later literacy outcomes – Biemiller; Hart and Risley
  • The importance of dialogic book talk in supporting vocabulary development – Dockerell; Wasik, Bond and Hindman; Whitehurst et al.

In our society children need to be skillful communicators and as a foundation years professional you have an important role in ensuring that children have every opportunity and support to become effective communicators.

Every professional has their part to play in supporting early language development
  • Health visitors – in identifying at the earliest age those children who will benefit from additional support and ensuring that they get that help.
  • Speech and language therapists have a clinical role in supporting those children with identified speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and increasingly have a role in supporting early years practitioners to manage children’s SLCN through appropriate targeted interventions in settings.
  • Practitioners will be engaged with children in high quality language interactions and monitoring their progress in ways as described in the Every Child a Talker Programme.
  • All who work with foundation years children have a responsibility to engage mums and dads in supporting their child’s language development.

There is a wealth of information and organisations to support you in delivering high quality language experiences for your children, click the links below in ‘Find out more…’

Find out more… (click to open)

  • Communication Trust – aims to highlight the importance of speech, language and communication across the children’s workforce and to enable practitioners to access the best training and expertise to support the communication needs of all children.
  • Book Trust – is a national charity encouraging the spread of literacy through reading. Administers the Bookstart scheme.
  • Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists – the professional body for speech and language therapists in the UK, providing leadership and setting professional standards.
  • I CAN – experts in helping children with communication difficulties and unlocking their potential and supporting early communication and language. Visit their website to download a range of resources, training courses and find out more about I Can’s Early Talk programme.
  • Talk to Your Baby – from the National Literacy Trust, with information for parents and practitioners on improving literacy in the early years.
  • Elkan – aims to improve the interaction and communication skills of children and young people by training those who live and work with them.
  • PEEP – PEEP-trained practitioners work with parents and carers to support their babies’ and children’s development and improve their life chances, by making the most of everyday learning opportunities
  • Makaton – with Makaton, signs or symbols are used with speech in spoken word order. Using signs can help people who have no speech or whose speech is unclear.
Reflective questions:

How do you know what the children you interact with need to further their language development?

How do your support mums and dads so they know what they can do to support their child’s language?