Helping children’s language development Parent workshop Early Talk Boost Helping children’s language development Slide 1: Parent workshop This is a holding slide to have on view before you start the introductions (while parents gather, get a drink, settle themselves, etc). The following slides have notes outlining the key points to cover when you take parents through this workshop. The main points are in italics and there are some suggested words to use. These words aren’t a script and you don’t need to say every word, but do make sure you cover the key points. The workshop is designed to be flexible and offer simple, straightforward advice and support to families to encourage storytelling and sharing books together. It gives a chance to demonstrate the resources available for children who attend Early Talk Boost sessions. What to do Ask everyone their name if you don’t have this information already, and write a sticky label for them to wear with their name on it.

We’d like to… Get to know you Why do the Early Talk Boost Intervention? Talk about this workshop Slide 2: Introduction 3–5 minutes Key points The workshop covers: Speech, language and communication skills How Early Talk Boost will help your child What you can do to help. You [the parents] will also do some activities that involve talking. What to do Introduce yourself and give a very brief overview of your role and/or what you do. Then talk through the following: Explain that the workshop gives a very brief overview of the importance of children developing speech, language and communication skills. Move into how sharing stories together really supports this. Introduce Tizzy’s Talking Tips for making communication a fun and engaging activity.

Getting to know you! Get into pairs and tell each other your name. Say something nice to each other about your child. Slide 3: Activity 1 – Getting to know you! 5 minutes Key point This is an opportunity to get to know each other and share what you/we love about your children. What to do This is a gentle, non-threatening ice-breaker that allows parents to have a chat with one another – preferably in pairs – to share their names, their children’s names and to ease them into talking together for a few minutes. Be clear that this is just to introduce themselves to one other person – unless you think the group is confident enough to want to share information with everyone else. Ensure that everyone gets a chance to say something to someone else, including emphasising something they particularly like about their child. You can welcome feedback from the pairs to see if anyone would like to introduce their paired partner by name to the rest of the group. Move on to Slide 4.

I like… Slide 4: Activity 2 – I like… 5 minutes Key points Give everyone the chance to say something positive about their child. Make sure everyone has a turn, and support parents who find it hard to talk in a group. What to do On a fresh flipchart page, write up one-word summaries to represent the thing/s parents contribute on what they like about their child. This is intended to be an engaging activity to get parents thinking on a positive, constructive approach from the start. This will help to provide a positive first step for all parents and especially those who have anxiety or concerns regarding their child’s speech, language and communication/behaviour. Be sure to give parents who do contribute lots of positive, specific praise. Try to ensure that all responses you give are in equal measure (i.e. try to avoid getting overly excited by one person’s contribution and less so by another person’s. Keep your responses measured, respectful and consistent). When the list is completed and everyone given a chance to contribute, explain that you’re moving on to the next activity, which is to talk about what communication is (Slide 5).

What is… Communication? Slide 5: Activity 3 – What is… communication? 5 minutes Key points Parents to identify (or you to outline) the features of communication: Listening Understanding Findings things out Telling people about things Making friends Saying how you feel Being understood. What to do As a whole group activity, tell parents you want to talk about talking. Describe talking as having different skills involved. These are often summed up as ‘communication’. If you think it will help, give one or two examples of the sorts of things you’re talking about to ease everyone in. Ask parents to add their own ideas. Encourage parents to start thinking about what skills we use to communicate. It’s okay for you to contribute, especially as this may help parents to feel under less pressure. Consider basic aspects, e.g. listening, understanding, finding things out, using words to ask for things or comment, etc. Write all comments on a new flipchart page to refer to for the next slide, where the suggestions will be categorised into three core areas. Move on to Slide 6.

Talking: words and sounds Communication is… Understanding Social skills Talking: words and sounds Slide 6: Communication is… 5 minutes Key points Summarise and group the features of communication. For example: Understanding = listening, following instructions, learning new words Social skills = using language to make friends and play, talk about feelings Talking = using clear speech, using new words, being able to tell stories What to do Look at the list you wrote for Slide 5 and give a basic overview of how we look at speech, language and communication skills within the terms on this slide. Try to keep this simple, straightforward and not overly detailed. Move on to Slide 7.

And communication is… Fun! needs. Make this a golden rule! Slide 7: And communication is… fun! 2 minutes Key point If we make talking fun children will want to join in with us. What to do Use this as a means of making the previous slide and topic of conversation more tangible. After bringing the slide up, use a sense of anticipation before revealing the word Fun! After revealing it, talk a little about why it’s important to make having conversations with children fun and interesting. This is a means of starting to look at what children are more likely to engage with, anticipate and want to do more of. If we can make learning to talk fun, children will be much more inclined to want to keep trying, and this in turn will really help them to practise the important skills that help them become good communicators. For Make this a golden rule!, explain that Tizzy’s Talking Tips are coming up shortly to help them. Move on to Slide 8.

The things we do every day So what helps? The world about us The things we do every day What adults do and say Child Slide 8: So what helps? 5 minutes Key points The adults in a child’s life make the most difference to how they learn and develop. Other aspects are important too but you don’t need lots of toys or specialist equipment to help children learn. You do need to talk to them and give them the chance to talk to you. What to do This diagram is designed to show what’s most effective in supporting young children’s communication skills to develop. Describe the child as being at the centre rather than at the bottom. Work through the circles of the diagram to demonstrate why first and foremost the most important aspect for helping children to develop their speech, language and communication comes directly through the interactions – emphasise positive interactions here – with immediate family members and carers. This is closely surrounded by the types of activities children get involved and engaged in and is paired with the importance of everyday routines in their lives. The largest surrounding circle takes the environment into account to surround all that’s preceded it. It’s important not to give the impression that the circle size denotes the level of importance. It’s equally important to explain that the diagram outlines the importance of all these factors working together. This needn’t be complicated or overly detailed: the diagram is just a visual representation showing that the adults’ role is the most important. Move on to Slide 9.

What helps? Time to talk! Have a chat and think up some things we can all do regularly to help our children become really good at... Listening and talking Slide 9: Activity 4 – What helps? Time to talk! 5 minutes Key points Make a list of what helps listening and talking: Listening: using the child’s name; making sure they’re looking at you before you ask them about something; cut down on noise – TV/radio; having regular routines. Talking: playing together; watching TV together and talking about it; looking at books. What to do This activity moves the workshop forward to its main message: strategies to use for weekly story telling by sharing the Early Talk Boost books together at home. In pairs, ask the parents to think of basic listening and attention strategies, e.g. using the child’s name, gaining their attention before continuing to speak, praising good listening skills, establishing and trying to keep to routines, etc. If you think the group would prefer not to work in pairs, have a general discussion about basic listening and attention strategies. Parents may suggest sharing books together as a strategy; if they haven’t done so by the end of the 10 minutes, suggest it yourself. Break for 10 minutes so parents can get fresh drinks/biscuits, etc. When everybody’s back, move on to Slide 10 to introduce Jake and Tizzy.

Meet Jake and Tizzy We love books! We love books! Slide 10: Meet Jake and Tizzy 10 minutes Key points Early Talk Boost lasts for nine weeks. Three times a week the children will play games with a language focus, sing a song and read a book together. At the end of each week (except Week 9) the children will take the book home for parents to share with them. What to do Introduce Jake and Tizzy, the two main characters who feature in Early Talk Boost, and emphasise the importance of sharing books as part of the children’s weekly practice. Explain that at nursery their child will take part in three fun circle time sessions every week for eight weeks. This will give them extra practice at listening, paying attention, talking with others and – very importantly – sharing books with adults. Pass some copies of the books around the group and give parents time to look through them and ask any questions. Explain that you’ll now look at how to make books more interesting, and how to get children involved with sharing books and the stories they contain. Also introduce Jake’s mum as she is the anecdotal case study used to demonstrate good practice in reading stories. The next few slides contain a breakdown of the necessary approaches to make sharing books lots of fun. Move on to Slide 11.

Tizzy’s Talking Tips to help your child learn language Look at the pictures together Encourage your child to talk by letting them start the conversation Ask questions about the story Remember to talk about things your child is especially interested in Never rush; remember to pause Slide 11: Tizzy’s Talking Tips 5 minutes Key point We want parents to look at these books in a particular way, using the key approaches in Tizzy’s Talking Tips. What to do Work through Tizzy’s Talking Tips, taking time to explain in more detail what each involves (on the next slide parents get a chance to practise these approaches if they wish). Give each pair of parents a Parent leaflet and one of the Jake & Tizzy story books: give each pair a different book. Move on to Slide 12.

Time to share about looking at books I find it easy to... needs. I find it less easy to... Slide 12: Activity 6 – Time to share about looking at books 5 minutes Key points Parents to practise using Tizzy’s Talking Tips or see someone else using them. Encourage parents to share any concerns they have about using Tizzy’s Talking Tips or looking at books. What to do In pairs, ask the parents to look at one of the books together and practise using Tizzy’s Talking Tips. If you prefer, you can model Tizzy’s Talking Tips with a colleague or one of the parents. Ask the other parents to say when they see or hear you use one of the strategies. After the activity give parents a chance to talk through what they found easy and if they found anything challenging. Use the flipchart to write up key words on a blank page with a line drawn down the middle from top to bottom to represent the two pages of the book. Be sensitive to the things parents share that they found less easy to do and try to reassure them that this is very much about practising the golden rules of reading rather than having to be good at them all immediately. Offer reassurance and refer to examples of what went well when parents were practising during the activity. Move on to Slide 13.

L E A R N: recap Tizzy’s Talking Tips Practise Tizzy’s Talking Tips Make this a golden rule! Slide 13: LEARN: recap Tizzy’s Talking Tips 3 minutes Key point Reiterate Tizzy’s Talking Tips for everyone. What to do For children to learn language, storytelling works best using the word LEARN: L = Look at the pictures together E = Encourage your child to talk by letting them start the conversation A = Ask questions about the story R = Remember to talk about things your child is especially interested in N = Never rush; remember to pause Move on to Slide 14.

Oh, yes, one more thing IS... Communication FUN! Slide 14: Conclusion Key point Communication is fun! It’s not ‘homework’ – your children will love telling you all about the Jake & Tizzy books. What to do End on a positive note and emphasise the importance of both parents/carers and children enjoying communicating and sharing books together.

Is there anything you’d like to ask? Slide 15: Any questions? What to do Allow time at the end for parents to ask questions about anything that’s been talked about, or indeed for more information on Early Talk Boost that wasn’t covered in this workshop. Make sure everybody has their parent leaflet, which has a reminder of Tizzy’s Talking Tips.