1. The Talking Together Programme
Rebecca Heald
Language Development Programmes Manager
BHT Early Education and Training

2. What is Talking Together?
A targeted, early intervention programme
It equips parents with skills to stimulate good language and communication development
Provided as a six-week programme delivered at home to parents on a 1:1 basis
It supports children aged two to three that are identified as being at risk of language development delay
Outcomes are measured for children and parents after 3-6 months.

3. How children are identified
We currently receive data from the local authority on a quarterly basis of all children turning two in each of those months. We then write out to each of these families with an appointment date for us to come and carry out the language assessment. Current assessment completion percentage is………. % With a referral rate of …….. % requiring the 6 week programme

4. 2 Year Language Assessment
The assessment establishes whether or not the parents themselves have any concerns about their child’s language development, if they feel their child can hear ok? And what their level of understanding is like. We ask for examples of the words the child uses, as well as completing a word check list of the most common first words used.
We ask if the child has started to put two word together yet and if they are able to ask simple questions like ‘What’s that?’ or ‘what doing?’
We then ask about the types of words the child uses for example doing words (verbs) eating, jumping, running etc. as well as whether or not other family members can understand what the child says.
We emphasise the importance of home language and although we may carry the assessment out in English we do ask the questions relating to the child’s home language

5. Referral Form
The majority of our referrals are received through the language assessment but we also receive a high number of them from, Health Visitors, Early Years Practitioners and social care.

6. Weekly breakdown Wk 1 - Communication Wk 2 - Play
Wk 3 - Attention & Listening
Wk 4 - Turn Taking
Wk 5 - Praise & Encouragement
Wk 6 - Overview week
To deliver tailored language support for parents/carers
The sessions are delivered in the home, To empower parents to promote their child’s learning, reinforcing to parents that they are their child’s first and most important teacher
To provide parents with an understanding of language and how play and learning are linked
To observe children and identify their level of understanding, to see how well they are able to express them selves and how well they socially interact with their peers
Week one: Communication
What is Communication:
Social interaction for a range of purposes
Can be expressed through a variety of means -
Eye contact, body language, touch, sign language, spoken language
Need a speaker & a listener
A shared code
Why we Communicate:
Seek attention, reject, refuse, seek information, give information, request, social routines, greeting, questioning, disagreeing, expressing feelings, needs, wants, comment, direct, describe, reason, predict
How we communicate:
Gesture, body language, facial expression, vocalising, symbols, signs, written word, verbal language, telephone, video phone, text, , art, music, drama / dance
Week two: Play
What is play
child’s way of learning, first opportunity child has to use symbols
What do children learn through play
how words are used to refer to items, events, people,
Why play
Fun, opportunity to learn, find out about themselves and the world, experiment, hand eye co-ordination, discover, be creative, develop speech, learn new skills
Types of play
Creative
Physical
Construction
Pretend & sharing
Books
Week three: Attention and Listening
Importance of Attention and listening
We talked about how important this is in conversations and about distractions – what they are and how to minimise / reduce.
Attention - ability to concentrate on an activity and to be able to integrate information from different sources
Listening – ability to identify and locate different types of sound e.g. speech / environmental
Language Tree
We explained the Language Tree and talked about the importance of
Understanding, Attention, Looking, Turn Taking and Listening in the development of language.
Week four: Turn taking
Importance of Turn taking
We talked about turn taking being a very important part of learning to communicate; you can not be involved in a conversation if you do not take turns in talking. We then went on to talk about:
Who does the most talking / signing in the family?
Who does the most listening / watching?
Who does the most interrupting?
Week five: Praise and Encouragement
Importance of Praise and Encouragement
We talked about praise and encouragement and how our children respond when we are positive & encouraging, passive and negative or corrective. We also discussed how this can make us as adults feel.
We wanted to remind you how easy it is to fall into a trap of correcting your children when they play. We know this is only out of desire to teach them, we sometimes find ourselves being critical for e.g. “Oh that doesn’t go there” or “It should be done like this”.
By being aware of this and going out of your way to encourage your children, looking for the things they are doing right & showing interest in their activities we are helping to build their self esteems.
Remember you are your child’s first and most important teacher. Enjoy the time you spend together.

7. Talking Together Plus
Talking Together Plus provides additional language support to the children that have received the initial Talking Together programme
Children may be referred for this during the Talking Together sessions or at the twelve week review.
Talking Together Plus focuses on a specific area of the child’s language development, for example if the child requires continued support with their attention control, activities will be completed to support this
The LDW will continue to share tips and strategies with the parent to enable them to support their child’s language development.  

8. Theory of the solution

9. Any Questions?