Help! A child in my nursery is not
listening or talking and he is going to school next September. How will I help him get ready for school?
It is common for practitioners
working in nurseries and preschools to be worried about one or two children in
the Autumn Term. The year will fly by and it is hard to imagine these
children catching up so that they will cope with the demands of school.
When young children are delayed the most common areas of concern are about
speech, language and communication. Problems in these areas have knock-on
effects upon behaviour, play and friendships. Here are five tips on how
to help:
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Talk to the parents. First off share your
concerns with the child’s parents. Have some concrete examples of what
you have observed the child struggle to do. Parents typically also have
concerns so you can start a dialogue about what they have observed in other
situations and make suggestions for some simple ways of helping. Other
parents know less about typical child development, so this is your first
opportunity to raise their awareness and involve them in your plans to discover
more about their child. As you go through the academic year having the
parents on board will be vital to ensuring that they make simple changes to
help their child progress.
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Allocate a key worker. Most nurseries and
preschools have a key worker system where one practitioner is allocated to a
child. This arrangement is often loose as all staff on duty interact
spontaneously with any children nearby. But when there is concern about a
child’s speech, language and communication it is vital that the key worker
system is rigorously applied. This has two major benefits. First it
gives the child the opportunity to form a strong attachment to one
person. This is a secure base for a vulnerable little person. If
the child has difficulty forming social bonds then this will become apparent if
the relationship with the key worker does not emerge. Second the key
worker will be well placed to make detailed observations about how the child
manages interactions with others and can learn what helps the child to
communicate successfully with others. This type of support has to be
delivered ‘in the moment’ to be effective and of the right ‘dosage’. Too
little support and the child can become emotionally unregulated (e.g. passively
despondent or stimulation seeking). Too much support and the child can become
dependent on the adult, lack self agency and stop interacting with
children.
So what is the ‘just right’ amount
of support? Here are some examples:
It is when the key worker spots
when the child has not understood a spoken instruction and so will repeat the
words simply, showing or demonstrating to the child. The result is
successful comprehension in the moment.
It is when the key worker spots
when the child is asking for a toy but can only point or grab, and so she
models the word they child needs to say. The child then experiences how
using the right words can lead to a peaceful toy exchange with another child.
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Plot the child’s progress. Create a baseline profile of
the child (e.g. using the Early Years Foundation Stage tools) and repeat it six
weeks later to monitor progress. Keeping good records means you have
concrete evidence to show parents. This can demonstrate and justify your
management decisions; for example to show how your support is helping the child
to develop or to show why you have decided to ask for additional support from
the Speech and Language Therapy Service. If you do get professional
support your records will help answer the therapist’s questions about the child
and your intervention.
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Get Informed. Speech, language and communication
difficulties maybe an unfamiliar area to you but there is plenty of help on the
internet from organisations such as I Can and The Communication Trust.
Your local authority and speech and language department will have training that
you can access. Link up with local nurseries and preschools to discover
how other early years settings support speech, language and
communication. Sharing resources and experiences of the support that is
available locally can save time and money.
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Plan and Deliver Intervention. Be realistic about what
intervention you can provide. Consider the physical layout of your
setting, the knowledge and skills of the staff, funding for additional
resources and your ability to commit to the form of intervention that you
decide to deliver. For example, if you are in a pack-away Church Hall
with a small group of children then you will need to support language through
play with all of the children. Whereas a preschool setting with a
separate quiet room could set up a language group that plays the language game
at a set time each day without distractions. Your local speech and language
therapist can make suggestions about published interventions that you could
deliver. The best programmes will include a form of monitoring so that
you can detect the child that fails to make progress, even with your
support. In this way you will know when it is appropriate to refer the
child to speech and language therapy. However, it is highly likely that
you will the child (and others in your setting) flourish with your language and
communication games.
Handout: Universal Skills for Practitioners Talking
with Young Children in Pre-School Start Sessions
Have Fun!
Speak….
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Do….
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Be….
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add-on
repeat
model
pause
chunk
|
show
gesture
wait
listen
follow
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warm
alert
involved
creative
available
|
Speak….
|
||||||
Add-on
expand what the child says with an extra word
or two: “yes, ball, blue ball”
Repeat
repeat the phrase exactly to give extra
opportunity for understanding: “a blue ball, a blue ball”
Model
Say the phrase or word you want the child to
say, but don’t force them to repeat you
Pause
Break you phrases up with pauses; this slows
down your speech and gives children time
Chunk
Break your words up into short chunks;
simplify your language
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