Practitioner Training Warmup activity Introduce yourself to the

Practitioner Training

Warm-up activity • Introduce yourself to the group: with your name and your role in the setting. • In a second round say one thing you’ve heard about or know about Early Talk Boost.

What is Early Talk Boost ? • A language intervention designed for 3– 4 year olds to boost their language skills. • Includes: Intervention Manual Set of eight story books Toolkit of resources • Parents are also involved in the programme. Tracker

Who is Early Talk Boost for? Children with persistent SLCN Children with delayed language (up to 80%) Children with age-appropriate communication and language development

Overview of the training day Session 1 • Background to Early Talk Boost and early language development Session 2 • Selecting children for the groups • Using the Early Talk Boost Tracker Session 3 • Running the Early Talk Boost groups Session 4 • How to support children’s language • Partnership with parents and parent workshops

Session 1: Background to Early Talk Boost and early language development • Quiz: facts and figures about early language Why do the Early Talk Boost intervention?

Quiz: Question 1 • Other children who are good at talking? • Children’s TV programmes and tablets? • Adults? From whom do children learn language skills best?

Quiz: Question 2 • • 6 weeks? 9 months? 1 year? 17 months? At age 3, what’s the language skills gap between disadvantaged children and those from wealthier backgrounds?

Quiz: Question 3 • If they have delay at age 5 they catch up with their peers by age 7 • Their vocabulary skills stay the same • Their vocabulary skills fall behind What happens to the vocabulary skills of children in persistent poverty between the ages of 5 and 7?

Quiz: Question 4 • • 5%? 10%? 15%? 25%? At age 3, what percentage change can we make to a child’s language by working with parents?

Quiz: Question 5 • True or False? Children who are introduced to English as a second language will have speech, language and communication needs

Thinking about talking • Talk to the person sitting next to you about how you’d make a simple sandwich. – Start with the things you need to do first and work through the order of the steps to complete the sandwich. • When you’ve finished, talk about all the skills you and your partner used during your conversation.

How do we communicate? We put together what we hear, and Understand We plan and organise what we will say We hear, attend and listen We use words to share meaning – Talking We make and use sounds to form words – Speech Using language to interact with other people – Communication We have to want, need and be confident to communicate With thanks to The Communication Trust for this model

What are the building blocks of language? • If we built a tower to represent the way language develops, the foundation blocks would be: Hearing Attention Listening Looking • Discuss what would happen if these skills are not secure.

Building blocks of language

Early Talk Boost supports Attention and listening • These are the foundation skills for speaking and listening. Developing vocabulary • Research shows that children with weaker vocabularies are at risk of experiencing difficulties with reading. Building sentences • Putting words together is a vital skill for having conversations and telling stories.

Jake & Tizzy story books A series of eight story books introduce the characters of Jake and Tizzy, who are used throughout the intervention, so that children will become familiar with them. The books: • reinforce topics covered in the weekly sessions such as learning to listen, big and little, and action words • introduce and practise a range of vocabulary • focus on language structures required for building sentences. Repeated reading of story books has an effect on children’s narrative skills and print knowledge (Horst et al, 2011).

Initial findings from the pilot study After Early Talk Boost: • • • Children make statistically significant progress in their early language. On average children make six months’ progress after a nine-week intervention. This is twice the amount of progress of children not having the intervention.

Session 2: Selecting the children The Early Talk Boost intervention is suitable for children with language delay (in some areas 50– 80% of all children), e. g. those who have: • difficulty listening/paying attention • poor vocabulary • difficulty understanding language • difficulty organising and using language • immature sentences • difficulty explaining or describing • difficulty taking turns.

Selecting the children The Early Talk Boost intervention will not benefit children with: • identified learning needs/special educational needs • difficulty with fluency • isolated speech sound difficulties.

Assessment and monitoring The Early Talk Boost Tracker is provided with the intervention: • to help you identify children for the intervention • to monitor progress of the children after the intervention. Note that the Tracker is not designed as a whole class screening tool.

Early Talk Boost Tracker The Tracker has four sections: 1. Attention and listening 2. Communication: Understanding of language 3. Communication: Speaking 4. Personal, social and emotional skills

Early Talk Boost Tracker • Section 1: Attention and listening and Section 4: Personal, social and emotional skills are completed from your observations and knowledge of the child. • Section 2: Communication: Understanding of language and Section 3: Communication: Speaking involve: – checking the child’s ability to respond to instructions – checking the child’s ability to interpret information in pictures. There are guidelines for what you can say and what you’ll need for these sections.

Early Talk Boost Tracker • • The questions in the Tracker are colour coded Red, Amber and Green. This colour coding relates to approximate age-specific milestones. R These questions relate to milestones for children aged approximately 2 years old A These questions relate to milestones for children aged approximately 2– 3 years old G These questions relate to milestones for children aged between 3 and 4 years old

Scoring the Tracker • Follow the guidance and use the online Tracker to get a numerical score and measure this against the child’s age: www. icantracker. org. uk • • • Children scoring in the Red or Amber bands will benefit from Early Talk Boost. Children in the Red band may need further support, liaison with parents and consideration for external referral. Children in the Green band will not benefit particularly from Early Talk Boost.

Checking children’s progress • Use the Tracker to identify children who will benefit from Early Talk Boost. • Use the Tracker after the intervention is complete to see how much progress the children have made. • Identify next steps and any further support needed.

Online Tracker www. icantracker. org. uk • Gives you automated scoring for each child. • Lets you track children’s progress online before and after the Early Talk Boost groups. • Produces reports you can share with parents and other professionals. • Shares information with I CAN so we can continue to gather impact evidence on how Early Talk Boost is working.

Session 3: Running your Early Talk Boost groups Groups run for nine weeks, three times a week 6– 8 children in each group Groups run instead of your circle or group times Fits in with your routines

Overview of content Weeks Topic Attention and listening 1 and 2 Learning to listen Developing vocabulary 3 and 4 Food Big and Little Building sentences 5 to 8 Action words On, under and in Three-key-word sentences First, next and last Having conversations 9 Making friends

Plan, do and review Use the Planning board: • for Planning/Introduction • at the end of each session to talk about what you’ve done. Activity 1 Activity 2 Song Story featuring Jake and Tizzy

What you need for each session • • Register Planning board (Resource ❶) Listening prompts: Good looking, Good listening and Good sitting cards (Resources ❷–❹) Resources (listed in the Intervention Manual – you may need some resources from your Toolkit or setting) Song card Story book Camera – you need to take a photo each week to use in Week 9

Importance of registration for each session Remember to take the Register for every session. The Register: • is included in the Intervention Manual • is essential to review the impact of the intervention.

Week 1 Attention and listening • These skills are the foundation of communication. • In Week 1 the focus is on how we listen and the parts of our body we use to listen. • Drawing children’s awareness to this can help them learn these skills.

Attention and listening Week 1 Let’s do it! Look at Week 1: Session 3: Activity 1: Watch for the signal!

Week 2 Attention and listening continued Builds on Week 1 to help children develop and extend their listening skills. Activity • Find Book 2: The Ice Lolly. • Locate three story sessions in the Intervention Manual. • Read the story in pairs.

Week 3 Learning and using new words In Week 3 the focus is on helping children find a way to learn and remember new words, rather than specific words. Activity • Look at Week 3 and the template for learning new words – WOW (Working Out Words). • How can you use this to help children build their vocabulary?

Week 4 Learning and using new words You can help children build understanding and use longer sentences using big and little. Activity • Look through the activities for this week and the book: Jake is Big and Tizzy is Little • Is there anything you’d find difficult to explain?

Week 5 Building sentences: verbs Activity • Find Week 5: Session 2: Activity 1. • What is Tizzy doing? • Play the game!

Week 6 Building sentences: positional language How would you help children learn about positional language? Look at the activities • How will this fit into your routine?

Week 7 Building sentences: putting it together The focus for this week is helping children to use key words as the‘building blocks’of language and join them together to make sentences. Key words • These are the words that carry important information.

How many key words? How many key words do you need to understand to carry out the instruction? Make Tizzy jump Put Tizzy under the bag Now look at the activities for Week 7. How will you talk about these with the children?

Week 8 Building sentences: sequencing Sequencing is an important skill for planning, telling stories and having conversations. Activity • Think about what you do in the morning – What’s the very first thing you do, then the next, etc. • Break it down into a sequence

Week 8 • Look at the book The Birthday! and the three cake cards (Resources 81– 83). • See how theme of sequencing has been linked with a familiar topic that the children will enjoy.

Week 9 Having conversations This week you need all the photos you’ve been taking in Weeks 1– 8. The activity in each session is to make a group Photobook as a way of reviewing and recording what you’ve done and having conversations about it.

Week 9: Creating a Photobook Be creative • We hope that you’ll celebrate the photos that you’ve taken over the last eight weeks as reminders. • Get everyone – children, families and practitioners – to join in by adding comments, drawings and extra pictures.

Session 4: Supporting children’s language Partnership with parents How adults can help children’s language Making the most of everyday routines and games

Partnership with parents • All parents will have a copy of the eight weekly Jake & Tizzy story books to share at home. • Parents will be invited to attend a workshop on how sharing books can help language development. • These practical strategies will show parents what they can do to encourage their child’s talking.

Working with parents What’s provided: • Choice of two workshops: – Parent workshop 1: a practical session – Parent workshop 2: a Power. Point presentation. • • Invitations to workshops. Parent leaflet on Tizzy’s Talking Tips. Invitation to view the Photobook. Ten copies of each Jake & Tizzy story book so that children can take these home and share them with parents.

Tizzy’s Talking Tips 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

Activity: Building on good practice in your setting What strategies do you use that help children’s communication? Hint: think about what you do in your setting and how you act, rather than games or activities.

How we can help children’s language • • • Listen more than we talk. Wait for the child to respond. Be face to face at the child’s level. Extend and expand on what the child tells us. Give the child the words for new things and experiences. • Give the child opportunities to copy and say new words.

How we can help when sharing stories • Pausing: waiting while we read for children to join in. • Contingent questioning: asking questions that build on children’s interests. • Pace: ensure that we don’t read too fast. • Speaking clearly and pointing to the main characters in the story. • Prompts: providing pictures and reminders about good looking and listening.

Reflective practice Activity Think about how you read children’s stories Are there any strategies that you need to refresh or implement to develop your storytelling skills?

How can you build on Early Talk Boost groups? Build language opportunities into planning Activity • Read through the Building on practice sections of the Early Talk Boost Intervention Manual. • Are there any more strategies and activities you could introduce?

Next steps • What will you need to do next to start running the Early Talk Boost intervention in your setting? • Are there any challenges you can think of? • Are there any questions?

Course details & evaluations • Tutor name: • Date: • Email contact: • Evaluations to be completed online and certificates will be available to print at https: //ican. org. uk/traininglicensing/evaluation/

Useful information • Information, DVD clips and updates for Early Talk Boost will be available at ttps: //ican. org. uk/training-licensing/i-canprogrammes/early-talk-boost/ • Register to use the Early Talk Boost Tracker at https: //icantracker. org. uk/user To contact I CAN – info@ican. org. uk – 020 7843 2515