Our monthly updates provide information and resources for early years practitioners to support communication, language and literacy developments.

February 2025

This month our Come Talk with Me Top Tip is:

Notice what your child is interested in and follow their lead when playing. Your child will want to talk for longer about something that interests them.

January 2025

This month our Come Talk with Me Top Tip is:

“Have some screen free time each day – turn off the TV, phone and computer and talk with your child. This will give your child time to learn new words”

Currently the World Health Organization recommends no screen time for babies under 2 and no more than one hour of screen time a day for those aged 2 to 4.

The negative effects of too much screen time for babies and toddlers range from shorter attention span to lower empathy, which ultimately can lead to difficulties with communication and language skills.

In this article Babies Need Humans Not Screens, Carlota Nelson, director of the documentary Brain Matters, explores why too much screen time can harm babies and the importance of ensuring children enjoy off-screen experiences.

December 2024

This month our Come Talk with Me top tip is to use your daily routines as time to talk with your child. These routines provide great opportunities for you to repeat everyday words for your child to hear.

November 2024

This month our Come Talk with Me top tip is that it’s hard to talk with something in your mouth. If your child uses a dummy, try to keep it for bedtime. This will help your child develop speech sounds more clearly.

The Literacy Trust have a fact sheet available for more information and advice on the use of dummies and learning to talk.

Communication Champion Workshops

The Children and Young People’s Speech and Language Therapy Service have delivered this terms Communication Champion Workshop in Poole and for the first time in Bournemouth. The workshop focused on shared book reading to develop children’s language. The session was really interactive, and practitioners went away with some great ideas and new learning.

In the session the following strategies were explored:

• use eye contact, pauses, silly noises, make faces or act things out
• make comments and avoid lots of questions
• point to words/pictures as you say them
• label a range of things in a book using, nouns, verbs, adjectives
• leave a gap for the child to finish your sentence
• relate what they see to personal events
• acknowledge all attempts at language, even if not clear

These workshops are so valuable and a great opportunity to link up with local speech and language therapists. We had some brilliant feedback from the practitioners attending and we really do encourage you to come along next time! To find out more about becoming a Communication Champion for your setting/childminder please visit the Dorset HealthCare website.

Look out for an invitation to book next term’s Communication Champion Workshops, which will be emailed directly to you nearer the time.

The National Literacy Trust

Despite the chilly weather, autumn is a brilliant time to get outdoors because there’s so much to notice and chat about. The National Literacy Trust newsletter has some great ideas to share with parents and practitioners to help them to discover ways to chat, play and read this Autumn.

Celebrating Black History Month with your children

October was Black History Month, but it’s not too late for you to celebrate this with your children. You can find lots of info, resources, and Early Years book lists on the Words for Life website. You can also sign up for a chance to win a collection of books featuring amazing black literary characters.