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Speech and language videos and resources

  • Training and workshops
  • Speech, language and communication

We have developed a series of videos which contain information on supporting a child’s communication needs within the home and educational settings.

An introduction to speech, language and communication

Welcome to this video: An Introduction to Speech, Language and Communication

By watching this video, you will:

  • Know what communication is and why it is so important
  • Gain introductory knowledge to the components of communication
  • Develop some strategies in positively supporting a child’s speech, language and communication skills
  • Know where you can get more support in this area

This video is appropriate for staff supporting children in the early years or primary phase of education, or parents and carers of these children.

  • Communication is fundamental to children’s development; children need to be able to understand and be understood.
  • Communication is the foundation of relationships and is essential for learning, play and social interaction.
  • Communication is at the heart of everything we do, and it is everybody’s business to support communication skills to develop.

What is meant by speech, language and communication?

Communication is how we exchange messages. Although we often focus on ‘speaking’ as the main form of communication, it actually uses all the senses, and a lot of our communication is done without talking, or non-verbally. Communication involves being able to understand someone else’s point of view, and using and understanding body language and facial expressions. Here are some examples of non-verbal communication. Can you understand them?

By language, we mean both understanding, or receptive language, and speaking, or expressive language. We need to understand and use words and sentences to follow instructions, communicate our needs, and share our ideas. As before, we usually speak, but we can also communicate using writing, sign language or other forms.

And speech is the way we use our sounds and our voice to communicate our message in a smooth and fluent way.

Some children and young people have Speech, Language and Communication Needs, often shortened to SLCN. This means they have difficulties in one or more of the areas just mentioned.

So, we know communication is essential for learning, play and social interaction, but did you know:

  • 1.9 million children in the UK have SLCN, that’s approximately 13% of children. This number has significantly increased in the last few years.
  • In some areas, 50% of children start school without the communication skills they need.
  • A third of our children do not make the expected level of progress in their Reception Year and this gap can widen as they move through the school years
  • Communication skills at age five can predict reading skills, and vocabulary levels at five are linked to academic outcomes at GCSE level.
  • SLCN are often hidden and under-identified. What might look like friendship difficulties, or literacy difficulties, or behavioural difficulties, may actually be underlying SLCN.
  • Without support, children with SLCN can struggle academically, socially, emotionally and in the long term. But there are lots of things we can do to support them, both at home and in our settings.

·        Good communication skills depend on abilities that children develop long before they start to talk. Research shows that babies whose parents or carers are more responsive go on to develop larger vocabularies and reach their language milestones earlier. For example, by taking turns with babies when they are cooing and babbling, we actively help them to look, listen, and learn the basic structure of conversation.

·        As babies grow, play is a great opportunity to continue crucial back-and-forth games, for example, taking turns to add blocks when building a tower or stacking cups. Children’s interaction with others supports their communication development. Play and language develop hand in hand.

·        Children need to hear language to be able to use it. They need to understand the meaning of words and sentences and the ideas behind them. As they get older, they begin to understand the way sentences are constructed, and that different word forms can change the meaning of a sentence.

·        Children begin using words, verbally or non-verbally, and combine them together to make phrases and sentences.

·        Speech sounds develop alongside expressive language, even babbling is the beginning of speech sounds, however we know that babies and toddlers are still experimenting with these sounds, and it takes a long time for them to be fully mastered.

·        Speech and Language Therapists often use these descriptors to think about children’s communication needs.

We are now going to share our top tips that parents, carers and wider family members, early years practitioners, school staff, and all professionals who work with children can try. These tips can support all children to develop their communication skills, but they are particularly important for children with SLCN.

Share attention:

  • Get down to the child’s level where possible
  • Pay attention to what they are focused on
  • Join in with their choice of activity. Sometimes children play in a way that we don’t expect; you can copy the child’s play, and then show them something new too.

All of these things tell our children that you value and want to spend time with them. It is a powerful way to establish a connection, and it motivates them to communicate with you.

Then respond:

  • Follow the child’s lead
  • Respond to their communication, whether it is verbal or non-verbal
  • Offer choices to give the child an opportunity to communicate
  • Comment on what you can see, hear or feel, using language which is appropriate for the child
  • Make links between what they are doing now and previous experiences, where possible
  • Use gestures and visuals to help the child understand
  • Use the language you speak best when communicating; this ensures we provide a good model of language

Expand, so:

  • Repeat back what the child has said to acknowledge you have understood, or to model any errors they have made
  • Build on what they have said by adding more words to turn it into a sentence

By pitching your language just above the level of the child, you can model more complex sentences, which the child will hear and learn from.

  • Where possible, use all the senses to teach new words, for example, you can use objects and pictures so they can see and feel what you are talking about
  • Repeat, repeat, repeat new words and old words so the child can understand and use them

And conversation:

  • Play talking tennis: this means take turns in your interactions with the child
  • Give the child time to listen, process and reply. 10 seconds is a good amount of time to wait, even if it feels long to you.
  • Avoid forcing or bribing a child to talk or copy you.
  • Be mindful of questions: Using comments and prompts, rather than questions, often results in the child joining in and talking more. Aim to use 4 comments for every 1 question.
  • Chatting, singing and playing with children boosts their brain development, so keep doing these things all day long. By doing so, a child could hear one to two thousand words every hour!

The tips we have shared so far are sometimes referred to as SHREC, as can be seen on the screen: Share attention, Respond, Expand, Conversation. Thanks to the Education Endowment Foundation for creating this visual. Some other top tips we recommend include…

Enjoy screen activities together. Children learn words best from real life and talking with other people. When you enjoy screen activities together, you can talk with each other about what you can see and do.

Take the child’s dummy out when they are talking. This helps children to copy words and sounds correctly, and gives them lots of opportunities to communicate with you.

Share books together.

Take any opportunity to share a book with a child. Reading is a great way to learn new words.

When they are young, interactive books with flaps or different textures work well.

 As they get older, rhyming books or those with repeating phrases help lay the foundations for literacy skills.

Our school aged children still enjoy sharing books. As they progress, you can try short chapter books and series based on their interests.

Engage with books by talking about the characters or pictures, predicting what might happen next and connecting the stories to real-life experiences.

Reading just one book a day, like a bedtime story, means a child will have seen nearly 2000 books by the time they turn five.

If you are concerned about a child’s speech, language or communication skills you can:

·         Meet with parents and pre-school or school staff to discuss the concerns

·         Speak to your Health Visitor or local Children’s Centre for advice if applicable

·         Check out the Local Offer for the area you live in; you can search online for the name of your area and ‘local offer’

For more information on supporting SLCN, please visit our website.

Here you can access

  • Advice, strategies and resources for pre-school and school aged children
  • The early years and school aged toolkits which include assessment tools and resources to support children’s skills
  • A range of training workshops and videos
  • And information on how to refer

We also have a Facebook page which offers a weekly theme with ideas you can do at home and in schools and settings for supporting speech, language and communication. 

Speech and Language UK is the children’s communication charity. Their website has lots of information to help you understand and support children and young people’s speech, language and communication.

There are lots of websites with advice for supporting children at the ‘universal’ stage. Their information will expand on the tips we have provided. These include: 

  • Tiny happy people, which is for 0-4 year olds
  • Start for life, which is for 0-5 year olds
  • National Literacy Trust, which is for 5-18 year olds, and
  • Words for Life from the National Literacy Trust, which is for 0-12 year olds

There are also websites that can provide advice and support at the targeted and specialist levels. These include:

  • The local Neurodiversity service which provides information for families and settings where neurodiversity is suspected or confirmed. Their website contains information, resources and signposting.
  • The National Autistic Society is the leading UK charity for autistic people and their families. Their website has lots of information and advice about supporting children and young people with Autism. 
  • The Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder website provides advice and materials on Developmental Language Disorder.
  • Afasic supports and provides information for families with children and young people who have SLCN, and
  • The British Stammering Association support children and adults who stammer and those around them. They provide information, resources and support. 

Thank you!


Attention and listening skills

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)

Talking is not the only way to communicate. There are lots of ways you and your child or young person can communicate.

Social communication and interaction skills

This series of videos focusing on social communication. There are techniques and strategies to help children and young people.

Understanding and using language

We have developed a series of videos which contain information on supporting a child’s communication needs within the home or educational settings.

Speech sounds

Videos focused on helping children and young people with speech sounds.

Supporting speech, language and communication in secondary schools

Educational settings and school information and advice

We have developed a series of videos which contain information on supporting a child’s communication needs within educational settings.


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