Supporting Families
As a professional working in health or education, you have a very important role to play in getting information to parents and carers about the importance of speech and language. Not all families appreciate how important speech and language is to their children’s overall development. These families may be less likely to spot when there is a problem, and are potentially less inclined to focus of speech and language development.
Parents and carers should be encouraged to support their children’s speech and language. Print off some factsheets here, and ask parents or carers to try some activities. These activities do not have to be an extra thing to do in a busy day – it’s possible to support children’s language development as part of everyday activities like shopping or getting dressed.
I CAN has a great DVD called Chatter Matters which shows parents and carers how to support their child’s language as part of their daily routine. Here is a clip:
(chatter matters clip)
Early identification of speech and language difficulties is absolutely essential. The sooner a child’s needs can be identified the greater chance there is to make sure they have the correct support so they don’t get left behind.
For this reason, we have created this section of the site. It helps professionals to identify when children are having a difficulty in the short time they might spend with them, and also provides simple resources to print off and give to families. These resources contain simple information to help parents and carers support their children’s speech, language and communication development.
To check a child’s progress use the
progress checker and the
ages and stages section of the site. To support early identification you can use these to check that a child of a certain age has developed the skills that they should have. If a child is not meeting the milestones, then action will be required – read what to do if there is a problem.