What particular things I can do to help my child / young person with their understanding, talking or communication

Parent information, advice and resources - Worcestershire

The Worcestershire Speech and Language Therapy service website provides a comprehensive range of resources, advice and You Tube videos to help parents to support their child / young person at home. 

Visit the website to find:

• Information about speech, language and communication
• Free resources you can download and use at home
• Links to our You Tube channel where you will find demonstrations of activities you can do at home
• Further information about the local team, where we work and what services we provide 

Cost: Free

Learning About New Words

This video focuses on learning new words and strategies to support young people in developing their vocabulary.

Cost: Free

Supporting Understanding

This video features six top tips to help a young person better understand what is being said to them.

It is part of a series that has been made to help parents and carers support young people (aged 11-18) with communication difficulties. 

Cost: Free

Speech and Language UK How to support your child

This information about how to support your young person forms part of Speech and Language UK's guide to the typical stages of speech and language development.  Children and young people develop language at different rates and understanding you can do to support can help you give them the best start on their journey to developing communication and language skills. 

Cost: Free

TCT Universally Speaking Ages and Stages 11-18 years

Universally Speaking is a series of booklets for anyone who works with children and young people. The booklets show where children and young people should be with their communication skills at any given age.  You can use the booklets to find out whether the children and young people you work with are on the right track, what helps them learn to talk and listen and what to do if you have concerns about any of their communication abilities.

Cost: Free

Makaton sign and symbol resources

These free Makaton resources are available for you to access and use to support communication.  These symbols and signs help you to provide extra information and clues about what you are saying as well as support the development of essential communication skills such as attention and listening and understanding. 

Cost: Free

Signs and Symbols

Widgit provides symbols that can be used to support communication making information, documents and resources to be more accessible and inclusive.  The symbols can be used for a variety of purposes such as creating communication books to share information; visual timetables to support understanding of structure and routine; task boards to support independent learning; pictures to develop vocabulary and to support children learning English as an additional language.

This website has information to support your understanding of how to use symbols including training resources, events and links to a network of organisations around the UK who offer advice and support.

There is also information for parents and carers to help them understand how they can use symbols to support young people.

Cost: £9/month upwards

Symbols

Widgit provides symbols that you can use to support communication such as creating communication books to share information; visual timetables to support understanding of structure and routine; task boards to support independent learning and pictures to develop vocabulary. Here you will find more information about how to use symbols to help communication and independence.  It also include resources and ideas to get you started.