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

Tiny Happy People

Tiny Happy People BBC website provides a wide range of information, ideas and activities for parents to use in daily routines to help develop their young child's communication skills. The website is for parents of children aged up to 5 years, parents can choose information that is relevant to the age of their child. It includes information about what to expect and when as well as activities and games to play to help speech, language and communication. It includes information, ideas and activities for parents of young children with SEND.

Cost: Free

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

Hear Glue Ear

A free, award-winning app, designed for children experiencing hearing loss due to glue ear.

The Hear Glue Ear app is a valuable tool to help families manage their child’s glue ear at home. Glue ear is one of the most common childhood conditions in children aged 2-6, and the concern is that some young children with persistent or recurrent glue ear might struggle to develop speech, language, listening, and social communication skills. 

Cost: Free App

Be face to face at the child's level

Getting down to the pre-school child's level and being face to face with them helps them to listen, concentrate and understand the message. It also helps you to see where their focus is and what they are trying to communicate. This simple video produced by Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust shows why this is important.

Cost: Free

BBC Something Special

Something Special uses songs, rhymes and visual humour with Makaton sign language to help you and your child learn how to communicate as well as develop their language in a fun and exciting way.

Cost: Free

Switch off and talk

The average 3-4 year old spends 27.5 hours each week watching TV, using the internet or playing electronic games. Reducing this will be support your child’s communication skills. This webpage and leaflet provides you with information about why this is important.

Speech and Language UK How to support your child

This information about how to support your young child forms part of Speech and Language UKs guide to the typical stages of speech and language development.  Young children develop language at different rates and understanding what is typical and what you can do to support your young child can help you give them the best start on their journey to developing communication and language skills. 

Cost: Free

PEEP

Peep Communication and Language strand - evidence-based parenting programme for parents and children together to attend together. There is a focus on bonding, attachment and the quality of the home learning environment as well as a focus on communication and language. You have the opportunity to gain 3 credits towards NOCN Learning Together at home.

Peep Early Literacy Strand - evidence-based parenting programme for parents and children to attend together. There is a focus on bonding, attachment and the quality of the home learning environment as well as a focus on literacy. You have the opportunity to gain 3 credits towards NOCN Learning Together at home.

Cost: Free

Labelling and Commenting

Using real word labels and commenting on what your young child is interested in helps them to learn new words and understand how sentences work.  Here NHS Tayside's Rhyming Robin and Chatty and Charlie share information about how to do this as well as many other top tips for learning words and developing language. 

Cost: Free

Greater Manchester 10 Tips for Talking

The Greater Manchester (GM) 10 Tips for Talking are ten key messages to support the development of language and communication skills for babies and young children and can be used by everyone. Each tip is designed to give families and anyone working with children some small suggestions that can make a big difference and help give children the best start. Each message is based on sound research and is delivered by children.

Cost: Free

Signalong

Signalong provides training and resources to assist those with communication difficulties and English as an additional language.

Signalong is a key word sign-supported communication system based on British sign language and is used in spoken word order. It uses speech, sign, body language, facial expression and voice tone to reference the link between sign and word.

Cost: Free & £

The Hanen Centre Parent Programmes

The Hanen Centre's programmes for parents are delivered by Hanen Certified speech and language therapists.  They are delivered through activities and group discussions - small groups of parents learn how to use everyday opportunities to improve their child's speech, language and communication skills. Hanen provides families with the tools they need to help their child reach their full communication potential.  Hanen has developed parent programmes for Language Delays, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Literacy. 

Leeds Speech and Language Therapy Toolkit

Leeds Community Healthcare's Speech and Language Therapy Toolkit contains advice, activities and general resources to help you with your child's development of speech, language and communication skills.

Cost: Free

Slowing down

Slowing down when talking and singing helps young children to tune into the rhythm and the words adults around them are using. Slowing down also gives young children time to think about what they would like to say or do.  This is one of a series of videos from Speech and Language Therapists from South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust outlining strategies to support speech, language and communication development.

Cost: Free

Stoke Speaks Out - Out and About activity packs

Being out and about is a great opportunity for language learning! Download these free printable activity packs for ideas to support your child's speech and language and occupy their busy little minds while you're out and about.

Cost: Free

Developing Joint Attention

Birmingham Community Healthcare Speech and Language Therapists have produced this video to show you how to help develop your child's joint attention - this means being able to focus on the same thing as you at the same time. How to help your child developing joint attention through play is broken down to help you easily understand what to do step by step.

Cost: Free

Creating Opportunities to Communicate

Birmingham Community Healthcare Speech and Language Therapists have produced this video to show you how to make small changes throughout the day to increase your child's opportunities to communicate and have a reason to communicate.

Cost: Free

Clickety Books

Clickety Books are fun books and resources to share with your child to encourage development and will help children who may have difficulty with certain speech sounds.  They have been developed by speech and language therapists to support the speech and language development of all children as well as those who need a little extra help.  They include Early Sound Play resources that are built around stories - these stories are filled with particular target sounds, alliteration, rhythm and rhyme to develop early sound awareness.  The story books can also be used to develop vocabulary, sentence and narrative skills boosting children's literacy skills.  Puppets are also available to help with the interactive book-sharing experience! 

Cost: £

Helping social communication development

You play a key role in supporting your child's language and communication skills in everyday life. Children learn about the world through their experiences and interests particularly within their play. Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust provide information and opportunities for you to learn more about developing your child's speech and language including this presentation about social communication.

Cost: Free

Learning more than one language

Many children grow up learning more than one language. This information leaflet from NHS Forth Valley provides you with useful information and top tips about what you can do to help your young child on their way to being bilingual.

Cost: Free

Speech Link Parent Portal

The Speech Link Parent Portal offers you advice, information and activities for developing your children’s understanding, talking and listening.  It includes information about speech, language and communication, how these skills develop, activities and top tips videos.

Cost: Free

NLT Bilingual quick tips

The National Literacy Trust has produced a series of bilingual quick tips for parents and practitioners to help children develop good talking and listening skills. There are lots of different languages.  Copies can be downloaded and shared with families.

- Say hello to your new baby
- Dummies and talking
- Talk to your baby and child in your own language
- Making the most of television
- Talking with your baby
- Sharing songs and rhymes
- Playing with your baby

Cost: Free

Expansions - repeat and add

One way to help your young child make longer sentences is to repeat and add a word or 2.  Here NHS Tayside's Rhyming Robin and Chatty Charlie share information about how to do this as well as many other top tips for putting words together. 

Cost: Free