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Parent workshop

Early Talk Boost

speechandlanguage.org.uk

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We’d like to…

Get to �know each other

Talk about

Early Talk Boost

Slide 2: Introduction

3 minutes

Key points

This workshop gives an opportunity to explore these topics together:

Developing children's skills at talking and understanding words
How Early Talk Boost helps children
What we can do to also help children

There are opportunities to chat as well as do a few fun activities together.

What to do

First, Introduce yourself and give a very brief overview of your role and/or what you do. Explain to parents that they have been invited to this session because their child is going to take part in an Early Talk Boost group. Then talk through the following:

Explain that the session

Will help them learn about Early Talk Boost;
Gives a very brief overview of the importance of children developing their skills in talking and understanding words;
Moves into how sharing stories together really supports this;
Introduces Tizzy’s Talking Tips for making book-sharing a fun and engaging activity.

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Getting to know you!

Say Hi!

Say something you like about your child.

Do you speak any other languages?

Slide 3: Activity 1 – Getting to know you!

5 minutes

Key point

This is an opportunity to get to know each other on a paired or a group basis, depending on how well the practitioner knows the parents who are participating.
This is to give everyone the chance to share something positive about their child.
Make sure everyone has the chance of taking a turn, and support parents who find it hard to talk in a group by giving positive verbal reinforcements and agreeing with their efforts whenever a parent does share something.

Why we are doing this

This is intended to be a gentle, non-threatening ice-breaker that allows parents to say hi to one another, share their names, their children’s names and to say something they like about their child and to ease them into talking together for a few minutes. Lots of parents speak to their child in more than one language, the workshop gives you a chance to find out which languages your parents/carers may speak. It can be done as outlined in either groups of two or even three parents or if you know the parents and feel they will be comfortable to do so, their responses can be shared as a group exercise.
This will help to provide a positive first step for all parents and especially those who have anxiety or concerns regarding their child’s language.
It is important to note whether any parents/carers are bilingual as you may or may not deliver Slide 16.

What to do

Be clear that this is just to say ‘hi, my name is and my child is called…’ I really like that he has blue eyes / a cheeky smile / etc. …
Whole group activity: If you think the group is confident enough to want to share information with everyone else, just do it by asking everyone one by one to share their response and introduce themselves.
Ensure that everyone gets a chance to say something to someone else or to the group, including emphasising something they particularly like about their child.
Make parents feel positive about the range of languages in the room.
Be sure to give parents who do contribute lots of positive, specific praise.
Try to ensure that all responses you give are in equal measure (i.e. try to avoid getting overly excited by one person’s contribution and less so by another person’s. Keep your responses measured, respectful and consistent).
When you have given everyone a chance to contribute, explain that you’re going to move onto thinking about communication skills.

If delivering the session ONLINE Ask parents one by one to unmute and introduce themselves .

Move on to Slide 4.

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What do we mean by…

Communication skills

Slide 4: Activity 2 – What do we mean by communication?

3 minutes

Key points

Parents to identify (or you to outline) the features of communication, which Speech and Language UK refer to as talking and understanding words:

Listening
Understanding
Findings things out
Telling people about things
Making friends
Saying how you feel
Being understood.

What to do

As a whole group activity, tell parents you want to talk about talking and understanding words.
Describe talking and understanding as having different skills involved. These are often summed up as ‘communication’.
If you think it will help, give one or two examples of the sorts of things you’re talking about to ease everyone in.
Encourage parents to start thinking about what skills we use to talk and understand. It’s okay for you to contribute, especially as this may help parents to feel under less pressure.

If delivering the session online Ask parents to add their own ideas by either typing in the chat feature of un-muting their microphone and saying out loud.

Consider basic aspects, e.g. listening, understanding, finding things out, using words to ask for things or comment, etc.
Move on to Slide 5.

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What affects children's communication skills?

The world about us

The things children do every day

The things that adults do and say

Child

Slide 5: What affects children's communication skills?

3 minutes

Key points :

The adults in a child’s life make the most difference to how they learn and develop.
Other aspects are important too but you don’t need lots of toys or specialist equipment to help children learn.
You do need to talk to them and give them the chance to talk to you.

This diagram is designed to show what’s most effective in supporting young children’s communication skills to develop.

Describe the child as being at the centre rather than at the bottom of the diagram. Also, explain that the size of each circle is not the important thing.
Work through the circles of the diagram to demonstrate why first and foremost the most important aspect for helping children to develop their talking and understanding of words comes directly through interactions with adults – emphasise positive interactions here (What adults do and say).
This is closely surrounded by activities or games that children get involved in and is paired with the importance of everyday routines in their lives (the things children do every day)
The largest surrounding circle takes the environment into account too (the world about us)

It’s equally important to explain that the diagram outlines the importance of all these things working together. This needn’t be complicated or overly detailed: the diagram is just a visual way of showing that the adults’ role is the most important.

Move on to Slide 6.

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Communication skills involve…

Social skills

Understanding

Talking: �words and sounds

Slide 6: Communication skills involve….

2 minutes

Key points

Summarise and group the features of talking and understanding words. For example:

Understanding = listening, following instructions, learning new words
Social skills = using language to make friends and play, talk about feelings
Talking = using clear speech, using new words, being able to tell stories

Why we are doing this:

This is to share parents contributions and to show the importance of these skills and why there is so much more to communication than just encouraging children to use more words.

What to do

Thinking about the ideas offered on the previous slide to define communication (Slide 5) explain that all those ideas can be summed up into the three bubbles on this slide. Explain briefly what each mean.
Try to keep this simple, straightforward and not overly detailed.
Move on to Slide 7.

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What helps?

Have a chat and think up some things �we can all do regularly to help our children become really good at...

Listening, talking and understanding

Slide 7: Activity 3 – What helps? Time to talk!

5 minutes

Key points

This activity moves the workshop forward to its main message: strategies to use for weekly story telling by sharing the Early Talk Boost books together at home.

What to do

Explain to parents that you are going to talk about what helps children with their talking and understanding of words:

Listening: using the child’s name; making sure they’re looking at you before you ask them about something; cut down on noise – TV/radio; having regular routines.
Talking: playing together; watching TV together and talking about it; looking at books.
Understanding: When children hear the same story repeatedly this helps their understanding of words, too.

In pairs , ask the parents to think of basic listening and attention strategies, e.g. using the child’s name, gaining their attention before continuing to speak, praising good listening skills, establishing and trying to keep to routines, etc.
When you re-group, ask if Parents want to suggest what they talked about. If sharing books together did not come up as a strategy, you should suggest it yourself.

If delivering online – depending on numbers, you can put parents in pairs in breakout rooms, or keep the group together and ask parents to unmute or use the chat

Explain that you’re now going to watch a film to help parents learn about the Early Talk Boost programme.

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What is Early Talk Boost?

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Meet Jake and Tizzy

We love books!

Slide 9: Meet Jake and Tizzy

2 minutes

This is to introduce everyone to Jake and Tizzy

Key points

Review the main contents of the film reminding parents that your setting is running a programme called Early Talk Boost and this runs for nine weeks.
Three times a week their child will play games that are lots of fun and will encourage them to:
develop their confidence
Learn and use more words;
Share new songs and books together
Help them to make new friends
At the end of each week (except Week 9) the children will bring a new book home for parents to share with them.

What to do

Introduce Jake and Tizzy, the two main characters who feature in Early Talk Boost and emphasise the importance of sharing books as part of the children’s weekly practice.
Explain that at nursery their child will take part in three fun circle time sessions every week for nine weeks.
This will give them extra practice at doing all the important things you talked about before the break: listening, paying attention, talking with others and – very importantly – sharing books with adults.
The next slide shows a spread of the books.
Explain that you’ll now look at how to make books more interesting, and how to get children involved with sharing books and the stories they contain.
The next few slides contain a breakdown of the necessary approaches to make sharing books lots of fun.
Move on to Slide 10.

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Jake and Tizzy storybooks

Slide 10: Jake and Tizzy story books

2 minutes

Key points

This slide shows the range of books and their titles and gives the clear impression that these are a series that accompany the programme.

What to do:
Give examples of the book titles and explain that each week of the intervention will have a different topic or will focus on a different idea and the books themselves will also cover that same idea so the children will see Jake and Tizzy doing the same things that their children will be practising in the group sessions
If in person, you may want to have some books on display.
Explain that you’ll now look at how to make books more interesting, and how to get children involved with sharing books and the stories they contain.
The next few slides contain a breakdown of the necessary approaches to make sharing books lots of fun.
Move on to Slide 11.

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Tizzy’s talking tips

Look at the pictures together.

Encourage your child to talk by letting them start the conversation.

Ask open-ended questions about the story.

Remember to talk about things your child �is especially interested in.

Never rush; remember to pause.

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Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions encourage your child to use more words in their response to you.

“I wonder if…"

”What do you think..."

"Tell me..."

Slide 12: Open-ended questions

3 minutes

Key point

Open-ended questions help children to use more words than closed questions which can generate one word answers or non verbal responses.

What to do

Explain what open-ended vs closed questions are.
Comment on the fact sometimes you will use closed questions to prompt the child but open-ended questions are more useful in encouraging children to use more words.
Give an example or two of a closed question e.g. "What colour is it?" Explain that this doesn't encourage children to use many words.
Give an example of an open-ended question e.g. "I wonder why Jake is waving?" And a possible answer "He is going to Nursery" / "He is saying bye to Mum?" "It's Nursery time."
Ask a parent or two, to think of some open-ended questions related to the image on the screen.

If delivering the session online - Ask parents to type in the chat possible open-ended questions . Pick out some to share with the rest of the group.

Move on to Slide 13.

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Time to share about looking at books

I find it less easy to...

I find it easy to...

Slide 13: Activity 4 – Time to share about looking at books

3 minutes

Key point

Encourage parents to share any concerns they have about using Tizzy’s Talking Tips or looking at books.

What to do

Be sensitive to the things parents share that they have said they find less easy to do and try to reassure them that this is very much about practising Tizzy’s Talking Tips rather than having to be good at them all immediately.
Offer reassurance that the main idea is to use sharing of books as a way of having talk time with their child and allowing their child to show what they are interested in and what they can remember about the story each week – especially towards the end of each week when they will have had more chances to hear and see the book both at the setting and at home.
Remind parents know that there will be some prompts on pages in the story, to help them if they're not sure how to get their child talking during the story.
Explain that you are going to demonstrate what Tizzy’s Talking Tips look like in real life.
Move on to Slide 14.

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Tizzy’s talking tips in action

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You do not have to share the books in English. Your child will hear the story three times a week in English at nursery.
You can support your child’s skills by speaking the language(s) that you are most confident in.
Giving your child another language to understand and talk in, is not a disadvantage – it is a bonus!

Bilingual parents

Slide 15: - EAL Key Messages (Only use this slide if parents identified themselves as having more than one language at the beginning of the session. If not, move to slide 16). You can download and share the EAL messaging card here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zgJs37QQplPhZveFGSRbB93ORVxPVtMm/view

2 minutes

Key point

Parents do not have to read the book word for word in English, encourage parents to share the book in the language they are most confident in.

What to do

Parents may have expressed their concerns about not feeling confident enough to read in English.
Offer reassurance that they do not have to do this. A child just needs a good language model from adults (in any language) to develop good language skills – children in the Nursery and Reception classes are at an age where language learning is easier for them so parents should not feel worried about this.
Move on to Slide 16.

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is

Oh, yes, one more thing

Talking

FUN!

Slide 16: Conclusion

1 minute

Key point

Sum up by reminding everyone that Talking is fun!

What to do

Offer reassurance that their child will love telling them all about the Jake & Tizzy books as they are sharing each book at the setting at least three times that week so will get to know the story well and will want to share it and show how much they have learned.
If we can make learning to talk fun and give children lots of ways of learning to talk that are rewarding, children will want to keep trying, and this in turn will really help them to practise these important skills to help them become good communicators.

Optional activity – Making a tizzy hand puppet. Template and instructions available in the Intervention manual and ….. If doing this activity add 10 mins onto your workshop time .

Move on to Slide 17.

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Is there anything you’d like to ask?

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Thank you

Speechandlanguage.org.uk

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