Nurturing Bright Futures – Working Together to Give Southend's Children the Best Start in Life

I am a communicator: How to help at home

Sections:

  1. Teaching me to communicate with confidence
  2. Helping me to build listening and attention skills
  3. Growing my vocabulary
  4. Helping me understand
  5. Story and rhyme time
  6. Links to explore
  7. Here to help

Teaching me to communicate with confidence

  • Cheer every try

Celebrate every effort your child makes to communicate, even if it’s not perfect.

  • Listen and repeat

Gently repeat back what the child is trying to say to show you’re listening and to help them remember the language you’ve modelled

  • Playtime is talk time

Make time for play! Playing alongside and following your child’s lead and interests creates a supportive environment helping your child to feel confident, ready to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings.

  • Feel it, name it

Help your child to understand what they might be feeling by naming the feeling and its physical effect on their body. This will also help them to understand how their gestures, facial expressions and body language show what they’re thinking or feeling

Helping me to build listening and attention skills

  • Less noise, more connection

Make sure to have moments throughout the day free from extra noise or distractions, a moment of calm. Make sure your child is facing you when you speak, so they can see your face and focus on what you’re saying.

  • Shhh... what can you hear?

Take a walk together, either indoors or outside and show your child how to stay very quiet so you can both listen carefully. When you hear different sounds, gently encourage your child to whisper what they can hear.

  • Read, pause, imagine

Whilst sharing a book together, pause now and then to ask questions like, “what do you think will happen next?” or “who do you think is talking?” This helps your child to stay connected to the story and share their thoughts. Using props, puppets, or pictures can make the story even more exciting and help hold their attention.

  • Listen and play together

Play simple games together that involve waiting for a signal, like “ready, steady, go!” or “one, two, three... jump!” These fun moments help your child to practise listening carefully, control their impulses and stay focused.

Growing my vocabulary

  • Fun with animal sounds

Use soft animal toys and as you play with them, say the name and sound, e.g. “cow says moo, moo!” “sheep says baa!” This will help your child to link sounds to words and sound play is key for speech development

  • Words in everyday moments

Talk to your child as you go about daily routines (nappy changes, bath time, feeding) to help them learn new words. Name objects you’re using and describe what you’re doing. Hearing these words over and over helps your child to understand and remember them, building their vocabulary.

  • Read, touch, describe

Together read and explore a simple sensory book like ‘That’s Not My’… series. Let your child touch textures while you describe them. The books offer a rich descriptive vocabulary for sensory words such as ‘soft’, ‘rough’, ‘bumpy and ‘furry’.

  • Nature detectives

Whether it’s a walk to your local park, a stroll along the beach, or time in a garden, being outside helps our children to explore the world around them. Talking about what they see, “a fluffy cloud,” “a buzzing bee,” “a tall tree,” introduces new words and encourages rich, descriptive language. Encourage your child to observe, ask questions and describe what they notice. Every leaf, bird, or breeze is a chance to build vocabulary!

Helping me understand

  • Finish the story!

Read a familiar story but stop before the ending. Ask your child to predict what happens next or tell it using puppets or props.

  • Rhymes that move

Together sing songs with actions, as this helps enhance your child’s understanding of rhythm, tone and gesture in communication. Enjoy classic rhymes like; twinkle, twinkle little star, wheels on the bus, or head, shoulders, knees and toes.

  • Guess the feeling

Act out a range of feelings and emotions like happy, sad, excited and scared. Make sure to give your child time to guess the emotion. This will help your child to begin to recognise the different gestures and facial expressions used to express an emotion, name an emotion and begin to understand how someone else might be feeling.

  • Where’s bear?

Why not have a game of hide and seek with your child. It is a great way to support their understanding of language. It can help them to learn some key phrases and it gives them a motivating reason to communicate. Hide a favourite toy, let your child watch where you hide it, then say” where’s bear? When they find it say, “you found bear” and then hide it again! You can extend the game by introducing position words; on, under, behind, beside. When your child finds bear you say “you found bear on the chair” or “you found bear under the table”, or “you found bear behind the book”

Story and rhyme time

Pop along to your local library or browse Southend-on-Sea Libraries’ and reserve books online at: https://southend.spydus.co.uk

  • ‘Oi Frog!’ by Kes Gray and Jim Field
  • ‘The Squirrels Who Squabbled’ by Rachel Bright and Jim Field, published by Orchard Books
  • ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle, published by Puffin
  • ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen
  • ‘Not Now, Noor!’ by Farhana Islam and Nabila Adani
  • ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’ by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
  • ‘Only One You’ by Linda Kranz
  • ‘Sulwe’ by Lupita Nyong’o
  • ‘From Head to Toe’ by Eric Carle
  • ‘How to Catch a Star’ by Oliver Jeffers

Don’t forget to visit your local Southend Library to find out about the zero-fives services that are provided. These include free Bookstart packs including packs for children with additional needs, dual language books, story rhymes, story sacks, Little Story Stars (a reading incentive) and “Let’s get Ready for School” Bags and much more….

Follow the links to enjoy these stories and rhymes together

“He’s only 4 months old but the moment he hears my voice, he turns, recognises me and then comes the smile. Then I smile too.”

Grandad of Louie, 4 months old

Links to explore

Here to help

If you have any worries, concerns or just need to speak to someone, there’s lots of support both in Southend and nationally. You are not alone.

“When my children were younger, one of our favourite activities in Southend was attending the Story Rhyme sessions at the local libraries. We often went to two sessions a week! The children absolutely loved them and I saw firsthand how they supported their language development and early counting skills. But above all, what I cherished most was the simple joy of spending half an hour singing together, doing little actions and just having fun.”

Mum of Maya, age 8 and Curtis, age 5

“There is nothing sweeter than being at bedtime with my granddaughter, snuggled close sharing favourite stories, where every page begins a new conversation, filled with questions.”

Nanna of Alice, age 5