A practical toolkit that gives early years practitioners and childminders a range of resources to understand, reinforce and enable good practice in supporting children’s speech, language and communication needs. Focusing on Practitioners working with under 5s, this toolkit will help practitioners develop their knowledge and help identify strategies they can use to:

   * Support speech, language and communication development of babies, toddlers and young pre-school children.

   * Report to parents on their children’s development progress.

   * Develop sustainable good practice within their setting.

   * Engage parents in their child’s development.

Previously two separate toolkits (Working with under 5s and Working with Parents), we have combined the key products into one central resource that aims to save you money and make it easier to use.

What does The Early Talk Toolkit include?

   * Understanding Communication Development - An informative book which describes what we mean by communication and how children make progress developing it.

   * Making a Difference - A book which examines how to implement good practice in SLC for those working in early years settings, childminders and people providing services for young children. The book also includes signposting towards obtaining further training and validation.

   * Progress Check: communication and language - A progress check for early years practitioners to share with parents of children between 24 - 36 months, giving parents information on their child’s language and communication developments.

   * Learning to Talk DVD - an early learning resource that provides valuable information on what to do if you have a concern about a child’s speech, language and communication development.

   * Chatter Matters DVD - An insightful DVD and explains how you can give every child a great start in life by helping them grow into good communicators.

   * Babbling Babies, Toddler Talk and Chatting with Children - Our beautifully illustrated activity cards containing 30 fun activities for birth to 18 months, 18 months to 3 years and 3 to 5+ years

   * 2 X Ready Steady Talk - An activity book of great games to help children get ready for pre-school and beyond

   * 2 x Talk Together leaflets - An 8 page illustrated booklet which explains to parents the importance of language and the key milestones in a child's speech and language development. (artwork can be downloaded from the I CAN website)

   * 5 X Stages of speech, language and development poster - contains information about children's speech and language development up to five years old.  By far I CAN’s most popular poster it covers four main areas - Listening and attention, Understanding, Speech sounds and talk and Social skills.

   * 5 X Top techniques to develop children’s speech and language poster - This brightly coloured poster provides ten top tips for practitioners and parents to support children's speech, language and communication in the early years.

   * 5 X First Words Poster - A poster that clearly maps out children’s communication development from birth to five years of age. It is aimed at parents and particularly suitable for display in a GP surgery and/or children’s centre.