Tell Me More About

There is no greater gift that you can give a child than the ability to communicate. In this section you will find lots of information which will help you to support children's language and communication at each stage of development from birth to 5 years.

Every Child a Talker

Every Child a Talker (ECaT)

Coventry was funded for 2 years by National Strategies to work in 30 targetted early years settings to support them in their work with children's language development. These settings were across the city and included preschools, playgroups, full day care provision and manitained Nuresry classes. Each setting allocated one member of staff to be trained by the Early Language Lead Consultant (Jane Moffat) to become an Early Language Lead Practitioner (ELLP). Ten childminders were also trained and supported for one year to implement ECaT into their practice and into the groups they were attending through a programme called Talking Tots.

The ECaT programme had 3 broad aims :

Improving the communication,langauge and literacy outcomes for all the children attending the setting and to narrow the gap between those with most needs and their peers
Raising practiitioners skills, knowledge and confidence in supporting children's CLL
Working in partnership with parents to support and develop their role in children's early language learning experiences

Many of the settings have produced a case study about their invovlement in the programme and a piece of work they undertook as part of the programme. These case studies are designed to share some of their ways in supporting children's speech, language and communication development to inspire other practitioners and settings to develop effective practice in working with staff, children and parents. These case studies are also categorised according to the themes of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

An Unique child
Positive realtionships
Enabling environments
Learning and development

The case studies can be read and downloaded here and by activating the downloads tab, and there is an index of all the case studies avaliable.

Please take a look at these inspiring case studies and feel free to contact the setting to find out how you can do something similiar in your setting to help all Coventry's children develop their language skills to become Confident Communicators for Life!