Every Child A Talker (ECAT), the National Strategies programme for supporting young children's language development, has been running in the London Borough of Enfield for 18 months. The project aims to reduce the number of children who may be at risk of a speech and language delay by supporting their communication skills through play in early years settings and by helping parents to develop talk at home. Enfield was one of the first boroughs to deliver ECAT and it has enjoyed the benefits of this worthwhile initiative.
The programme was led by two early language consultants, a speech and language therapist and myself, and involved 32 settings, including schools, pre-schools, daycare settings, children's centres and childminders.
Each setting has an Early Language Lead Practitioner (ELLP), whose role it is to enhance practice in supporting young children's language development. Each ELLP has run a sequence of parent workshops to help them understand how parent-child interaction enriches a child's speech and language. The workshops aimed to convey the importance of interaction through fun and exciting everyday activities.
Enfield has a long-established partnership with the Chickenshed theatre company. Many of the borough's schools have used the theatre company to support children's communication, language and literacy development. The company had done little work within the private, voluntary and independent sector, but was enthusiastic about working in settings with hard-to-reach families.
Our 'Early Talk' steering group, which joins the schools improvement service, children's centre teams and colleagues from the local PCT, felt that a major strand of the project must be our work with parents. So, the group set about building a partnership to inspire practitioners and parents to provide exciting opportunities for talk in settings and in the home.
NURTURING LANGUAGE
The I CAN report The Cost To The Nation of Children's Poor Communication (2006) of over 400 parents of children under five found that more than half had received no information on how to help develop their child's communication skills in their first year.
The steering group wanted to embrace everything they knew about how young children learn best - through play, everyday experiences and secure attachments with primary caregivers or key workers, which help children feel safe, secure and able to thrive and learn. The group felt it was important for parents to understand the nurturing, loving role they play in their child's speech and language development.
Young children instinctively use pretend play as a means of communication. They imitate gestures, sounds, songs and words. They observe and respond to the environment around them by recreating everyday experiences and roles. They interact with peers and begin to arrange space and objects to bring their simple stories to life. They direct one another to bring order to this explorative play and respond to one another's dramas with enthusiasm.
With this in mind, we felt a partnership with the local Chickenshed theatre company made perfect sense.Chickenshed was asked to complement the ECAT parent workshops by performing its 'Tales from the Shed' to children and families, and what a fantastic time we all had!
Chickenshed uses an inclusive creative process, which means everyone is welcome and valued. Performances are supported by sign language and multi-sensory. As the company puts it, '"Tales from the Shed" brings both original and traditional stories to life. This interactive performance introduces children to a universe where there is no edge to the stage, so children and performers travel a theatrical journey together. Each show is different, but all work creatively to improve communication and literacy skills for the under-sevens.'
Many of our ELLPs felt that talk was missing from the family home because of factors such as television, working patterns, loss of family mealtimes and parents' busy lifestyles. Our ELLPs wanted to raise parents' awareness of their child's language development and offer them ways to promote talk.
Each setting could opt to visit the theatre or have the theatre company visit them. Most, due to costs, invited Chickenshed to visit. Each family was sent an invitation, explaining that the session would last about an hour, would be without chairs and would be a time to sing, dance, put on silly voices and have fun with their child.
The sessions started with the actors introducing themselves and singing a hello song. They then performed another song with live musicians, movements and actions. The way the performance evolved depended on the children's and families' reaction to this second song, with the actors taking their lead solely from the children.
The performance included live music, dances, actions and small and large puppets - with 'the catchiest songs ever heard', according to one parent. At the end, each child received a specially commissioned CD of songs. The CD included a flyer outlining tips on supporting children's language development for parents to read.
PRACTICE FEEDBACK
Leaders and managers were overwhelmed by the huge attendance and children's and parents' enjoyment of the performance. Practitioners spoke of the expressions of amazement on parents' faces when they saw their child join in with songs and dances. One children's centre reported that its highest attendance of fathers was at this event.
One ELLP said, 'The "Tales from the Shed" performances help parents to understand that it is OK to be silly and slightly crazy with their child. The actors model making silly noises and take their lead from the children. It was lovely to see our parents copy this.'
Most encouraging has been the sustained impact of the sessions. In our ECAT cluster meetings, ELLPs have made the following remarks:
'The children have been singing the songs all week ... and at home, too, apparently.'
'Children who have never spoken before have begun to join in with songs and rhymes.'
'Chickenshed has inspired a new slant on our normal X-Factor role play in the garden.'
'The parents loved the sessions and it has really strengthened our partnerships with parents. Lots of parents came who have not seemed interested before.'
'A lot of our parents are beginning to understand the importance of talking to their children, and we see them chatting as they pick their children up rather than chatting on their mobile phone while their child walks behind them.'
The CDs have been a tremendous success, as they have given all the children, practitioners and parents a shared repertoire of songs. One practitioner said, 'After Chickenshed left we had a queue at the CD player every day. The children just wanted to sing the songs again and again. They were singing and dancing for weeks. The parents would arrive at nursery singing the songs. One mum said "I now know what she is singing when we drive home from nursery. She used to sing on her own from her car seat, but now I can join in, as I know the words!"'
In discussions about the project, ELLPs reported that the performances had inspired their children to bring performing arts into their curriculum and learning practices. The sessions had also sparked debate about how performing arts techniques can truly support young children's language development.
In the light of these discussions, we asked Chickenshed to deliver training for our ELLPs and other staff members in ECAT settings. Their techniques have inspired our early years teachers and practitioners to bring a little bit of Chickenshed to their everyday practice.
Many of the settings involved have maintained their partnership with Chickenshed. Some schools and settings have decided to commission a more extensive programme with the theatre group in the next academic year. Other settings have realised the potential of theatre in education groups and chosen to incorporate similar experiences in the future.
The training sessions for early years teachers and practitioners were so well received that theatre in education training will become a universal offer in 2011 in Enfield. This training will form part of our work in the National Year of Communication, thus raising awareness of children's communication needs among the early years workforce in Enfield. We believe this partnership working is an ideal opportunity to focus on improving early literacy and speech and language support in schools and early years settings.
FURTHER INFORMATION
