Communication, language, and literacy

Audience

Family-facing early years practitioners who work with children from birth to five, across early years settings and schools, including Reception classes, childminders, and community groups.

Aims

This two-hour online course provides early years practitioners with a practical and evidence-based introduction to how children’s attention develops and why this matters for communication, language, and self-regulation. The training will explore how environmental factors, adult interactions, and emotional regulation influence children’s ability to focus and engage. 

• To understand how young children’s attention systems develop.
• To explore connections between attention, communication, language, and regulation.
• To identify key environmental and interactional influences on attention.
• To learn practical, evidence-informed strategies that support sustained attention and co-regulation in early years settings. 

Additional information

Delegates will be expected to engage in the session in a constructive way. Delegates should bring paper and a pen so they can make notes.

Booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development.

Cost details

Audience

Early years practitioners working with children aged three to five.

Aims

Early Talk Boost is a targeted programme aimed at all three- to four-year-old children who need help with talking and understanding words. Most importantly, the programme helps to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. The programme aims to accelerate children’s language and communication progress by an average of five months after nine weeks. The programme focuses on:

• Attention and listening as foundational skills for speaking and listening.
• Developing vocabulary, as research shows that children with weaker vocabularies are at risk of difficulties with reading.
• Building sentences; putting words together is a vital skill for having conversations and telling stories.

Additional information

As part of this training, you will receive the full Early Talk Boost resource pack to support you in delivering the sessions effectively.

Funding is available for the first 25 Cambridgeshire settings to cover the Early Talk Boost resource pack, one per setting. These settings will be required to complete impact monitoring and share assessment data with Cambridgeshire County Council.

Booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development.

Audience

Family-facing practitioners, including Child and Family Centre staff, library staff, community group staff, setting practitioners, early years school staff, childminders, and holiday activities and food (HAF) programme providers, as well as wraparound providers working with families of children aged two to five years.

Aims

• Help practitioners to work with parents to give them knowledge, skills and confidence to support them to create positive home learning environments.
• Focus on meaningful communication and literacy that children make sense of and enjoy, as part of their everyday lives.
• Boosts children's communication, language and early literacy development.
• Fun, engaging, inclusive and accessible for all, through a low or no-cost approach.
• Enables practitioners to gain an understanding of the REAL approach, identify ways to include it in everyday practise, whilst sharing it with families, building confidence and knowledge to support the home learning environment.
• Develops a multi-agency approach to supporting parents to develop their home learning environments, specifically focusing on communication, language, and literacy.

During the Introduction to Making it REAL training, you will learn about:

• The ORIM framework (Opportunities, Recognition, Interaction and Model), which is based on the idea that there are four main ways in which parents can help their children’s literacy development.
• The Four Strands of Literacy – Books and things to read, oral language, environmental print, early writing and mark-making.

The training will include resource sheets and practice examples to support your learning and help you to work with families to support children’s early literacy development and create a positive early home learning environment.

Additional information

1. Read the NCB’s introduction to the Making it Real paragraph below to find out more about this approach.
2. Please read and think about the self-reflective questions on Resource Sheet 2 overleaf to begin to think about your current practice. You can work on your own or discuss with your colleagues.
3. Please read Resource Sheet 10 overleaf. Pick out three things which help you understand why mark-making and early writing are important. Make a note of these and bring your notes to the training session.
4. Please bring one children’s book suitable for children aged two to five that you would recommend to parents.

Booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development.

* Cambridgeshire Essentials

Audience

Family-facing early years practitioners who work with children from birth to five, across early years settings and schools, including Reception classes, childminders, and community groups.

Aims

• Explore why high-quality interactions matter, including the evidence behind responsive, back-and-forth “serve and return” exchanges and their impact on children’s communication and language development.
• Reflect on your own interaction style and how it influences children’s engagement, confidence and participation.
• Learn about interaction strategies used in initiatives such as SHREC, supporting consistency with wider Cambridgeshire practice.
• Consider how to adapt strategies for different ages and stages, ensuring relevance for learners from birth to five, including Reception-aged children.
• Identify ways to embed interaction-rich practice across daily routines, play, and curriculum activities, whether in early years settings, childminding environments or school classrooms.

Additional information

Delegates will be expected to take part in paired activities and engage in the sessions in a constructive way. Delegates should bring paper and a pen so they can make notes. 

Booking and reservations for Early Years Workforce Development.

Cost details