Best Practice in Stoke on Trent

Examples practitioners have implemented in their work after receiving Stoke Speaks Out Training

In the classroom

• Activity packs containing information on children’s language development are useful when given out to parents during their child’s school induction meeting. These packs offer information to the parents regarding their child’s language skills and contain fun activities for parents and children to do together.
• A ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ style game can help to promote and develop children’s’ communication and turn-taking skills in a fun way.
• Playing ‘pass the teddy’ during ‘circle time’, gives every child an opportunity to hold the teddy and say something about it that they like, this promotes their confidence and communication skills.
• Using a visual timetable in the classroom can help children feel more confident as they know what is going to happen throughout the school day. Photographs and pictures that portray each lesson and break also act as visual stimulation that helps reinforce a child’s language.
• Using an interactive whiteboard can help children plan, do and review activities they have chosen for that day. Children can be asked to explain their choice of activity and afterwards asked what they learned, this allows children to take responsibility for own learning and also to know the routine and structure of the day. The practitioner who implemented this example in her classroom said that Stoke Speaks Out training had given her the initiative to try it out.
• ‘Show & Tell’ sessions create opportunities for children to bring in photographs of their holiday trip or favourite toy and talk to the other children about it, while other children listen. This helps to create good turn taking and social skills.
• Developing a ‘quiet corner’ where children can listen to objects that make different noises, such as clocks, bells, rainsticks, rattles etc can encourage children to describe noises and name sounds. Children could also take an object from a ‘sound basket’ to take home and show to parents, so that they are involved in their child’s education.
• Using musical instruments in the classroom is a fun way to help develop children’s listening skills and asking them to describe the sounds helps to develop their vocabulary.
• Regular meetings arranged between parents and staff can help to discuss any problems and offer help and advice. They can also create an opportunity to give parents an awareness of their child’s needs, to emphasis the importance of interaction and bonding, and allow parents to feedback their comments. Fun & entertaining information packs could also be given out for them to use at home.
• Pre school play groups can give parents and children an opportunity to play and read together. Parents can also be given tips on reading, bonding and listening.
• Giving children different choices of foods at lunch time by lunch time staff can encourage children to use more language when making their choices.
• ‘Story sacks’ can be developed and allowed to take home to encourage parents to interact, communicate and read the books with their children.
• ‘Feely boxes’ can encourage children’s sensory language to develop, by asking them to describe how certain objects feel that they cannot see, such as hot/cold/rough/smooth/slippy/hard etc.
• Speech and language can be promoted in the classroom through an ‘I wonder why?’ wall, where questions are thought up by the children and researched at home by asking parents to help think-up the answer.
• Creating a book called ‘songs to sing with your children’ that contains songs that children have become familiar with at school, can allow them to communicate in a fun way at home with their parents.
• Personal passports can be developed that contain children’s personal details, such as their name, birthday etc, and is a fun way of getting them to interact to find out information about each other.
• By telling parents what the teachers are doing in class, parents are kept up-to-date and involved in their child’s education.
• Using a ‘posting’ game helps to enhance children’s communication skills in a fun way, allowing children to develop turn taking, eye contact, listening, concentration, and naming skills.
• Developing a ‘role play’ area, where children can experience daily activities through role play, can enable them to enhance their social skills.

With new parents & parents-to-be

• Having visual aids in waiting areas in midwifery units & health centres can help to raise parents’ awareness on their babies brain development, attachment, and the importance of talking to your bump.
• Having a library with free loan videos and books for mums-to-be on pregnancy, attachment etc can create a perfect opportunity for raising parents’ awareness.
• Using spare walls to display ‘did you know’ information regarding attachment & the importance of talking to your bump can be a useful way of getting information across in a non-threatening way.
• Developing ‘zones’ for different aged children, such as a baby zone with contrasting colours and faces, a sensory zone, and an antenatal zone, is a fun way of offering information on babies' development.
• Encouraging a ‘bonding and massage time’ for parents and their baby during nappy changing can help parents to understand the importance of attachment.
• Evening antenatal courses can be developed and run with a focus on bonding and attachment for parents-to-be who want more information and advice.
• Including information for parents from the baby’s perspective, such as ‘I like cuddles, music, talking, etc helps to get important information across in a friendly way.
• During home visits giving mum information on dummies, tip sheets from Stoke Speaks Out, and printed information from the Stoke Speaks Out website can help give her ideas in which to play and talk to her baby.