Now You’re Talking Birmingham
Now You’re Talking Birmingham brings together information, resources, advice, and links for parents and practitioners that support Speech, Language and Communication development.
We want Birmingham to be an inspirational city to grow up in. One of the indicators of our success is the percentage of children achieving the expected level of development in communication and language at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
Working in partnership with
Why early language skills are so important
There is a lot of evidence of the predicative power of early language for children’s later life chances.
Early language skills contribute to a child’s ability to:
communicate their feelings and manage their emotions
make and maintain relationships
think symbolically and
learn to read and write
The evidence suggests that all children are likely to benefit from a focus on communication and language, and some studies show even more significant effects for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“Reading and writing float on a sea of talk.”
For Families
Activities, advice, and guidance to support your child in developing their speech, language and other communication skills.
For Practitioners
Resources, best practice, and professional development opportunities for all those working in Early Years and supporting children's speech and language development.
What we know
Early language skills in Birmingham
Communication and Language outcomes across our city, as measured by the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile 2022, were at 64.2% compared to the average across England of 67.1%.
There is variation across districts and wards, but we know that we can always do more to ensure that our children get the best opportunities and support we can give them.
You can see what’s happening in your district via our district profiles below:
Edgbaston • Erdington • Hall Green • Hodge Hill • Ladywood • Northfield • Perry Barr • Selly Oak • Sutton Coldfield • Yardley
Reports
If you’d like to have a read of some of the evidence and reports yourself, here are a few to get you started.
What Works is a database of evidenced interventions to support children's speech, language and communication, endorsed by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
Education Endowment Foundation: Needs, provision, and intervention for preschool children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds (2017).
Early Intervention Foundation report calling for early language development to be prioritised as a child wellbeing indicator (2017).
Education Endowment Foundation: Communication and language approaches (2017).
Evidence on early years from the Teaching and Learning Toolkit alongside the findings from recent EEF projects.
Education Endowment Foundation: Improving Communication, Language and Literacy in the Early Years (2018).
ShREC Approach
The ShREC approach: 4 evidence-informed strategies to promote high-quality interactions with young children
The Education Endowment Foundation (EFF) share a simple and memorable set of specific evidence informed strategies to assist early years professionals in their communication and interactions with children.
Read their blog post on the ShREC approach to learn more, and download the PDF for reference.
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