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Task A
1.Explain each of the terms:
•Speech
•Language
•Communication
•Speech, language and communication needs
Speech is a form of language that is spoken by using words.
Speech refers to: Saying sounds accurately and in the right places in words
The sounds people use to communicate words
Speaking fluently, without hesitating, or prolonging or repeating words or sounds Speaking with expression with a clear voice, using pitch, volume and intonation to support meaning. Language is a way of communication between groups of people using the same dialect, a bonding of word, sounds, gestures used to communicate to each other that all understand.
Language refers to speaking and understanding language: Understanding and making sense of what people say
Using words to build up sentences, sentences to build up conversations and longer stretches of spoken language.
Communication is way of talking/exchanging messages to others through written or verbal form, to express emotions, opinions, explain and understand others. Communication refers to how we interact with others: Language is used to represent concepts and thoughts
Using language in different ways; to question, clarify, describe etc.
Non-verbal rules of communication; good listening, looking at people
Speech, language and communication need is known as a hidden disability within one or more of the elements named above. The term ‘needs’ refers both to the needs of the individual and to what society can do to support their inclusion. This highlights the individual and the environment in which the child learns’, communicates, lives and plays. Speech, language and communication needs refer to:
Minor or temporary needs
Complex and long term needs
2.Explain how speech, language and communication skills support each of the following areas in children’s development:
•Learning
•Emotional
•Behaviour
•Social
Speech, language and communication do not only affects language and communication skills, they can have a profound and lasting effect on children’s lives. Making friends, sustaining relationships, emotional regulation, problem solving and behavioural control are dependent on good speech and language skills as well as learning to read and achieving good academic achievement.
Poor communication is also a risk factor for mental health difficulties and it impacts on the individual’s emotional well-being. As the individual does not understand what they are asked to do or what is expected from them they get very agitated and aggressive and tend to have violent behaviour, feeling useless causing low self-esteem, causes the individual to block whatever they hear as they think they are not capable of doing a specific task they are asked to. Due to these reasons the individual’s further education abilities and employability chances, and skills are affected, as they lose concentration or the determination and ability to strive, thus leading to stressful family circumstances. This includes poverty, lack of necessary needs to live healthily, happily and provide good upbringing, future chances for their children.
3.Describe the potential impact of speech, language and communication difficulties on the overall development of the child, both currently and in the long term. The impact of speech, language and communication difficulties on the individual’s Social interaction are: Children/ young persons may have difficulties with understanding of reciprocity and awareness of the motives, thoughts and feelings of others. Some have withdrawn social interaction styles, others display significant behaviour difficulties. The impact of difficulty in Emotional development and behaviour, some are as follows: There may be behaviour seen in reaction to situations that could be easily resolved through language.
Task B
Produce a detailed report explaining the following:
•The ways in which adults can effectively support and extend the speech, language and communication development of children during the early years. •The relevant positive effect of adult support for the children and their carers. •How levels of speech and language development vary between children entering the early years provision and need to be taken into account during settling in and planning.
Within this report identify examples and practices within your own experiences aswel as additional research and good practice. Within a stimulate environment wherein children can learn and develop their own skills fluently amongst many includes, having good physical, speech language and communication contact between the child and the practitioners working with the child is vital. This will allow the child to hear what is being said, in order to understand and take in knowledge they are being provided with we usually tend to use some sort of body language, gestures and physical movements to show what we mean. Example, if a child has hurt themselves we will ask them, “Does it hurt?” and point to where the child was hurt/injured, this gives the child enough information in order to understand and absorb what is being said. Children learn best doing things physically and by staying active in their learning.
Communication with children begins at a very early stage as the baby is born we begin to communicate to them by talking whereby they respond by using different types of cries, screams and sounds they make. Babies use different types of cries for pain, for hunger, for attention when their alone and for distress, for instance, when they have a soiled nappy etc. A quality we tend to use a lot with babies is known as parentese, this is where we speak using high pitched sounds, repetition of important words, and extra emphasis put on words that are being spoken slowly and in short sentences. Babies also learn through observational skills where they watch the mothers interact with other people and the form in which it’s done. Visual facial and eye contact is very important whilst trying to converse with babies as they make eye contact with the adult and pick up listening and understanding skills by observing facial expressions, body language and how the sounds are made.
Children with some sort of visual impairment stay silent and still and listen to what is being said, as for those children who can see visually they dance and get excited when they are being spoken to. After we say something we give the baby time to respond this might in the form of a smile from a baby, to babble from an older infant. The different types of forms that children tend to pick up and use in order to communicate, these vary, some of those forms that take place between babies, children and adults are as such;- Facial expressions- Smile, raised eyebrows, eye contact or a sad frown. Gestures and body language- clapping hands, hugging, jumping with surprise or alarm, shrugs etc. Moving together- this is copying each other’s movements or sounds. Movement- this includes the gestures and facial expression including how you move whilst having some sort of speech, language communication. Musical aspects- such as, melodious, rhythmic, and tuneful sounds or words we use to converse. These all play a vital part in our communication skills. Intonation- using our voice to show our emotions, and feelings, such as, anger, fear, pleasure, relaxing and cooing. It has been researched and proven that babies tend to add a musical note at the end of their sentence or babble to finish what they are saying. Babies have a personal language that only the close ones can understand such as using wishes to say fishes etc.
The close family member or people close to the child will know but isn’t understandable universally. Makaton- this is not a whole language within itself although it is a formation of agreed signs that are used to communication. Another form is personal communication through reference to objects which again only close people will understand. Some positive effects that can take place with support from adults could be improvements within the child’s speech, language and communication skills, social interactions, emotional (self-esteem/ confidence) and behavioural development. In order to help support a child positively it is essential that we praise and encourage the child continuously to show them that what they are doing is in accordance to the adults’ expectations of the child.
This will encourage and help the child to become more confident, and gain self-esteem when they are praised for their achievements and efforts. They will also help them to understand the affirmation of their actions and teach them that their speech and language communication skills are developing in accordance to us as adults. This helps the child to understand the positive aspects of attempting to develop and practice good speech, language and communication skills. The four main methods that are used to praise and encourage children are: 1.Verbal- this is praise given to the child on doing something good or correctly or attempting to try an activity etc. “well done” or “that’s great Dailen.” 2.Non-verbal- this could in a form of leaning in to listen to the child to see what they are doing to show interest or it could be smiling at the child etc. 3.Symbolic- handing out stickers, or drawing smiley faces on the board next to the child’s name, giving merit or stars for doing well in a task, for completing some work, or for being a good listener. 4.Written- this could be praise written to parents, head teacher, newsletter recording some achievement or award being given or certificates.
All the areas of learning are closely linked in together, social and emotional development play a big part with speech, language and communication development as communication involves some sort of social interaction with others apart from oneself. Our confidence levels and self-esteem depends on the emotional development which in the end affects how we interact with other people. All children have different varied levels of language and in order to participate in all aspects of education it is important to develop a wide variety of language and communication skills. The environmental and social factors, including special needs affect a child’s development rate and skills. There are many factors that can affect a child’s development rate a few of those examples are; age, parental expectations, poverty, physical maturity and language experiences at home.
In order to provide the best support and care for the child we need to keep these factors in mind whilst trying to plan and set activities for the child. We need to work together with the parents/ carers to tackle this target to a higher level by supporting and guiding eachother throughout this transition and learning steps. There are two types of vocabulary usage, passive that we understand and active that we can use ourself. A child usually has more passive vocabulary compared to the active vocabulary, this can also vary from child to child depending on their experiences and house environment. Within my nursery we ensure that we use the right terms and vocabulary for the right age group taking into account the age, specific needs, home language, abilities and interests. This allows us to adapt our language to suite the child and ensure that they are given enough time to respond and answer to what they have been asked to do or answer, it gives the child the opportunity to speak and communicate between other children and us as practitioners.
We have to keep in mind that children need to be listened to in order to know their needs and development skills they have attained or need help with. Whilst communicating with children we encourage them to ask questions, and talk to practice speech, contribute their own ideas into the daily routine and life within the nursery setting. Kids within my nursery similar to others learn in 2 stages, first stage being where they learn to put two words together and the second stage is where they start to grammatical indicators like plurals, possessives, tense makers, questions and negatives etc. for instance child A in my room would say just one word sentence “more” in order to encourage him to use more words I will repeat what he has said but in a sentence, “would you like more?.” This will provide the child with another opportunity to answer another question to talk and also to understand the form that I have used in order to convey my message to them.
We also try and give as much positive praise and comments to the child as possible to encourage the child on their well-behaved or good efforts to communicate. Children are provided with enough time and opportunities to communicate with us practitioners and the children within their rooms to build relationships and help raise confidence and self-esteem levels. This gives them more experience and a chance to self-express and evaluate themselves through the different activities we provide, for instance, painting, story and singing time. We encourage the children to communicate, and participate in group activities to allow them the opportunity to share, co-operate, play games and learn at the same time. Example, we use wooden blocks and Lego blocks to build towers with child C to help the child count numbers (mathematic skills and communication skills).
Another child (B) finds it more interesting and entertaining to learn through singing and by using musical instruments as the child loves to dance. We have a computer facility available within my room where we put music and nursery rhymes and stories on for the children to listen to. This is all done so the children experience a variety of resources to learn from, as many children at the toddler stage still learning of new ways in which they find it easy to develop and learn new skills.
Maintaining a good relationship with the parents and the carers is vital as the child is the bridge that keeps us connected and in order to provide the best care, support and help to the child and help the child to develop their speech language and communication skills we work together to bring our ideas, knowledge and information regarding the child and the needs to provide opportunities and tasks for the child to flourish. We give parents the opportunities to see the child’s work, and efforts by displaying it on the display boards and by sending their work home, we also keep a record of videos of the child so the parents can watch what the child has developed and how. Parents and carers are encouraged to do activities with the child and to feedback to us and vice versa of the child’s efforts, what they found easy and what they thought would be best to provide or support with.
