Research has shown that by giving children support, encouragement and help with their communication and language at the foundation stage, their communication skills are much better than those of children who have not experienced this.

With the inevitable focus on increasing children’s achievement and the new payment by results, it is crucial that you have resources that can help you to develop and improve children’s communication and language.

Furthermore, the funding regime in England for two year olds means that your staff must have the skills and knowledge to develop communication skills with these children and to work with their parents so that the progress continues at home.

To help with this important area of communication and language we have developed a major collection of accessible resources for Sure Start Children’s Centres.

These materials ensure that practitioners have the knowledge and skills necessary to support communication and language and to cultivate collaborative relationships with parents.

The resources describe the different elements of communication and language and outline what good practice looks like. They also show how Sure Start Children’s Centres can empower parents so they can interact with their children to develop communication and language skills.

There is also a pack to help teams of early years practitioners to understand, reinforce and enable the development of speech, communication and language in their group or setting.

I CAN’s resources include progress checks that can be shared with parents for early identification of difficulties and also can be to support the reporting to parents of children aged between 24 and 36 months. They also show the way in which everyday activities can be used as opportunities for enhancing communication skills.

I do hope you will consider introducing these techniques and approaches in your centre.

You can read details of all these early years resources and the benefits they bring on https://shop.ican.org.uk/catalog/2 or place an order, via our order form here http://www.schools.co.uk/ICANorderform.pdf.