Speech and language

Making Language Matter

In June 2019, Shropshire launched 'Making Language Matter' focusing on communication and language support for early years children.

Research shows that a child's communication environment, including the ownership of books, library visits, attendance at pre-school, parents / carers teaching a range of activities and the number of toys and books available, is a more important than socio-economic background.

In 2018 the Department for Education set an ambitious goal to halve by 2028, the number of children leaving reception year without the appropriate level of communication and language skills they require. This will be judged by the % of children achieving at least expected in all the Early Learning Goals (ELG’s) in the Communication and Language and Literacy areas of learning.

The Early Years team are working alongside professional partners who include the Library Service, the Multi-Cultural Development team, Speech and Language Therapists, Health Visitors, the Museum Service and the Music Service and others, to focus on the communication and language of our children from birth.

We run a comprehensive programme of CPD courses, many of which focus on communication and language development including training and materials on the award winning ‘Stoke-speaks-out early communication screening toolkit’.

In the Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework, the importance of conversation runs throughout all the educational programmes.