Helping Children Find Their Voices: A Guide for Parents and Early Years Practitioners

Designed to be used either independently or alongside the ‘Words Together’ storybooks, Helping Children Find Their Voices is a guide for parents and practitioners supporting children in the early stages of learning to talk, specifically to understand and use two-word sentences.

Written in a friendly and reassuring tone, the book untangles questions and concerns that many parents and practitioners share around language development, such as whether children are reaching important milestones, whether they benefit from screen-time and dummies, and what to do if there might be a problem.

Key features of this book include:

• Chapters that can either be followed consecutively, offering tips on how to encourage first words and the combining of words into two-word sentences, or dipped in-and-out of according to the individual child’s level of development
• Practical information and advice rooted in theory, giving parents and practitioners the confidence and background knowledge to support communication
• Activities that can be integrated into everyday interactions, giving children the opportunity to hear simple sentence structures that they can progress towards in their own speech.

Also available as part of a set, with four colourful picture books, this guide is an ideal resource for early years practitioners, parents, and those working with children who have delayed speech and language development.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter one: what we need to know about talking

Chapter two: Baby steps and first words – how can I help?

Chapter three: The important two-word stage

Chapter four: Other things to think about

Chapter five: What if things aren’t going to plan?

Chapter six: next steps