A family-run nursery in Bedford has won a prestigious national award for its work in helping young children communicate and express themselves. Haven 2000 was named early years setting of the year at the Shine a Light Awards, organised by the Communication Trust, just before Christmas.
Good communication is of paramount importance to the Haven 2000 staff - whether with the children and their families or between themselves. When a child joins, an assessment is undertaken to gauge their communication skills and language development. An individual plan is created for them and progress is monitored.
'We observe against the ECAT (Every Child a Talker) monitoring criteria which we find really useful,' says nursery manager Maria Riley. 'We assess the children against all the communicative areas of the EYFS, looking at speech, sounds, articulation, listening and understanding.'
The 45-place nursery is attended by about 93 children across the week, and while it can cater for children aged six weeks to five years old, most are between six months and four years.
The nursery was rated Outstanding by Ofsted, with the inspector's report stating that, 'Children's self-esteem is promoted and they are able to communicate because their home language is highly respected. Staff take great care to find out about this, using key words in the child's language and alternative communication systems such as Makaton signing. All children are encouraged to sign; they sing the setting's 'hello song' in children's individual languages.'
The staff learned Makaton when an SEN child with language delay joined the setting. It is now used routinely with pre-linguistic children and those who have English as an additional language.
Mrs Riley says, 'It means the youngest children can communicate whether they want to choose, say, a banana or an orange. We use it in parallel with conversation so we sign and speak at the same time.'
SUPPORT STRATEGIES
The setting has a strong language strategy which incorporates techniques such as speaking in short sentences and modelling language. For example if a child asks for a 'bikit' the practitioner replies, 'Would you like a biscuit?' Staff also use concrete nouns, for example, saying, 'Put the car on the floor' rather than 'Put that there.'
Mrs Riley says, 'We also use Match + 1. The child might say, "Look at the bus" and you would reply, "Yes, look at the red bus". You repeat the phrase and the child knows you are listening and have valued what he or she has said and you add in one more word which the child will use next time.'
Staff have developed good listening skills and give the child time to formulate the words in their head before they speak. They comment rather than question as even with asking open questions the adult can tend to dominate the exchange.
It is rare for the setting to refer a child to a speech and language therapist. Recently a referral was made but as there is an 18-week wait for assessment, Mrs Riley worked closely with the child to identify the 'problem' sounds and has made a book of six photographs of favourite characters to help the child practise these sounds: R as in Raa Raa the Lion and F as in Fireman Sam.
As language is socially based, the staff will consider a child's social and behavioural development when monitoring linguistic progress.
HOME FROM HOME
Great efforts are made to support EAL children and their families. Currently, about a quarter of the children have English as an additional language. Some children attending nursery speak English at home with their parents although it is not the home language of their extended family.
Mrs Riley says, 'EAL children coming to us will not be fluent in their home language or English. We have photographs of all the resources and the staff and we put these in a booklet for the child to share with parents and careers at home. Sometimes a child has more English than the parents.
'Parents tell us about things the child likes, and we ask the names for these things in the child's home language. We also ask about words around self-care - such as toilet, dinner and home. We ask for the greeting so we can say "hi" or "good morning" or "afternoon" in every child's language. When we start the session and sing our hello song we greet each child in their home language.'
The nursery displays some of the many photographs that it takes on a TV screen to encourage conversation. 'We bought a huge TV screen, which is constantly on in our reception area, and the children love seeing themselves and talking about themselves.'
The setting also uses the system often adopted with children on the autism spectrum of 'now and next' symbols, with an image showing what is currently happening and an arrow pointing to an image of what is happening next - for example, tidying up followed by handwashing.
Mrs Riley says, 'It gives the EAL children a greater sense of security as they can see and understand what is happening now and what happens next and they feel more in control.'
CASE STUDY
At Haven 2000's first ever carol concert last Christmas a little Polish boy took centre stage singing a solo - a far cry from when he arrived at the setting a year ago with no English and little Polish.
'He is not quite four and when he started with us, the family had only been in the country a couple of months,' explains Maria Riley. To promote his language development, staff shared rhymes with him in nursery and suggested that his parents share songs and the nursery's photo booklets with him at home. Staff also asked his parents about his interests and taught him Makaton about his favourite things, including diggers and construction.
Now, while he speaks English quite slowly, giving himself time to think, he can say four-word sentences spontaneously, count in English and will stop staff to tell them about something that he likes or has just done.
'At our concert we sang Jingle Bells in Polish, French and English. He and his mother led our training session in Polish and he sung a solo. His parents are thrilled. It is lovely to see him feel secure. It has been down to patience and perseverance.'
SHINE A LIGHT AWARDS
The Shine a Light awards, organised by the Communication Trust, celebrate best practice by individuals, projects and organisations supporting children and young people's communication.
They were launched in 2011 as part of the Trust's 'Hello' campaign to mark the national year of communication.
The judges were impressed by Haven 2000's consultation evenings, where nursery staff show parents videos of their children playing and learning, to illustrate language strategies that families can use during interactions with their children.
They even tried to teach parents 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' in Lithuanian to demonstrate the challenges facing children learning an additional language.
