Sandwell Metropolitan Council is not alone in noticing that the speech and language skills of children entering schools have been declining. In fact, the Government's own communication champion, Jean Gross, has said that one in ten children do not possess good communication skills, and this figure rises to around one in two in the most deprived areas.
Sandwell has its share of challenges. In 2006, it was ranked the 16th most deprived out of 150 authorities in the country, with 80 per cent of households experiencing at least one measure of deprivation. The development of language had been deteriorating for some time and more children were entering school without the vital communication skills needed to help them access learning effectively.
'Delayed language development meant more children were slipping into the lower attainment bracket in Sandwell. We needed to address this and improve the verbal communication skills of pre-schoolers,' says Karen Sheffield, early years language consultant for the Every Child A Talker scheme in Sandwell.
Angela Hurd, an independent speech and language therapist with over 20 years' experience and a former senior lecturer at the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University), was asked by Sandwell to help find a solution.
'The speech and language therapy team at Sandwell wanted a screening tool that could be used across the borough by all early years settings, with all children,' says Ms Hurd. 'They wanted something that could check how children's language skills were progressing, identify any issues and offer immediate targeted suggestions on how early years practitioners, teachers, childminders and parents could help a child with communication needs. The focus on early years was necessary so that problems could be identified and dealt with before they became ingrained.'
From lots of initial ideas, a toolkit, named WellComm, started to take shape. The system uses observation, discussion with parents and carers, and direct screening to establish the level of a child's language skills. Suggestions are then offered for both general and very specific activities to improve areas of weakness. As Ms Hurt points out, 'Too often children can drift through school without their communication needs being recognised - it's easy to overlook them, especially if the child is well behaved.'
Red, Amber, Green
From the very beginning, the Sandwell team did not want to put children in boxes at an early age, so they developed a banding system of green, amber and red.
Green indicates that a child has reached the appropriate levels of communication for their age; amber suggests some work needs to be done, highlighting simple, play-based exercises to help. Red points towards the need for specialist intervention, although the toolkit provides the means to help while a child is waiting for referral. Targets can be easily identified from each child's profile, so progress can be measured and quantified.
'The immediacy of results is one of the biggest advantages of WellComm. Those who need extra help can receive it straightaway in their normal classroom or nursery,' Ms Hurd says. 'A key part of the system was to get parents involved, so we developed a book full of ideas on simple ways they can work with their child. For all the Government rhetoric about working with parents, lots of schools are uncomfortable about how best to action this. WellComm gives them something practical and concrete to share with parents. It's a great empowering tool if, for example, a parent is concerned but the school hasn't noticed, or vice versa. It's a very useful way of building bridges between parent and school.
Angela describes a couple who were concerned about their four-year-old son's communication problems but had gone along with other family members' assurances that he'd grow out of it. 'The grandparents felt there was nothing to worry about, saying, "Oh, Uncle Ian didn't talk at all until he was five - he'll be fine".
'WellComm provided a meeting of minds between the parents and the school, that underlined there was actually some cause for concern. It set the parents' minds at rest that they could start to work with their son immediately; there was no wait. The Big Book of Ideas that comes with the screening tool told the parents and professionals exactly which activities to do to help him progress straightaway.'
Training Tool
A secondary benefit of WellComm is that it helps expand the knowledge of practitioners. It isn't a training tool but it can help reinforce what they may already be thinking and teach them more about language development and communication skills.
Lynsey Lacey, foundation stage manager at The Priory Primary in Wednesbury, has been using WellComm to screen her pupils for the past few years and uses the results as a basis for planning lessons that will directly improve their language and communication skills.
'We have lots of children who start school with low language levels, and WellComm helps to give us more insight into how we can best help them. We screen at the beginning of term, and then every three months for those in the red and amber bands,' says Ms Lacey.
'Today we used some activities from WellComm to work with the whole class on the difference between "he" and "she", as children in this age group often get the usage mixed up. We used games and puppets, which the kids loved - they really paid attention.
'There are currently six children in the red band, so we have started a nurture group for them. Once a week for an hour, we do specific everyday activities with them, such as cooking, making things, even a trip to the shop, which encourages them to talk and listen carefully. It's a good opportunity to work closely with them, as they are not yet confident talkers.'
The system can help give ideas for parents' evenings, too. Ms Lacey says, 'As the screening tool identifies what will most help each child, I can give the parents appropriate activities to do at home. One of the pupils in my class was already in speech and language therapy when she started school, and her therapist can't believe how much she has come on in just a few short months.'
Pigeon-holing
The impact overall in Sandwell has been significant, with the focus of developing language and communication skills resulting in the number of children that gave cause for concern dropping from 32 per cent to 21 per cent across the borough. WellComm has been used as part of the council's Time to Talk programme to highlight the importance of communication skills in the early years and get parents and carers talking to children more.
In Angela Hurd's career, the issue of when it is best to screen children for communication difficulties has often come up among speech and language therapists. All agree on the maxim of 'the earlier the better', without pigeon-holing children.
Ms Hurd says, 'There are now lots of early initiatives around, such as Sure Start, but it's sometimes difficult to capture the families who need the most support. This initiative has helped demonstrate to parents, even those considered hard to reach, that they have an important and valued role to play in their child's development.'
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