Useful Resources
Speaking Dadly
A short animation has been produced to encourage dads to talk to and communicate with their child from birth.
Commissioned by Greater Manchester Combined Authority and delivered by social enterprise Unlimited Potential, the Speaking Dadly project explored how dads can best be supported and encouraged to help their child develop their speech, language and communication skills from an early age.
Working with a father’s group in Salford, the project found that much of Greater Manchester’s early years support is focussed around the needs of the mother, which is impacting on dads participating with early years services and activities currently on offer.
Greater Manchester is now working with dads to shape early years services that recognise the positive role of the father in a child’s development. This includes creating more personalised support, more male-friendly groups, investment in health, wellbeing, and skills, and training for staff working across services for children and families.
As part of this, a short animation has been produced to help address some of the issues and encourage dads to talk to and communicate with their child from birth.
The film identifies a range of ideas to incorporate language and communication into everyday activities which we know is one of the best ways of supporting the communication development of young children.
Voiced by local children, the animation encourages dads to tell stories to their children, chat to them when walking the dog or going to the park, and sing, talk and pull funny faces at their babies.
You can view the animation below.
Other useful resources to help support your child’s speech, language and communication:
Tiny Happy People
Tiny Happy People is a venture designed to tackle the pre-school language and communication gap in Greater Manchester launched by the BBC. Find a full suite of resources on the BBC's website (External Website)
Supporting Language Development in Year 1 Webinars
Supporting Language Development in Year 1
Wellcomm
Wellcomm Programme description (External Website)
Wellcomm overview video (External Website)
Wellcomm ideas video (External Website)
Learning resources to understand typical SLC
Ages and Stages (External Website)
Child Development training module Four (External Website)
Child Language Talks (External Website)
Child development and milestones (External Wesbite)
What do babies do when and stages of language development 0-2 years (External Website)
Learning resources for GM EY SLC Pathway
Birth to 5 matters (External Website)
Development Matters (External Website)
EYFS Framework (External Website)
Healthy Child Programme Guidance (External Website)
Learning resources for understanding SLC terminology
Key competencies in early cognitive development (External Website)
Learning resources for identifying SLC needs
Ages and Stages Questionnaire Overview (External Website)
CPD Online Short Course (External Website)
Child's progress checker (External Website)
Your baby's health and development reviews (External Website)
Learning resources for communication friendly environments
An effective way to read aloud with young children (External Website)
Communication Friendly Settings (External Website)
Evidence Briefings (External Website)
Learning resources for home learning environments
Family Time Tips (External Website)
HLE Resource Pack (PDF, 116 KB)
Home Based Activities for toddlers and young children (External Website)
Supporting families with shared reading activity in the home (External Website)
Learning resources for universal interventions
Learning Language and Loving it (External Website)
Learning to talk (External Website)
SPARK Communication Workshop (External Website)
Works for Life (External Website)
Useful resources for targeted and specialist interventions
Evidence based interventions (External Website)
Exploring interventions for children and young people with SLCN (External Website)
Nuffield Early Language Intervention (External Website)
What works database (External Website)
Learning resources for supporting Multi-Lingual Learners
Bilingualism Matters (External Website)
Learning resources for identifying and providing specific support to children with SLCN
Cleft lip and palate association (External Website)
Communication - autism (External Website)
SLC - Downs Syndrome Association (External Website)
Learning resources for providing specific support for families
All about baby's development (External Website)
Big Little Moments (External Website)
Learning to Talk (External Website)
Look, Say, Sing, Play (External Website)
Useful resources for using and evaluating data
EIF maturity matrix for SLC in the early years (External Website)