Learning and Development
Top Tips to Promote Communication and Language Development
Here you'll find useful communication and language top tips to share with your team and families to support communication and language development in your setting and in the home learning environment.
Communication and Language Top Tips
The Top Tips are published monthly. These ready-made resources are available to share with parents and can be used by practitioners to support children's communication and language development.
Remember, these Top Tips are applicable to all children under 5-years-old regardless of their age and stage of development.
Here are some different ways to use the resource:
- Share monthly in your newsletter, communication apps, and on social media
- Display on your communication and language noticeboard for parents and practitioners
- Print copies to hand out to parents
- You choose! The entire collection of Top Tips are available below; if you have a different focus or you'd prefer to use them weekly or bimonthly, feel free to download and use to best meet your needs.
With thanks to the following partners for supporting the development of these new resources that now link with Bolton's 5 Golden Rules for communication, include videos and share key messages that are promoted by EYCLDS during 'Let's Get Talking' sessions:
- Early Years Communication and Language Development Service (EYCLDS)
- Public Health Nursing Service
- Gaskell Community Primary School
- Willow Tree Day Nursery - Bolton
- Family Hub Practitioners
- Start Well Locality Service
- Start Well Quality and Outcomes team
Bolton Start Well Top Tip Cards for Parents
- Actions speak louder than words
- Model and extend
- Eye to eye
- 10 Seconds
- A or B
- Ditch the dummy
- Follow their lead
- Fewer questions, more comments
- Tune-in
- Turn-taking
- Use your best language
- Screen time
Songs and Rhymes of the Month
A ready-made resource, published monthly, to share with parents. It can also be used by practitioners to support children's communication and language development.
Songs and rhyme of the month and 12 Start Well Stories Song Card
Greater Manchester 10 Tips for Talking
The Greater Manchester (GM) 10 Tips for Talking share key messages to support the development of language and communication skills for babies and young children and can be used by everyone.
They include resources which have been developed to showcase the tips including a printable leaflet and poster, video clips of children speaking the tips and the tips have also been translated into a number of commonly spoken languages across Greater Manchester.
Access here: Greater Manchester's early years resources - Greater Manchester Combined Authority (greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk)
The Communication Trust
From April 2021 the resources developed by The Communication Trust (TCT) are being hosted on the Speech and Language UK website - we hope you will continue to find these useful.
The Communication Trust - Top talking tips for parents
Top talking tips for parents and their children.