Learning & Development: Communication - Part 6 - Beyond words

We are halfway through 2011, the National Year of Communication, and the 'Hello' campaign is in full swing. It is a national response to concern about the numbers of children at risk of language delay, and all over the country practitioners are organising activities to highlight the importance of language and communication. This month's theme is 'Imagine life for those who struggle'.

Asking us to imagine asks something important. 'Hello' does not ask us to 'feel sorry for' or to 'give money to', nor even to 'improve things for' those who struggle, but to imagine life. Asking us to imagine someone else's life asks us to walk in their shoes, to identify with someone who maybe does not take for granted the things we do, and to understand where their actions and feelings come from. In other words, 'Hello' asks us to empathise.

This series of articles has looked at various aspects of communication, focusing particularly on how practitioners can best support early language through high-quality provision for children and parents. This final article shifts the focus slightly to look in more depth at the empathy-related skills and support that practitioners need, particularly when they are working with those who struggle with language and communication.

EMPATHY

Goleman (1996) calls empathy our 'fundamental people skill' and he, and many others, have linked its development to the emotional responsiveness of our caregivers when we are very young. This means that if our parents and others respond well to our needs and wants, recognising and talking with us about our feelings, we are more able to understand and value the reactions and feelings of others as we grow up.

Empathy helps practitioners tune in to the children and parents with whom they work and provide appropriate emotional support and learning experiences. It also helps practitioners work effectively together, because it helps us tune in to each other.

Early years practitioners come from many different backgrounds, but we are all interested in the development and learning of children. The ability to empathise helps us, for example, become key persons who can identify with the feelings of children and parents and use our professional knowledge and expertise to support them. It is the combination of professional expertise and ability to connect with others that makes effective practice.

When we focus on the development of early language and communication we are helping children and families to develop hugely important life skills.

Children who struggle need appropriate support, or their life chances may be significantly impaired. (The 'Hello' website, www.Hello.org.uk, is a good source of statistics on the numbers of young people with speech, language and communication needs who end up in trouble at school or with the law.)

Pause for thought

'Hello' asks us to use our imaginations and this is a good first step. So, pause for thought and ask yourself:

• Do you ever feel 'lost for words'? When does this happen?

• Do you ever feel reluctant to 'speak up' in a meeting?

• Are there times when you feel you need 'to watch what you say'?

• Do you ever feel pressured to come up with an answer or solution too quickly?

Reading those questions will probably remind you of times when you have felt awkward or unsure, when communication has seemed a struggle. Sometimes these awkward feelings occur because another person has expectations that you know you cannot meet and/or the power to make your life difficult.

- Imagine you asked the children in your group these questions. How would they answer?

OBSERVATION, ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING

As practitioners we have tremendous power over the emotional environment in a setting. If you imagined different children in your group responding in different ways to the questions above, it's because you know them as individuals at different stages of development. In a good setting, that knowledge will be based on ongoing observation and assessment. Imagination is important, but it can lead us astray if it is not firmly based on evidence as well as feelings.

Sometimes children are excluded from early years settings for biting, possibly because the staff do not see this behaviour as a form of communication or recognise the importance of their role in developing all children's communication skills - teaching them better ways of expressing their needs and wants. See the case study below from Social and Emotional Aspects of Development (page 30).

The Inclusion Development Programme materials on supporting young children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs, Autism and Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties provide many more case studies and advice on how to become more effective at identifying and empathising with children's struggles with communication. They also provide real-life examples of how practitioners have improved provision and support for children and families.

Case study

Blue is two-and-a-half years old. He enjoys quieter activities, both inside and outside. He seems eager to please adults and shows them anything that he has constructed or created. He can become excited and sometimes very angry if he has an idea which he finds difficult to execute or if he cannot find the bits and pieces he wants. When he becomes frustrated he sometimes hits or bites other children if they are in his way or have toys and equipment he wants. The staff are aware that parents of other children are discussing Blue's behaviour and the biting and that they are expecting the nursery staff to 'do something about it'.

Luckily, Blue was attending a setting where staff were clear about their roles and were able to empathise with him as well as with the other children and parents. The staff talked to Blue's father and agreed that although this behaviour was undesirable, it was still a way that Blue was using to communicate. They then worked together to find a way for Blue to communicate that didn't involve hurting others.

Staff observations over one day showed that Blue tended to be cross with himself and others just before lunchtime, so the staff decided to make sure they would stay close to him at such times. They also felt that his behaviour might stem from his becoming tired and so planned more 'close time' between him and his key person through the day.

The staff implemented various strategies to test their ideas. After a week they found there were no more biting incidents. Further observation showed that there were times when Blue did not snatch a toy, nor resort to hitting.

The staff were all mindful to praise Blue when this happened, and, as a result, Blue became more likely to continue with this positive behaviour and learn to use other means of communicating. These steps also helped him to develop friendships, as the other children in the nursery were now less wary of him.

WORKING TOGETHER

Many of the case studies mentioned above discuss the ways in which practitioners have worked together across agencies. Several agencies have been involved centrally in Every Child A Talker (ECAT) - many speech and language therapists, for instance, have been working as ECAT consultants. Others have been part of ECAT and National Year of Communication strategic steering groups and are continuing to promote the importance of early language and communication across their local community.

The following is not an exhaustive list, but illustrates the range of agencies that may be involved:

• early years

• speech and language therapy

• Primary School Improvement

• libraries

• Bookstart

• children's centres

• health visitors

• community paediatricians

• family learning

• social care

• ethnicity and culture services

• Education Welfare

• prison and youth offending services

• training organisations, further and higher education

• inclusion

• midwifery

• psychology service

• voluntary sector (for example, Homestart), national early years organisations and family outreach workers.

Recent Government-commissioned reviews and reports have highlighted the early years as a concern and priority for everyone working with children and young people and have included recommendations for more partnership and joined-up working.

Both the review of child poverty, led by Labour MP Frank Field, and the review of early intervention, by Labour MP Graham Allen, recognised the importance of early language, attachment and personal, social and emotional skills in supporting children's physical, mental and cognitive development. These reviews also recommended closer links between health and education. Dame Clare Tickell in her review of the EYFS makes links with Field and Allen and recommends that personal, social and emotional development, communication and language and physical development are identified as prime areas of learning in the EYFS.

Dame Clare goes on to say:

• 'I recommend that the EYFS should include a requirement for practitioners, including childminders, to provide on request to parents and carers, at some point between the ages of 24 and 36 months, a short written early years summary of their child's development in the prime areas.'

• 'I recommend that an insert is added to the early childhood health record, known as the Red Book, to encourage parents and carers, or their nominee, to enter information arising from this early years summary and from children's interaction with other professionals, for example speech and language therapists.'

• 'I recommend strongly that the Government works with experts and services to test the feasibility of a single integrated review at age two to two-and-a-half.'

Consultation on the recommendations is expected soon. It seems likely, from the sector response so far, that most practitioners will welcome the idea of working more closely together and building on some of the excellent work already taking place in many areas. After all, this is in the spirit of the existing EYFS principles and commitments, which will remain unchanged. On the EYFS card Enabling Environments 3.4: The Wider Context, the commitment is stated as: 'Working in Partnership with other settings, with other professionals and with individuals and groups in the community supports children's development and progress towards the outcomes of Every Child Matters: being healthy; staying safe; enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution and economic well-being.'

Pause for thought

• What part does your setting play in ensuring that all the agencies involved with a child work together as effectively as possible?

• Do you value observations and assessments from parents and other professionals involved with the children?

• How does the leader of your setting ensure that all staff have time to discuss next steps for children who are struggling - both in the setting and with parents and other agencies, when appropriate?

• If you are in a leadership position, how are you enabling staff to improve their communication and empathy skills with children and parents as well as with each other?

THE FUTURE: EVERY CHILD MATTERS

We are living in difficult times. Funding is tight, and the effect of the lack of ring-fencing of early years budgets is leading to some very difficult decisions in local authorities and settings. The current Government has abandoned the descriptor 'Every Child Matters' for this agenda, but the EYFS review and ministerial responses to Field and Allen indicate that every child still matters.

We also know from the evidence of the EPPE longitudinal study and from programmes like Every Child A Talker that the most effective early intervention for the largest numbers of young children is high-quality education and care with professionals working effectively together to support children and families.

The National Year of Communication is helping us keep the importance of good-quality early language support at the forefront nationally. So, despite the current economic and political climate, there are some grounds for optimism, as long as we still have good quality in the early years.

In 1994 Goldschmied and Jackson wrote: 'A society can be judged by its attitude to its youngest children, not only in what is said about them but how this attitude is expressed in what is offered to them as they grow up.'

Those of us who are convinced that the many positive changes that have happened since 1994 are worth fighting for, need to keep our eyes on how the present Government's policies will enable high quality to be maintained. That does not necessarily mean hanging on to the status quo - the reviewed EYFS should improve practice. The greater involvement of the private and voluntary sector in shaping policy through co-production may be challenging, but also open up new pathways. Re-organisation and restructuring may be unpleasant in some ways, but it opens up fresh ways of thinking. If we have core values and principles, uncertainty may be healthy and help us move forward.

In Adventuring in Early Childhood Education, Cath Dennis says: 'If you are very certain about what you know, then this can close off the possibility of correcting a misunderstanding or coming to know something differently. You notice things that confirm what you know, rather than those things that challenge your thinking and deepen and extend your understanding.'

As we move forward in uncertain times, we need to really know that children's early language and communication is important but also be open to challenge about the many different ways to support children and families. In this way we can carry on being learners and continue to support ECAT, Hello and other initiatives that aim to improve life and learning for young children and their families.

MORE INFORMATION

• Allen, Graham (2011) 'Early Intervention: The next steps', www.dwp.gov.uk/early-intervention-next-steps.pdf

• DfE vision for early years and co-production steering group, www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/earlylearningandchildcare/de veloping/a0074569/developing-a-new-vision-for-the-early-years

• Dennis, C (2010) 'Understanding the uncertainty' in Adventuring in Early Childhood Education by Duckett, R and Drummond, MJ (eds) Sightlines Initiative EPPE, http://eppe.ioe.ac.uk/eppe/eppeintro.htm

• Every Child A Talker Guidance for Early Language Lead Practitioners (instalments one to three) can still be downloaded from http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/earlyyears and the first instalment only is at: www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/EarlyYearseducationandchildca re/Page5?viewAs=full&sortBy=Title_Ascending

• Field, Frank (2010) 'The Foundation Years: Preventing poor children becoming poor adults', http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110120090128/http://povertyr eview.independent.gov.uk

• Goldschmied, E and Jackson, S (2nd ed) (2004) People Under Three. Routledge

• Goleman, D (1996) 'Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ'. Bloomsbury

• Inclusion Development Programme materials and Social and Emotional Aspects of Development guidance for practitioners working in the EYFS can still be downloaded from http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/earlyyears

• www.talkingpoint.org.uk/talkinglinks provides a database of services that support children and young people's communication development. The database is searchable by postcode and includes the contact details of local speech and language therapy services.

• Tickell, Dame Clare (2011) 'The Early Years: Foundations for life, health and learning - An independent report on the EYFS to Her Majesty's Government', www.education.gov.uk/tickellreview

HELLO CAMPAIGN

Hello, the national year of communication, is a campaign to increase understanding of how important it is for children and young people to develop good communication skills. It is run by the Communication Trust, a coalition of 40 leading voluntary sector organisations in partnership with Jean Gross, the Government's Communication Champion, and backed by the Department for Education and Department for Health. For more information, visit: www.hello.org.uk

Nursery World Communication Masterclass

Join us at our Communication Masterclass on 6 July to hear a panel of leading experts provide updates on research, policy and practice.

Colwyn Trevarthen, Professor (Emeritus) of Child Psychology and Psychobiology at the University of Edinburgh, will provide insights into how to respond to young children's desire to communicate.

Early years consultant Helen Moylett, a member of the EYFS Review team, will outline the Review recommendations for communication and language and explain their implications for practice.

Finally, Alice Sharp, managing director of Experiential Play, will suggest stimulating resources and ways to create communication-rich environments, with a focus on children under three.

The masterclass will be held in London - venue to be confirmed - on 6 July, from 12.30. For more information and to book a place at £149 plus VAT, visit: www.nurseryworldcomms.com

• Helen Moylett is president of Early Education (www.early-education.org.uk) and an independent consultant. She can be contacted through www.earlylearningconsultancy.co.uk