Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLP), now Sure Start Children's Centres, provide support for young children and their families in disadvantaged areas. With the aim of the programme to improve health and well-being, building communication skills in the early years are vital, as shown in the report
Promoting Speech and Language - a themed study in fifteen Sure Start Local Programmes.
This report looks at over 9000 families in 150 Sure Start areas and makes comparisons with those in similar disadvantaged areas without Sure Start. The report's key findings as outlined below include children having better social skills, which require good communication skills.
Key findings
All findings of SSLP effects are reported after adjusting for a wide range of family and area
background factors. Comparison between children and families living in SSLP areas and those in
similar areas not having a SSLP revealed the following benefits associated with living in a SSLP area.
- Parents of three-year-old children showed less negative parenting while providing their
children with a better home learning environment.
- Three-year-old children in SSLP areas had better social development with higher levels of
positive social behaviour and independence/self-regulation than children in similar areas not
having a SSLP.
- The SSLP effects for positive social behaviour appeared to be a consequence of the SSLP
benefits upon parenting (i.e. SSLP - Parenting - Child).
- Three-year-old children in SSLP areas had higher immunisation rates and fewer accidental
injuries than children in similar areas not having a SSLP; it is possible that instead of reflecting
positive effects of SSLPs these health-related benefits could have been a result of differences in
when measurements were taken of children living in SSLP areas and those living elsewhere.
- Families living in SSLP areas used more child- and family-related services than those living
elsewhere.
- The effects associated with SSLPs appeared to apply to all of the resident population, rather
than suggesting positive and negative effects for different subgroups as detected in the earlier
(2005) report.
- The more consistent benefits associated with SSLPs in the current study compared with the
earlier study may well reflect the greater exposure of children and families to better organised
and more effective services, as SSLPs have matured over time, though it remains possible that
differences in research design across the two studies could also be responsible.
(NESS summary report, p.1)
Download the full report at
www.surestart.gov.uk/publications/?Document=1974
Sure Start, Report 022, June 2007Aim of this themed study
The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which the emerging
knowledge about speech, language and pre-literacy is being utilised in
SSLPs, and the role played in this process by SaLTS. The public health
approach advocated by the RCSLT represents a radical shift in professional
practice and it was important to ascertain firstly whether it is feasible and
secondly the readiness of SaLTs to espouse this different approach to their
work. The study also sought to identify examples of good practice and to
analyse the ways in which the many different disciplines and staff groups in
SSLPs approached issues of language and pre-literacy.
Findings
All programmes had employed a SaLT at some stage in their development.
All SaLTs interviewed had been enthusiastic about implementing the newer
concepts of prevention, by promoting language development directly with
parents and through other staff. Most continued with some one-to-one clinical
work, particularly with children who had previously proved difficult to engage
in any form of assessment or therapy. However, the time commitment of
SaLTs varied widely between programmes. In several SSLPs their input had
ended or was being substantially reduced.
Four programmes, led by midwives, had a particular focus on the
development of communication in the newborn and in early infancy. The
midwives were enthusiastic about their new role and parents valued the
insights they were given about their baby’s efforts to communicate.
Bookstart was widely used and was supported by many staff groups including
early years librarians and health visitors, though in some cases the latter had
insufficient time to model the optimal use of books with very young children.
Some SSLPs were aware of the importance of developing awareness of
rhyme but there was much less evidence of other pre-literacy work.
In some SSLPs there was close collaboration between early years library
workers and SaLTs. Many parents were grateful for the advice and
information offered by the early years librarians and those who had previously
rarely used libraries found their support helpful and encouraging.
SaLT support to ‘Ready for Nursery’ groups had in some SSLPs focused on a
speech, language and literacy link between schools and Sure Start
programmes. There were variations in the ease with which different agencies
could collaborate and focus on speech, language and literacy development or
give priority to speech, language and literacy practice in their communications
with parents.
SaLTs in most SSLPs worked closely with the SSLP staff and in many cases
also with teachers, both within SSLPs and from local schools. Practitioners
valued their joint learning with SaLTs and said that it had informed and
improved their practice. Similarly parents endorsed the value of the
knowledge they had gained from SaLTs. However, there were also examples
of difficulties in professional communication between SaLTs and teachers
over issues such as the Foundation Stage curriculum and approaches to
supporting language development in classroom settings.
The early identification of children with major difficulties in language or
communication is one potential benefit of settings like Sure Start. Some
SSLPs had collaborated with SaLTs to improve their awareness of how to
recognise these children but there appeared to be considerable scope for
developing this function further, particularly in the light of the reduced input
into routine developmental screening by health visitors in the last few years.
Programme Managers' backgrounds were important – their attitudes and
opinions about the balance between community development, parent support
and pedagogy strongly influenced the direction and emphasis of programmes
as did the previous history of the area, especially the varied development of
nursery schools and childcare, and the strength of inter-disciplinary and interagency
relationships.
(Extracted from Executive Summary)
To download the full report visit: www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/RRP/u015233/index.shtml
Perspectives on the relationship between education and care in early childhood - a background paper
Noirin Hayes, June 2007
Commissioned by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, Ireland
The paper addresses the two recurrent, interacting and often, contentious concepts of education and care, which are central to the provision of early childhood education. It does so by considering the context within which early education is currently developing, nationally and internationally. In particular it considers how approaches to understanding the concepts of education and care impact on the lives of children from birth to six years through their influence on policy, curriculum and practice and professional development in early childhood care and education (ECCE).
There is an international trend towards reconsidering early years curriculum and practice for children from birth to six years to ensure that it takes account of contemporary child development theory, contextual variables and the dynamic interactions that are the essence of quality early education.
In its review of contemporary research this paper illustrates that successful early education facilitates the child in active learning where learning environments are well planned and where staff are well trained, confident and supported in their work. The positive impact of early education is found across all social groups but is strongest in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Effective learning in early childhood is exemplified by positive aspirations, task commitment, social skills, responsibility and feelings of efficacy within the child.
The role of the adult is central to the quality of early education and the paper presents evidence that a dynamic process approach to practice, integrating care and education, offers more for children’s positive development and learning than either an academic (education) or a play-based (care) approach alone. The evidence suggests that early education which emphasises the affective dimensions of learning and those cognitive skills associated with the planning and organisation of knowledge positively influences children’s later academic development in terms of content knowledge and literacy and numeracy skills.
(Extracted from the Executive Summary)
To download the full report visit
www.ncca.ie/index.asp?locID=355&docID=-1
The Impact of Early Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills on Later Outcomes
Pedro Carneiro Claire Crawford Alissa Goodman, October 2007
1) When describing the determinants of economic or social outcomes, economists often have a very simplified view of skill. Failure to take into account the fact that skill is intrinsically a multidimensional object may misguide both research and the design of social policy.
2) In this paper, we analyse the consequences and determinants of cognitive and non-cognitive (social) skills at age 11, using data for Great Britain from the National Child Development Survey (NCDS). We document the importance of these skills for schooling attainment, labour market outcomes and social behaviours at various ages, and analyse the role of family background and the home learning environment in the formation of these skills.
3) We find that an overall measure of non-cognitive skill is important for a host of outcomes, including whether or not an individual stays on at school beyond the age of 16, whether they have obtained a degree by age 42, employment status at age 42, work experience between ages 23 and 42, wages at age 42, smoking at age 16, truancy before age 16, exclusion from school, teenage pregnancy, involvement with crime (ages 16 and 42), and health at age 42.1
4) Furthermore, the impact of this measure of non-cognitive skill does not differ in any systematic way across particular subgroups of interest (including those defined according to parental education, or father’s socioeconomic status).
5) We go on to split this measure of non-cognitive skill into twelve different domains.2 As an example, we find that “inconsequential behaviour” at age 11 (for example, misbehaviour in class) is associated with a reduction in the probability that an individual will stay on at school beyond age 16, a reduction in their wages at age 42, an increase in the likelihood that they will be a heavy smoker at age 16, and an increase in the probability that they will have played truant or been involved in crime by age 16. Further, we find that depression at age 11 is associated with a reduction in the probability that an individual will have obtained a degree by age 42, an increase in the probability that the individual will be a heavy smoker at age 16, an increase in the likelihood that they will have been excluded from school, and an increase in the probability that they will report symptoms of depression at age 42.
6) These findings together make it clear that a vision of the world in which skill is thought of as a one-dimensional object is extremely inadequate.
7) Further, we show that both cognitive and non-cognitive skills are strongly dependent on family background and other characteristics of the home learning environment, and that this is likely to be for both genetic and environmental reasons. More importantly, our work suggests that social skills may be more malleable than cognitive skills, which – if true – suggests that there may be greater scope for education policy to affect social skills rather than cognitive skills.
(Extracted from Executive summary)
To download the report visit cee.lse.ac.uk/pubs/default.asp
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