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Developing language for life

Understanding your child's development and early communication


Dad and baby nose to nose


  • The charity I CAN has produced a Chatter Chart to help parents support children's developing communication skills. It features hints, tips and activities for communication development at different stages, from birth to five, and tells parents what to expect. It is designed to be displayed on a child's bedroom wall and can be personalised by adding photographs and additional information. For more information visit www.talkingpoint.org.uk

  • The Child Development Institute provides a section for parents on understanding and supporting their child's language development. Visit www.childdevelopmentinfo.com

  • Early Education has produced free leaflets to help parents of children up to age five understand their child's development and to play an active part in their learning. Visit www.early-education.org.uk or for details of postage charges, email office@early-education.org.uk or ring 020 7539 5400.

  • Everyday babycare: Learning to talk (2004). A practical, user-friendly guide answering the key questions parents ask about their child's language development. Covering speech development from early babbles to complete sentences and beyond, this brightly illustrated book is packed with expert tips on useful topics like television and bilingualism. Written by Professor James Law for DK publishers and Johnson's, this book is highly recommended by the Talk To Your Baby team.

  • Flying start with literacy, by Ros Bayley and Lynn Broadbent (Network Educational Press, 2005), is a guide written for parents and carers of pre-school and primary children. It includes activities and fun games for helping parents to contribute to their child's overall literacy development. For more information visit www.networkpress.co.uk

  • How To Talk To Your Baby, by Dorothy P Dougherty, is subtitled A Guide to Maximizing Your Child's Language and Learning Skills (published by Avery/Penguin Putnam Inc, USA. To order visit www.amazon.org.uk). The author gives reasons why it matters and emphasises how to teach your baby to talk without disrupting your busy life, including talk in your daily routine. In particular, she incorporates the teaching methods of naming, describing, comparing, explaining and giving directions.

  • Parenting practices that shape the lives of young children - a US report shows that parents are missing opportunities to develop their children's language development, by Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (May 2005). Click here to find out more.

  • Small Talk: From First Gestures to Simple Sentences by Dr Richard C. Woolfson is a book about understanding and encouraging your child's gestures, facial expressions, babbling and speech. It covers birth to three, and is divided into sections covering three months at a time, with photographs throughout. Each section covers body language and language development, and has top tips for stimulation, questions and answers dealing with common worries, and a development chart. There are also sections on bilingualism and special needs at the beginning of the book. Published by Hamlyn, ISBN 0 600 60288 5.

  • There is a wide variation in the rate at which children develop speech and language - some develop quickly, others may take a little more time. As a rough guide for parents, Talking Point has put together information about the typical stages children go through as they develop language. The information has been organised into different age ranges. For more information go to www.talkingpoint.org.uk

  • The Small Talk Collection is a resource with information about emotional development in the very early years. The Small Talk Collection is available in eight different titles. For more information and to order visit www.smalltalkcollection.com

  • The Social Baby by Lynne Murray and Liz Andrews. An engaging book full of delightful and detailed photographs of very young babies, showing extraordinary early communication between adult and child. Even in their first weeks of life babies show highly organised social responses, and this book shows parents and professionals how to understand and value these simple yet complex signals and cues. Published by CP Publishing, Richmond, Surrey (2000).

  • The Social Baby is also available as a video with breathtaking footage including Ethan communicating with his parents just moments after delivery. Produced by the Children's Project and NSPCC. More

  • The Social Toddler: promoting positive behaviour, by Helen and Clive Dorman. Reviewed in Nursery World, 24 April 2003: "full of wise advice about communication by words and body language with very young children". Published by CP Publishing, Richmond, Surrey.

  • "Tuning Into Our Babies: the importance of the relationship between parents and their babies and toddlers" is a booklet produced by the mental health charity Young Minds, highlighting the wide-ranging effects of our feelings and emotions and how our responses to the needs and signals of our children can have a positive effect on their social and emotional development. Copies are available free of charge from 0800 018 2138. Or visit www.youngminds.org.uk/

  • The Understanding Childhood website has a range of free downloadable leaflets on children's behaviour and emotional development, originally produced for the Child Psychotherapy Trust (CPT). Child and adolescent psychotherapists and other experts researched and wrote the leaflets for CPT, which operated successfully from 1987 to 2004. Leaflets include 'Your new baby, your family and you' and 'Postnatal depression: a problem for all the family'. Visit www.understandingchildhood.net

  • Understanding Your One-Year-Old by Sarah Bustavus Jones (Jessica Kinglsey Publishers, 2004) How does the world look to a one-year-old? When your child doesn't have words to explain things to you, how can you begin to understand how she feels? Acknowledging the crucial role of relationships and parenting, Sarah Gustavus Jones offers guidance and reassurance in this sensitive exploration of the issues central to your child's developing physical and emotional needs.

  • Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain by Sue Gerhardt (Brunner-Routledge, 2004) A lively interpretation of the latest findings in neuro-science, psychology, psychoanalysis and biochemistry explains why love is essential to brain development in the early years of life. The author vividly shows how early interactions between babies and their parents have lasting and serious consequences for emotional well being.

 

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