Training

Language and communication training Communicating Matters training materials Communication Friendly Spaces: Improving children’s speaking and listening skills in the home context ContinYou Hanen Centre I CAN training PEEP Siren Films Talk To Your Baby quiz General training Mellow Parenting NHS - ConNeCT PEAL The Mothers' Union Young Minds training for practitioners

• ContinYou offers a range of consultancy and training services that include its Share programme. Share is for families with children aged 3 to 13 years. It is designed as a way for families to share time together and have fun, and aims to improve educational attainment and achievement of children as well as to motivate and help parents to take an active interest in their children's education. It is run in local authorities and early years settings. For more information visit www.continyou.org.uk
  
  
• Communication Friendly Spaces: Improving children's speaking and listening skills in the home context is a project to provide training for childminders and nannies. A partnership between Elizabeth Jarman Ltd, who specialise in developing specialist learning environments and the National Childminding Association (NCMA) has been created to deliver the training. The project is funded by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC). The importance of the home-learning environment is focused on with regards to the impact on children's speaking and listening skills. It also complement the Early Years Foundation Stage area on enabling environments. For more information visit www.elizabethjarmanltd.co.uk or www.ncma.org.uk/
  
  More on Communication Friendly Spaces
  
• The Hanen Centre is a Canadian charitable organisation with an international reach. Its aim is to provide the important people in a young child's life with the knowledge and training they need to help the child develop the best possible language, social and literacy skills. It has training programmes for professionals, it conducts research and it produces user-friendly learning materials. Each year it produces a catalogue with its latest materials, including a useful pre-school language and literacy calendar. For more information visit www.hanen.org
  
  
• I CAN, a charity helping children with speech and language difficulties, provides training for health, education and social care practitioners who work with children or young people. There are a range of courses on more than 50 different subjects, from introductory courses on communication disability to teaching approaches and models. Courses cover multi-agency planning and delivery of services and the educational market. For more information call 0845 225 4073, or email training@ican.org.uk
  
  
• Mellow Parenting is a 14 week one day a week group designed to support families with relationship problems with their infants and young children. The Mellow Parenting organisation does not directly run groups itself but trains professionals to run the group according to the model. For more information visit www.mellowparenting.org/
  
  
• NHS - ConNeCT, the professional training arm of the National Childbirth Trust, runs a wide range of workshops for health professionals, health visitors, Sure Start leaders, nursery nurses and others. Topics covered by the courses include Running effective Antenatal Classes, Postnatal Depression, Teaching Men and Baby Calming. For more information call 0870 770 3236 or email connect@national-childbirth-trust.co.uk or visit www.nctsales.co.uk/rhp_nhs_connect.asp
  
  
• Siren Films produces Child Development and Observation DVDs and videos for educational use. The Observation series is produced to help students learn the skills of child observation, and the Development series is produced to give an understanding of important aspects of child behaviour. They are filmed to clearly show the key aspects of behaviour and are designed to show the lives of people in real, every day situations so viewers can relate to them easily. Most come with detailed accompanying notes. For more information visit www.sirenfilms.co.uk
  
  Update: In addition, Siren Films have produced The Wonder Year (67 minutes), which shows in detail one baby's development through the first year, with clear commentary particularly highlighting the shaping of the brain through his experiences. It comes with a detailed guide book, expanding on what's seen with explanations and scientific terminology. Ideal for showing to both new parents and students.
  
  
• Talk To Your Baby quiz. A fact sheet and quiz for professionals to use to raise awareness and understanding of the benefits of early years communication. Download the quiz here.
  
  
• The Mothers' Union trains parenting facilitators through the Open College Network to help run a national network of parenting groups. It has joined with Care For the Family and The Salvation Army to produce The Good Practice Guide for Parent and Toddler Groups: Building Relationships - Strengthening Community. This provides practical guidelines about how to run a successful group, and to promote the important contribution that parent and toddler groups make to local communities. Visit www.themothersunion.org
  
  
• Young Minds, the children's mental health charity, runs a wide range of training courses. They are for practitioners looking to acquire the concepts and skills relating to children's mental health. For more information and a list of courses visit www.youngminds.org.uk/professionals/training/
  

  
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