Furzehill Childcare Centre

“Elklan was established in 1999 by two experienced speech and language therapists Liz Elks and Henrietta McLachlan in response to a demand for training to be delivered by speech and language therapists to education staff to enable them to be more effective in their support of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)”.

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Furzehill Childcare Centre has undertaken the ELKLAN Communication Counts training and Accreditation and has been awarded the Communication Friendly Mark of recognition for the excellent work they do in promoting children’s early communication and language skills. The company director/Manager and Deputy Manager have both completed Level 3 Elklan training and the staff attend regular annual communication counts training.

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Our aim is to ensure that all children are able to develop their language and communication skills at a pace that is right for them and to ensure that they can communicate effectively their needs and wants. To help us ensure that we are communicating at the right level for your child all children we will complete a Wellcomm language and communication screening assessment. This is a simple assessment carried out whilst playing with your child and is totally nonintrusive. There is no pass or fail what it helps us to find out is the level at which your child can communicate and understand. Once this has been done we will let you know what your child’s language and developmental stage is and if we feel that some short term additional support may help them develop their language and understanding further which we can do together in the setting and at home. We will also share with you if there are any concerns and if a referral to the speech and language service is needed.

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You can also ask at any time for a language assessment to be made if you are worried about your child’s language and understanding. Sometimes this can offer the reassurance you might be seeking and sometimes this can help to identify at delay at the earliest point, meaning support and advice can be given preventing the need to referral for specialist services.

 

“Being able to speak clearly and process speech sounds, to understand others, to express ideas and interact with others are fundamental building blocks for a child’s development. Analysis shows that good communication, language and literacy at a young age have the highest correlation with outcomes in school at seven years.  Children with SLCN in the early years can have difficulty learning and accessing the curriculum. Language difficulties can impact on emotional development, with resultant behavioural difficulties and problems forming friendships.  We know from longitudinal studies that, without the right support, SLCN can be persistent with wide-ranging impacts and often reduced life chances”.    

https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/

 

If you would like to know more about the language assessment then please ask your family worker when you have your parent meeting. They will then arrange for you to talk to the settings Early Communication Lead.