The Community Early Years Practitioners’ key aims are to support children, their families, and professionals in ensuring early identification of need and signpost on to appropriate services and referrals. Community Early Years Practitioners provide support, advice and guidance on key aspects including:

• Share strategies to promote Early language and communication skills.
• Deliver Play and Say training and support the delivery, role modelling strategies and providing feedback for staff
• We offer in house moderation for 2 years old within the 3 prime areas
• You can sign post families to our on-line Drop-in sessions which provide opportunities to chat with a qualified early years practitioner and ask any question relating your child’s development.
• We work in partnership with our colleagues from speech and language to deliver Talking Toddlers groups
• Sharing Ideas, and activities to support children’s speech and language development.
• Promoting healthy lifestyles
• Positive parenting

Speak Up for Sheffield is focused on supporting the development of children’s speech, language, and communication. This course is aimed at people working at the ‘Universal Level’: everyone who works with young children. Attending this course is a pre-requisite for accessing the Speak Up for Sheffield Language Champions course.

We are aiming for all practitioners to attend the introductory module. This module explores the following

• Why focus on children’s speech, language, and communication development
• Brain development and the importance of attuned relationships
• Speech, language and communication development and the adult role
• General strategies to support speech, language, and communication development

We are offering this as a full day training, look out for the dates.

Contact : EarlyYearsBusinessSupport@sheffield.gov.uk the latest dates and information

The Language Champion course is aimed at people who have accessed the Introduction to Speak Up for Sheffield and want to learn more.  This is ‘Enhanced Level’ training with six full day sessions taking place over two terms.  The aim is to provide more knowledge and a deeper understanding of speech, language and communication needs – the different types of difficulties and diagnoses, their impact on children’s wider development both currently and in the future, and a more in depth awareness of specific approaches to use in your setting.

Practitioners who complete the course should feel more confident and competent to:

• Track and encourage the progress of all children’s speech, language and communication
• Understand SLT pathways
• Recognise the wider needs of the child with SLCN
• Implement different strategies and interventions
• Support families

Contact : EarlyYearsBusinessSupport@sheffield.gov.uk the latest dates and information