Early Years SEND toolkit - Communication and interaction

Making sense of the world

Activities and strategies to help a child make sense of their world.

• Using a visual timetable (pdf format, 162Kb)
• Social stories (pdf format, 36Kb)
• Example of a social story - biting (pdf format, 96Kb)
• Cause and effect (pdf format, 100Kb)
• Sequencing (pdf format, 89Kb)

Communication

Activities and strategies to help a child communicate.

• Talking together (pdf format, 106Kb)
• Descriptive commentary (pdf format, 32Kb)
• Match plus one (pdf format, 130Kb)
• Summary of strategies to help a child to communicate (pdf format, 117Kb)
• Choices (pdf format, 142Kb) For choosing things that aren't immediate, it can be helpful to use pictures e.g. 'do you want water play or playdough?'
• See also the listening and attention, language skills and communication sections of Treasure Trove (pdf format, 253Kb).

Interaction

Activities and strategies to help a child interact with others.

• Copy box (pdf format, 167Kb)
• Allowing the child to take the lead (pdf format, 42Kb)
• Taking turns (pdf format, 38Kb)
• Small group times (pdf format, 130Kb)

Speech and language resources

The Children’s Speech and language therapy – Oxfordshire NHS covers all areas of speech, language and social communication development. In addition, it has activities and resources relevant to the age and communication needs of the child.

Communication resources

• Signing booklet (pdf format, 2Mb) 
• Children develop their speech, language and communication skills at different rates. However, knowing what is typical can help you identify speech and language problems early. Ages and Stages - Speech and Language UK

Speech and language therapy referrals

Information to include when making a referral for speech and language therapy.

• Surveillance sheets for children aged 18 months to 5 years (doc format, 418Kb)
• Speech sound checklist
• Speech checklist pictures 

Understand and respond to children

Early Years Autism Project created the leaflets below. They may help you understand and respond to children with social communication difficulties and autism.

• Auditory strategies (pdf format, 182Kb)
• Asking for help (pdf format, 338Kb)
• Calming strategies (pdf format, 166Kb)
• Emotional regulation (pdf format, 183Kb)
• Oversensitivity (pdf format, 218Kb)
• People names (pdf format, 210Kb)
• Tactile strategies (pdf format, 207Kb)
• Under sensitivity (pdf format, 247Kb)
• Visual schedules (pdf format, 326Kb)

General resources

• Early Language for 1 - 2 year olds
• Speech Language and Communication for 3-4 year olds

The Council for Disabled Children (early support) produces information resources about a variety of needs including:

• Information about speech, language and communication needs
• autistic spectrum conditions.

The Inclusion Development Programme (IDP) supports practitioners to learn more about special educational needs and the best ways of supporting children.

The Autism Education Trust has produced Autism Standards and Competency framework to help settings to evaluate their practice. These contain useful resources and strategies.