A nursery that specialises in communication is showing the way to developing good practice that responds to each child's needs, writes Annette Rawstrone
Children, whatever their ability, thrive on stimuli that excite all their senses. That's why Bognor Regis Nursery School in West Sussex places a great emphasis on creating an environment that inspires children to communicate.
The nursery caters for 176 children part-time. More than 30 per cent of them have difficulty with spoken language and listening skills. Two-thirds of the children must apply for places, while a third have been referred to the nursery by outside agencies. The staff team consists of five teachers, three nursery nurses, two classroom assistants, and support assistants, the number depending on children's specific needs.
Headteacher Sian Rees Jones says, 'We try to support all children's very different needs. The majority of support takes place in the nursery setting. With the help of parents and key professionals, including speech and language therapists and educational psychologists, staff plan individual programmes of support for children. These programmes are reviewed and updated regularly.'
Including parents
A keyworker is allocated to each child for his whole time at nursery school. They are responsible for liaising with parents and keeping detailed, observation-led records of the child's development. Ms Rees Jones stresses that it is crucial to maintain close relationships with parents. Parents meet formally with staff every half-term to discuss their child's progress, and most also talk on a daily basis. Session starting times are flexible to enable parents to speak to staff and allow children to begin the day gently.
Children are allowed to explore their particular interests and are free to access all areas of the curriculum. Ms Rees Jones says, 'The children are allowed to make their own choices, which helps them feel responsible and more confident in their abilities. This has a great impact on their self-esteem. Children have to be motivated and confident to express themselves. It is important that they feel valued.'
Staff work alongside the children using specific strategies, such as modelling language or giving visual clues, as the children play (see below).
Special resources
A 'communication and language base' recently opened at the nursery school. Staff are excited by the children's reactions to the resources, which so far include tactile panels, distorted mirrors, a sound-activated bubble pipe, an interactive sound board and revolving coloured lights. 'One little boy started school with no verbal communication or independent movement,' recalls Ms Rees Jones. 'It was such a joy to see him march up to the base using his walker with the biggest smile we'd ever seen. He particularly enjoyed the texture of the sheepskin covers on the chairs and liked burying his face in them. His support assistant said she'd never heard him talk so much.'
Video observation
The nursery school used DfES funding to set up a speech and language project in 2000 to support 15 children with identified speech and language delay or disordered language. Staff re-examined their method of working with parents and the Speech and Language Therapy Service and as part of this project, the children were videoed at home and school. The footage was studied by all parties to analyse children's strengths, interests and areas for development and to agree support strategies. 'Children's communication and language can be different depending on the environment - some children are quiet at nursery but verbal at home,' says Ms Rees Jones. 'We learned a lot from looking at how parents interact with their children. This also allowed parents to see how children react to the staff and gave them ideas to follow up at home.'
Staff have produced an 'ideas pack' for use by parents and practitioners to support children with specific areas of difficulty, starting with attention and listening. More than 90 per cent of the children involved made significant progress, and the nursery plans to start a second project in the summer.
Steps in good practice
The nursery school recommends the following good practice guidelines.
Gain information. Staff find out as much information about a child as possible before they start at the setting. Questions include:
- Is the child confident in a variety of situations?
- Have they ever attended speech and language therapy?
- Does the child have any hearing problems?
- Do they follow spoken instructions easily or need constant visual clues?
Liaise with parents. Within a child's first week, staff hold a parent conference to gauge children's interests and strengths. The school's ethos is to support children's development through what they enjoy (see case study).
Identification of a child's specific speech and language difficulties takes place as early as possible. Indicators in delay of attention and listening skills include:
- The child being at a lower stage than expected for their chronological age
- Difficulties in following instructions
- Being easily distracted
- Performing badly in auditory discrimination activities such as rhymes and guessing sound games.
Attention skills. Children need to develop attention skills before they can start on their listening skills. Staff attract children's attention before communicating with them. This is done by, for example, touch before starting an activity, or starting a sentence with the child's name so they know that it relates to them.
Clear instructions are given before rather than during an activity.
Play games. Staff encourage games that foster attention and listening skills such as:
- Identifying sounds of different instruments or objects
- Listening to taped stories with an accompanying book
- Copying a rhythm or following a beat
- Responding to musical games, for example musical bumps, or songs that require a response, like 'Heads and Shoulders' or 'Mulberry Bush'
- Filling in missing words in familiar rhymes
- Guessing where sound is coming from when the cause is not visible.
Verbal comprehension. Indicators of poor comprehension include:
- Delayed developmental language skills
- Misunderstanding simple questions
- Relying too heavily on visual clues.
Supporting poor comprehension. Staff talk clearly and slowly but not loudly. They repeat key words if necessary and use the level of information carrying words appropriate to the child's understanding.
Modelling language, such as giving a verbal commentary of what a child is doing when working alongside them. This can be adapted to meet children's learning styles and level of understanding, for example saying, 'You're putting a big brick on top of a small brick' or using key words and gestures such as 'on top' accompanied by placing one hand on top of the other.