Chatterbugs
A key finding from the Bercow Report (2008) was recognising an urgent need for effective early identification and intervention for speech and language in the early years’ populations. This was my inspiration for writing the Chatterbugs programme - a 12-week early years’ communication programme, delivered by trained teaching assistants.
The main aim of the programme is to develop the foundation communication skills in children in the Early Years’ Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception). The targeted skills are attention and listening, turn-taking, and building vocabulary and sentence structure – thereby developing the children’s readiness for learning in school.
The programme is open to all Nursery and Reception children and is especially beneficial for those with delayed attention and/or language skills, those who are learning English as an additional language, and those potentially with other special educational needs.
The Chatterbugs Timeline
Teachers complete a baseline measure for each participant using a simple tick sheet to rate the child’s ability to demonstrate 15 communication skills. Skills are rated as ‘rarely’, ‘sometimes’ or ‘frequently’ demonstrated in the classroom.
Over 12 weeks, intervention takes place: groups of four children attend daily, highly-structured play-based sessions of 10 minutes, delivered by trained teaching assistants.
On completion of the programme, the teacher provides a review measure by completing the tick sheet, again rating the skills as seen in the classroom.
The programme is deemed a success when the child can frequently demonstrate skills that were rated ‘rarely’ or ‘sometimes’ at baseline.
The Chatterbugs programme was featured in a case study, ‘Best Practice for EAL learners’, published by The Communication Trust, which can be found here.