Talking Tots
- What is Talking Tots? Talking Tots is a parent/carer and toddler group. It focuses on strategies and activities for you to do with your child that help develop their speech, language and communication skills.
- How does a Parent/ Carer and child access a Talking Tots group? Families invited to group after a child’s name has been passed to the Communication Development Worker team by a Community Nursery Nurse, Early Help Practitioner, Health Visitor, Parent/ Carer self-referral or Speech and Language Therapist.
- How long is a session? 1 hour
- How many sessions are in a block? 4-6 sessions
- Where are sessions held? Family Hubs- Broughton Hub, Belvedere Children's Centre, Little Hulton Family Hub, Swinton Gateway, Winton Children’s Centre, and Irlam and Cadishead Academy.
- Who are the sessions for? Parents/ Carers attend with their children aged 18 months- 3 years.
- Who runs the sessions? 2 Communication Development Worker from the Speech and Language Therapy team.
- What happens before you start Talking Tots sessions? If possible, a Communication Development Worker will visit you at home to introduce themselves and give you more information about what to expect from the group. So that we can make sure the group is useful for you and your child, the Communication Development Worker will make a note of the strategies they see you using at the beginning of the group, and the strategies you are using at the end. They will discuss the strategies with you throughout the group.
- What happens at a Talking Tots session? See below.
Overview of a typical Talking Tots session:
- Arrive and free-play for around 35-40 minutes. During this time staff speak to Parent/ Carers about the top-tips for that week, e.g. following the child’s lead and commenting. Staff also model these strategies and provide practical ideas of how this can be used at home.
- ‘Song Time’ for around 5 minutes. This includes Parents/ Carers and the children joining in together with the ‘hello song’ and children’s other favourite action songs and rhymes.
- Focussed activity for around 10 minutes, e.g. sensory play with oats, painting, parachute games, making musical instruments.
- Outdoor play (weather permitting) for remainder of session.
- Goodbye song.
