We are proud to be able to deliver our ‘Lift Off to Language’ programme at Toddington Childcare for children aged 2 years and 3-4 years. We have three qualified staff who have been trained by Central Beds Speech and Language Team to deliver both our ‘Lift Off to Language’ programme for 2’s and ‘Lift Off to Language’ programme for 3-4’s. Our Communication Leads are Rachel Turner, Lorraine Carney and Sue Hickmott who all hold a CACHE Level 3 accreditation in Supporting Children and Young People’s Speech, Language and Communication.

The age of 2 is a very important year for language development and sees a huge boost in both children’s understanding and talking. Lift off to Language for 2’s is a programme of sessions designed to run once a week for a half term with a selected group of 5 two year olds in our setting. The group provides the opportunity to support children’s attention and listening skills, social interactions, turn taking skills, comprehension and expressive language skills. Activities within the sessions are carefully planned for and are specifically designed to encourage our younger children to play and interact in a relaxed environment with a series of rhyme based games and activities using props, puppets, instruments and books to support their prime areas of learning and development in Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

Each session begins by welcoming the children into our Zebra Room which is made available and introducing them to a ‘listening cushion’ each, which our children are invited to sit on in a small circle along with our Communication Leader running the session. We have a ‘Bear’ hand puppet who is our role model/helper throughout each session. The first activity is ‘Roll the Ball’, an attention and listening rhyme game where the children are encouraged to use ‘good listening ears’ and practice turn taking skills by catching a rolled ball upon hearing their name sung in the rhyme. Each child is then encouraged to roll the ball back to the practitioner when prompted in the rhyme. During this game, all children are encouraged to sing or tap their knees to the rhythm as we play. The next part of the session varies on a weekly basis and includes a weekly prop like wooden claves, coloured scarves, musical instruments, sound story books and rhyme boxes. These activities and games are based around rhymes and simple concepts like stop/go, up/down, quick/slow. Throughout the session, ‘Bear’ models actions and joins in with the games. All children are encouraged and praised throughout for their interactions and are invited to ‘hug’ bear after the games are finished. Our children are then invited to join in our ‘Teddy Bear’ song and actions with ‘Bear’ puppet at the end of each session and sit back on listening cushions for stickers. Each child receives a certificate to take home at the end of our 5 week programme.

Lift off to Language for 2’s is designed to be similar to ‘Lift off to Language’ programme for 3-4 year olds, so that it can act as a transition piece for children. However, it is shorter and simpler in order to be more appropriate for our younger children.