Make Chatter Matter

Shockingly, more than half of children in the UK - and as many as 80% in some areas - are starting primary school without the communication skills they need, according to ICAN, the children's communication charity. Not only are these children at risk of academic failure because they struggle to understand what's being taught in the classroom, but they also find it difficult to make friends and are more likely to be bullied.

In response, I CAN is naming February 2007 Make Chatter Matter Month. The campaign aims to help all under fives get the right support at home so that they can develop the communication skills they need.

"Communication is not just speaking," says Dr Janine Spencer, a Child Developmental Psychologist for LeapFrog Toys. "It's being able to participate in a social world. To most of us these skills seem simple, but children have to learn how to communicate."

"There are a number of rules for successful communication such as turn taking, not switching from topic to topic and learning the social conventions of communication," continues Dr Spencer. "These take a long while for children to learn. Luckily, there are many simple things that we can do to help our children's communication skills develop."

"Put simply, you won't learn language unless someone talks to you," says Dr Danielle Matthews, a Developmental Psycholinguist at the University of Manchester. "The more you interact linguistically with your child the better they will talk and the better they will be able to express themselves."

"Avoid talking at your child but try to talk with them about things that have their attention," advises Dr Matthews. "There is lots of evidence to suggest that language learning works best when parent and child jointly attend to what they are talking about."

"Watch how your child asks for things - do they point or verbally ask for them?" continues Dr Matthews. "If they are inclined to point, tell them you don't understand and give your child options of what they might mean. Describing their choices - ‛Do you mean you want your toy or your milk' for example, will help them find the right words in future attempts."

But parents shouldn't get too worried if their child is slow to talk says Dr Matthews: "Up until the age of 3 or more, there is massive individual variation in speech but by the time they reach pre-school children should be able to combine words into short sentences even though they may still have difficulty getting their message across."

Here are some tips from ICAN to build up your child's communication skills:

1. Talk to your baby right from the start

2. Build talking together into your everyday activities

3. Try not to use a dummy unless it's for sleep times

4. Help children learn to pay attention

5. Give your child plenty of time to respond

6. Talk about what's going on in your child's world

7. Speak in sentences one word longer than theirs

8. TV is better if you watch it together and talk about what you see

9. Talk with your child rather than quiz them

10. Give your child lots of encouragement

11. Use the right sounds yourself and let them learn

12. Be an active play partner

13. Try to eat together at least once a day

14. Use talking to build a good relationship

15. Don't bottle up your feelings

16. Sing together as often as you can

Take Part

At around 10am on Tuesday 6th of February Early Learning Centre stores across the UK will host Chatterbox Challenge jungle-themed sing-alongs open to all families and childminders with young children. Also, throughout the month I CAN will receive 50p from every Baby IQ DVD or selected nursery rhyme CDs sold at Early Learning Centre stores.

For more information go to the I CAN website www.ican.org.uk

Chatter Matters is a new DVD presented by Dr Tanya Byron to encourage parents and all members of the family to develop children's communication skills by making the most of feeding, bathing and changing times with children under the age of five. It's available through www.ican.org.uk or by calling 0845 225 4073