Posts Tagged ‘language’

LTTP is a targeted home visiting service working directly with 1-5 year olds who have speech and language delay. Children are referred to the service by Health Visitors and other partner agencies within the statutory and voluntary sectors. The project has been running for almost 10 years and succeeds by working with the whole family in the home.

Home visits are carried out by experienced staff using carefully selected toys and techniques to engage both the child and the parent/s in play activities which promote the development of the child including language, communication, thinking and imagination. Activities also encourage and enable parent/s to value and practise regular playful interaction with their children.

The project works with families in Bulwell, an area of Nottingham City with significant social and economic deprivation as well as a history of poor educational attainment. These factors both contribute to, and are in turn reinforced by, low levels of parenting skill and confidence.

Delay in speech and language can be a very early indicator of problems in a child’s development. The LTTP project offers an early and preventative intervention which can offset the need for more specialist attention later. It addresses parenting capacity and identifies any need for other interventions at an early stage.

Many of the families demonstrate reluctance to engage with statutory agencies. Bulwell Community Toy Library is well known, community based and respected in the area. The learning offered is both play based and hands on, building trusting relationships with excluded families.

This relationship can lead, where appropriate, to supporting families to access other services and to engage more confidently with statutory services such as schools.