Language and communication is a high priority in early years settings and staff provide support for the growing number of children with needs in this area. The LIVELY project coincided with the pandemic, so we knew that COVID was a significant impact on all aspects of early years provision. We talked to eleven practitioners who were working with us on LIVELY to find out more. SENDCOs/early years teachers and teaching assistants were interviewed about the language and communication support they provide and how COVID impacted their children and provision.
Children were having fewer experiences; they went out less and activities were limited. In some settings the home corner remained all year, in previous years it would have been changed into a doctor’s office or a travel agent but children were not familiar with these and staff wanted to make sure the area reflected their experiences.
Children had less contact with other children, older children could no longer work with younger ones in schools, and they weren’t seeing friends outside of school.
Parents could not attend parent meetings or activities like ‘stay and play’ where practitioners could talk to them about how to support their children’s language and model appropriate practice.
There was less external support and interventions in schools were also affected due to high levels of staff absence, or because staff were not able to work across different groups of children. It was more difficult to identify children with speech language and communication needs. Parents couldn’t compare their child to other children, unless there were older siblings, and there was less contact with health professionals.
COVID had a significant impact on all aspects of children’s development with the reduction in interaction being one of the issues staff found most concerning. But COVID provided opportunities too.
During the pandemic, especially at the start when only children of key workers and vulnerable children were going into schools, it was clear that smaller classes had a significant positive impact. Invisible children became visible, quiet children who could be overlooked in a busy classroom got more time with staff and made more progress. And some children benefited from more time at home.
Parents weren’t able to go into classrooms and settle children, but this meant that children became more independent more quickly. Settings were concerned at this loss of contact with parents and recognised the need for strong home school links. They used technology like online learning journals for communication and to support learning at home.
Settings have reflected on their standard practice and whether changes might be beneficial long term. For example, rather than an individual child being able to get a snack whenever they wanted, this had to happen in groups, so it became an opportunity to chat and support language.
Priorities have been clarified, language and communication along with personal, social and emotional development are seen to be even more important than they were before. In settings the environment had to be pared back and some settings are making decisions about whether all the resources need to be returned.
While every setting, family and child had a different experience there are some common themes. We will continue to analyse the interviews and share our findings with schools so that they can use the information to focus on activities that will have the greatest impact on the growing numbers of children with language and communication needs.
Author: Christine Jack, Emily Preston, Elaine Ashton, Cristina McKean