Prosiect Pengwin: Developing a Speech, Language and Communication Surveillance Tool for children residing in Wales

Darperir y cynnwys hwn gan ffynhonnell allanol yn Saesneg yn unig.

Information for parents

Are you a parent or carer of a child aged 0-2 years who lives in Wales?

The Prosiect Pengwin research group is working on behalf of Welsh Government to develop tools and resources that will support health, education and childcare practitioners to identify and support speech, language and communication skills in the early years.

This project is part of a Welsh Government plan to support and enhance the ways in which children in Wales develop their speech, language, and communication skills following emerging evidence of the impact of the public health restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. More information regarding the background of the project.

The research group is looking to use the tool with some families to collect data on how it works in practice. They want to try it out with children who are learning to talk and communicate and see whether it helps them identify the children who have speech, language and communication needs and would benefit from further support. To do this, the research group is a range of people who live in Wales to participate in the project. 

What will happen if I am invited to take part?

• The research team will contact you a few weeks before the visit and arrange a convenient date and time for the visit or visits to take place.
• One or two members of the research team will visit your home or your child’s nursery or school setting. They will ask you some short questions about how your child is developing and carry out some play activities with your child. This will take 20-30 minutes.
• If your child is 2 or 3 years old, they will do a second visit where a speech and language therapist will visit your home or your child’s nursery or school setting to do a speech and language assessment with your child. This will take between 30-40 minutes.
• You will receive a £20 shopping voucher for each visit.

Fill in the expression of interest form today.

Information for professionals

Do you work or volunteer within a health, education or childcare setting with young children and families who live in Wales?

The Pengwin tool has been designed to fit with the Healthy Child Wales Programme Universal Scheduled contacts at 15 months, 27 months and 3 ½ years and identify children who are showing signs of speech, language and communication needs.

This tool is designed to be used by the health visiting workforce and early years practitioners to screen children for speech, language, and communication needs and help any child identified with a need onto the right pathway for support. 

To support the new tool, the team is also developing training for the tool users and a range of interventions to support children identified with speech, language, or communication needs. To ensure that these interventions are appropriate and equitable, they plan to co-produce the tools with parents, Speech and Language Therapists and Early Years Practitioners alike.

Join their practitioner advisor panel to support the project in many ways, for example:

• Reviewing documents that will be used to recruit a sample of children to test the newly developed tools
• Attending online or in-person meetings to discuss current roles and ways of working in Wales
• Having a conversation with one of the researchers on the phone or via a video call to give feedback on resources that they develop

Fill in the Practitioner Advisor expression of interest form today

Contact the research group with any queries.