COSS
Cherry Outreach Support Service
Communication Development Pyramid
Looking and Listening
Children need to:
- Learn to focus attention on different things
- Develop attention skills before they can understand words and learn to talk
- Attend and concentrate in order to learn new skills
- Listen to language (hear words – attend – think)
- Recognise sounds of words and sentences to use themselves
Play
How to encourage Play:
- Play alongside
- Give a commentary
- Let the child lead
- Provide toys and opportunities
- Observe how they play and then show how to do it in a new way
Understanding
Develop receptive language by:
- Keeping language simple
- Giving instructions in order
- Organising and labelling the environment
- Using visual cues
- Using touch cues
Talking
Children need to hear words before they will use them independently.
How to encourage talking:
- Name objects
- Talk about what is happening
- Give choices
- Model extended language eg ‘more tickle’
Pronunciation
Development of speech sounds
Adult / Child Interaction
As the communicator how we interact with the child effects the responses that we get back.
Interaction should be:
- Respectful
- Playful
- Enjoyable
- Enabling
- Rewarding
Top tips for Adult / Child interaction:
- Give short instructions
- Use simple language
- Be at their eye level or lower
- Give time to respond
- Take turns to speak
- Always give a response
- Use repetition
- Model good language / communication
