 Questionnaire
Our detailed questionnaire covers two core skill areas of your child's communication development: Foundation Skills and Language Skills. Foundation Skills are the essential pre-requisites for the development of Language Skills.
For more information click on the headings below.
More about the Questions
Each question is presented in an easy to understand multiple choice format. Choose the answer that you think is most appropriate to your child's current behaviour. Some questions may have pictures and extra help as shown below.
More about Foundation Skills:
Attention and Listening
Early on, infants have a really short attention span and whatever makes the most noise or is the most visually or physically dominant will grab their attention. As children grow and develop they learn to direct their attention more effectively. They also learn to concentrate on more than one thing at a time. By the time they start school, children should be able listen and respond to their teacher's instruction and then go back to what they were doing. Children need to be able to listen and concentrate in order to learn. Attention and listening skills follow a pattern of development, but in some children this may develop more slowly and need additional support.
More about Foundation Skills:
Play
At first babies’ play is self centred, they will even be absorbed watching their own hands as they move in front of their eyes, lying on their change-mat. Babies and toddlers develop increasing skill in manipulating objects and using them in imaginative ways. Eventually play becomes very sophisticated and social, with pretend, make-believe, and even rule-based games made by the players themselves. Through play, children learn about the world in a relaxed and safe environment. Opportunities to play are vital for a child’s development, enabling them to communicate with others and gain essential ‘language for thinking’ skills. For some children, play does not occur naturally and they will benefit from extra support.
More about Foundation Skills:
Interaction
From the earliest days of the newborn, interaction skills start to develop. Parents are overjoyed when they notice baby’s first smile, and when baby starts to coo and chuckle in response to seeing Mummy or Daddy up close. It’s about body language, gesture and intonation patterns as we talk. We can also see interaction in shared activities, such as looking at books together, singing rhymes and shared play between children. As with all skills, interaction develops in most children in a fairly predictable way. However, in other children this doesn’t happen quite so spontaneously or easily and additional support is needed.
More about Language Skills:
Understanding Talk
Research has shown that from babyhood until 5 years old children’s brains are hot-wired to pick up language skills rapidly. Even so, this cannot happen in isolation and babies need to be within a rich communication environment to flourish. At first babies do not understand the individual words said to them, but will begin to anticipate familiar routines and the words that go with them. As time goes on they start to understand first words, then little phrases, and gradually their word-bank grows. In time children understand longer and more complex sentences and the language of thinking and reasoning. Some children have difficulty understanding talk and will need specialist help.
More about Language Skills:
Talking
Generally, babies will start making sounds from their very first cry. This is their earliest talk. Over time they learn that their sounds get a response and are meaningful. They hear what is said around them and will slowly but surely begin to shape their own talk. Eventually children learn to produce long and complicated sentences to express their thoughts and ideas, and engage in conversation. Some children develop the ability to make full, grammatical sentences more slowly than their peers or experience difficulty recalling words quickly. These children may need specialist help.
More about Language Skills:
Making Speech Sounds
In the early stages, babies make sounds that gradually evolve through listening and shaping to match those they hear around them. Their chief influences are those closest to them, and usually these are their parents. It takes time for young children to learn to make the precise, quick movements in the rapid sequences necessary to make good, clearly articulated speech. Most children have acquired a full range of speech sounds by the time they are six years old but those who have had hearing problems or difficulty achieving this precision of movements of their speech muscles may need additional help.
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