The Teddy Talk Test is a simple screening tool that can be used to assess the speech, language and communication skills of pre-school children. Centred around evidence based ‘key word level’ principles, the Teddy Talk Test quickly and clearly indicates whether the child is advanced, on track or behind norms for their age.
The play based nature of the assessment keeps preschool children interested and offers insights into the abilities of children whose attention and listening skills pose a barrier to more formal language assessment.
It can be used solely to assess a child’s skills with spoken English, with an interpreter or alongside Sign Supported English (SSE) to assess their expressive and receptive language in either language/modality.
The test is a valuable tool for demonstrating a child’s need for further intervention or to demonstrate progress.
This training will explore the theory behind the Teddy Talk Test as well as practical tips for administering it to young children. We will also discuss possibilities around its application in the wider Early Years context, consider its role in supporting a smoother referral process into SLT teams and discuss the important overlap and interface between SLT and ToDs teams.
Learning objectives:
– To demonstrate how to use the Teddy Talk Test to assess and analyse a child’s speech, language and communication development.
– To explore practical considerations around achieving engagement from the pre-school child.
– To discuss where to start in terms of intervention or onward referral as a result of the assessment findings.
– To provide information about how the Teddy Talk Test can be used to guide other professionals that refer to SLT services.
– To discuss how the Teddy Talk Test could be used to identify cohorts of children for allocation to given care pathways, providing improved transparency and equitability across SLT services.
To register please follow the Eventbrite link from our training page at www.teddytalktest.co.uk
