ABSTRACT
I chose to observe John because I had been involved from the start in devising strategies to help with his language development. From our experience of his difficulties we have set up a language group, which has since gone on to help other children. This help is not only with their early speech, but helps them overcome shyness and improve many areas of individual development. John’s keyworker was the first person to identify the concerns about his development. This concern was shared by other members of staff and the next step was to talk to his parents, who were also concerned. We believed that liaison between parent, home and nursery was very important. Not only that, parents are the best people to supply relevant knowledge about their child. Close parental involvement is listed in the Warnock Report (1978) which says that no assessment can be complete without the vital information the parent can give. When John was 18 months old, three areas of his development led to concern. His spoken language up to this point consisted of only a few sounds. He made no attempt to speak. It seemed, too, that his muscle control and coordination were not developing normally. He would run every’ where, bumping into tables, chairs and any object in his way. He would easily fall over and had very little concentration. His social development worried us. He would avoid eye contact and made no attempt to interact with staff or his peers. We introduced John to many activities to develop his speech and language. We used large picture cards, books, puppets, songs and rhymes. Lots of one-to-one work and including John in all that was going on around him, but still leaving him time for him to explore the nursery on his own.
