Social communication and interaction (Early Years)

Support, training and resources for helping children use language in a social context and interact with others

Social communication and interaction refers to the ways in which we use language including non-verbal communication to exchange information, ideas, and emotions within a social context. 

Children who experience differences in their use of verbal and nonverbal communication, including spoken and written language, facial expressions, gestures, body posture, and tone of voice may require social communication and interaction support. Children who have Autism are likely to require additional support with social communication and interaction skills. 

Websites 

Self-help resources

The SENDCO Helpdesk is a free early advice service that can discuss concerns at an individual or whole school/setting level. It is aimed to help support SENDCOs (or practitioners supporting SEND in early years) to consider the next steps when implementing the Graduated Response so that the needs of children with SEND are met as early as possible. 

Activities and strategies to help a child interact with others 

May I Join You? an approach for supporting children with social communication differences, who are at a very early stage of development. This video clip explains how adults can adapt their practice to join a child’s play

Activities and strategies to help a child communicate with others 

Activities and strategies to help a child make sense of their world 

Understanding Social Communication and Interaction differences and Autism 

Anxiety, and its experience for Autistic people.

Strategies to support Autistic children

The Oxfordshire’s SCERTs (Social Communication Emotional Regulation Transactional Support) in Action Framework supports assessment and planning for Autistic children.

Training

Autism Education Trust Making Sense of Autism in the Early Years This whole setting face to face training aims to: enhance understanding and awareness of Autism and how Autism can affect children in the Early Years; highlight the importance of understanding the individual child and their profile of strengths and needs; highlight potential barriers to learning for Autistic children and equip staff with the knowledge they need to begin to make reasonable adjustments when supporting Autistic children. If you would like to request this training for your setting, please contact the SENDCO helpdesk

Autism Education Trust Good Autism Practice in the Early Years This training has been created to help practitioners understand the distinctive strengths and learning needs of Autistic children as well as advice on teaching approaches, methods and resources to use in educational practice for this group of learners.

Introduction to supporting sensory processing differences in the Early Years This session was developed by a Lead Specialist Children’s Community Occupational Therapist and takes a practical approach to considering how you can support children in your setting with sensory processing differences.

Identifying and supporting young children with speech language and communication needs This course looks at the tools practitioners can use to support identification of children with speech, language and communication needs in Oxfordshire. It supports practitioners to develop their universal provision for all children but also unpicks how to develop a response for children who need targeted support, or who may need a referral for specialist support. 

The Oxfordshire Speech and Language Therapy Service has developed two instructional signing videos designed to assist parents, carers, and professionals with introducing and using signing to support communication in the Early Years:

There is training and support available for families with a child or young person with a formal or working diagnosis of Autism:

For any children diagnosed with Autism at an Oxfordshire Children’s Hospital, parents/carers are also invited to an online information session.

Specialist support in setting

The Early Years SEND Advisory team work with individual children under 5 years of age who have complex learning, communication and/or social interaction differences. Individual children can be referred using an Early Support SPORFI form (docx format, 585Kb). Support is given to the family and/or the child’s early years setting or nursery class in collaboration with other agencies from education, health and social care.

The Early Years SEND Advisory team also provide universal and targeted support to Oxfordshire early years settings and schools in order to promote effective inclusion of children with SEND. Settings and schools can use the SENDCO Helpdesk to ask for ‘no names’ advice and targeted setting support.

A Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI) is a multiagency form used to request support from various educational and health teams for children under 5 with special educational needs and/or disabilities. For further information see the Single Point of Request for Involvement (SPORFI) Flowchart. 

Complete the SPORFI form (docx format, 600KB)  to make a request. Services that can be requested include:

  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Speech and Language Therapy (feeding)
  • Physiotherapy
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Early Years SEND team
  • SENSS – Physical Disability

The Speech and Language Therapy service support children and young people who have speech, language and communication difficulties to develop the best possible communication skills that they can. For some, this might be spoken communication, and for others it might be learning to use a communication aid, or an approach based on signs, symbols or gestures. Speech and Language Therapists also assess, treat and advise on eating, drinking and swallowing problems.

Health Visiting Services offer support to families at home and in the community from pre-birth until the child turns 8 years old. See information on how Health Visiting and early years settings working together.

Early Help Children’s Services Early help refers to the collaborative approach taken by all services working with children and families to provide support for a family before problems escalate. Accessing early help can address potential issues and improve outcomes for children, young people, and families. More information can be found here.

The Communication and Interaction team is a countywide Special Educational Needs (SEN) teaching and advisory support service for schools supporting children from reception age onwards.