Services and resources to help you and your child talk and play together.
Talking and playing with your child every day is crucial to their:
- development
- communication milestones
In the first two years of their lives, babies make billions of connections in their brains. These connections get stronger when babies are talked to, listened to and played with.
Young children learn best from everyday experiences which are fun and enjoyable. Most will reach speech, language and communication milestones in their own time.
Local services
Children's Centres are great places to play with your child while socialising with others.
There are 4 Children's Centre hubs in North, East, Central and South Bristol offering a range of services. Support is available for parents and children up to 5 at Children's Centres, these include:
- health services
- parenting and family support
- drop-in sessions
- outreach services (information and advice to remote areas)
- early education and childcare
- links to training and employment opportunities
Baby bounce and rhyme and story time sessions: if you have a baby, you can come to our baby bounce and rhyme sessions.
Reading resources for babies and pre-school children: Bookstart gives free packs of books and information to parents of babies and pre-school children, to encourage a love of reading.
Activities and events for families with young children: things to do and places to go in Bristol.
All Early Years providers support an open-door policy for parents and carers to talk, play and learn alongside their children in an educational setting. This provides an important opportunity for teachers, practitioners and families to share information about children's strengths, interests and areas for development. It further enables the modelling of strategies to foster early learning skills across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. See Nurseries on the Bristol Early Years website.
Home learning resources on the Bristol Early Years website.
If you're concerned about your child's development
The Community Children's Health Partnership (CCHP) is a partnership led by Sirona care and health CIC working with:
- Avon and Wiltshire Partnership Mental Health NHS Trust (AWP)
- University Hospital Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHB)
- Barnardo's
- Off the Record
The partnership provides all the community child health and child and adolescent mental health services for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. This includes:
Speech and Language Concerns: information from the Community Children's Health Partnership.
Children's Therapy Service works with children and young people who have developmental difficulties relating to communication, movement or functional skills (information from Community Children's Health Partnership).
National links
Family Lives parenting courses aimed at parents of young children to help them develop play and learning. We have three modules exploring the benefits of play, ideas and games you can use and more.
Support and guidance on your child's education: guidance from Action for Children's including information if you have worries about nursery and childcare arrangements.
Being school-ready: Information from PACEY (Professional association for childcare and early years).
Speak and Language UK Go to https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/talking-point/parents/ages-and-stages/ (opens new window): guide to the typical stages of speech and language development in babies, children and young people.
Speak and Language UK Go to https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/talking-point/childs-progress-checker/ (opens new window): progress checkers to see how your baby or child is getting on with their talking and understanding of words.
Family Lives Go to http://www.familylives.org.uk/ (opens new window): parenting advice and support through online videos, online courses, free helpline and webchat services.
Henry Go to https://www.henry.org.uk/ (opens new window): a charity offering programmes and online resources for parents of 0 to 5 year olds to help give a healthy start in life for young children.
Home-start Go to http://www.home-start.org.uk/ (opens new window): regular support from highly trained volunteers to families with children under 5 years old.