The Oral Language Forum was held online on Tuesday the 9th of November. Over twenty practitioners from HSE Speech and language Therapy Departments, school principals and Home School Community liaison Teachers, Early Years Practitioners, Adult Literacy educators and Members of the ABC consortium attended.
For this forum, Aoife O’Shea and Pauline Frizelle presented their recently published evaluation of Happy Talk. Happy Talk is a targeted selective model of care provided as part of the Cork City Primary Care Speech and Language Therapy services (North Lee and South Lee).
A pilot effectiveness study of Happy Talk Preschool Programme was carried out in a ‘greenfield’ site. The study aimed to address the following questions:
- Can a preventative intervention, embedded in the community, improve language abilities and quality of life outcomes in preschool children from socially disadvantaged areas?
- Does Happy Talk enhance responsiveness and language promoting behaviours in home and early childcare contexts?
- Is Happy Talk acceptable to early childhood educators?
- Is Happy Talk cost effective?
The study findings highlight the importance of embedding intervention programmes in the community and of simultaneously engaging with parents and preschool staff.
For further information about Happy Talk or the evaluation visit here
If you would like to attend the next Oral Language Forum, please contact the coordinator Lána McCarthy: lana@youngballymun.org