Early years foundation stage progress check at the age of two for early intervention in relation to speech and language difficulties in England: the voices of the team around the child

ABSTRACT

In 2011 the Two Years Progress Check in England was introduced as a tool for early identification of children who might have problems in their development and learning in the future. In September 2015, the government replaced it with the Integrated Review at Age Two, which now is a combination of the education check and the health report. This research employed interviews with the team around the child to investigate their views in relation to early identification of speech and language delays. The results of this research suggest that instead of developing taxonomies at policy level of how speech and language delays can be measured, for there to be effective early intervention, concern should be placed on the influential factors impacting upon the team. This conclusion leads to recommendations for focused pre- and in-service education for practitioners coupled with use of a continuous, rather than fixed point, assessment process.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood
• early identification
• speech and language delays
• practitioners
• England
• Early Years Foundation Stage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nyree-Anne Nicholson is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Studies, School of Social Sciences in Bishop Grosseteste University. She worked with the Early Years Sector for 11 years and as a foster carer for 20 years. Her research interests focus predominantly on language difficulties in early childhood, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and the Early Years Practitioner’s role planning and assessment within the Early Years Foundation Stage. She is also interested in how the practitioner develops their own professional identity.

Dr Ioanna Palaiologou, CPsychol, AFBPsS, is an Associate at the Institute of Education, University College London, Centre for Leadership in Learning and Head of Children’s Services at Canterbury Educational Services. She has worked as a university academic in the UK for the last 20 years and is now returning to her career as a child psychologist. Her research interests revolve around psychological theories of learning and their impact on the development of pedagogy as an episteme in early childhood education, leadership, digital technologies and young children and participation and ethics in research with young children.