About WellComm

WellComm is a speech and language toolkit available to practitioners working with children aged 6 months to 11 years. WellComm is available in both digital and paper formats:

• WellComm Digital (6 months to 11 years)

• WellComm Early Years paper (6 months to 6 years)

• WellComm Primary Paper (6 years to 11 years)

WellComm can be used in any early years or primary setting. This includes pre-school playgroups, day nurseries, private nurseries, children’s centres, special schools and schools. Any early years professional or primary school practitioner can use WellComm, including child minders, nursery workers, health visitors and teachers. The Big Book of Ideas activities can also be used with individuals in their own homes.

The early identification of any speech and language difficulty or delay is key to the progressive development of a young child’s overall development. It is therefore important to ensure that all practitioners have a good awareness of what represents appropriate development at each stage, and have access to programmes that assist them to support children’s language. The aim of WellComm is to help practitioners identify students who may have speech, language and social communication needs and support those needs through implementing appropriate and targeted interventions. To help with these objectives, WellComm can be used to:

• Track the progress of all students, regardless of ability.

• Identify areas of concern in speech, language and social communication in order to ensure targeted in-setting intervention.

• Provide a variety of resources in The Big Book of Ideas enabling teaching staff/practitioners to deliver appropriate and focused activities to:

  • target those students who have some language difficulties

  • enhance the skills of those who are developing within the normal range.

• Provide advice and guidance for group-based teaching and learning.

• Provide information and ideas for supporting a student’s communication needs within the classroom.

• Provide a means of monitoring the success of strategies used to enhance communication skills.

• Support teaching staff/practitioners to feel confident to signpost those students who are identified as having communication difficulties to relevant services.

• Develop a collaborative approach between school and home settings.

The WellComm screening assessment enables you to quickly and easily identify children needing support. It's quick and simple to use (requiring no speech and language expertise), and the traffic light scoring format of the instant reports makes them easy to interpret. The Big Book of Ideas provides a total of over 150 instant, play-based activities so you can take appropriate action straight away. Activities can be used with parents at home too, so that support is provided whether or not a child is referred to a speech and language therapist.