What is in the Toolkit?

The toolkit is made up of two tools: the Screening Tool and the Intervention Tool.

The first part of WellComm is the Screening Tool, which enables you to evaluate children’s language skills, draw up a detailed profile and thus identify children at risk of having difficulty in developing language skills. Informed judgements can then be made about children who need close monitoring/support from within their own setting, or children who should be referred on to an outside agency for additional support. The Screening Tool contains the following:

• Handbook: Your guide to using WellComm, outlining administration and next steps when using the test.

• Little Book of Score Sheets and Rules: A handy booklet that contains both the Score Sheets and rules on how to administer the items for each section of the Score Sheets.

• Picture Book: Contains all the pictures needed for administering the Score Sheets.

In WellComm Full Digital, the resources from the Handbook, Score Sheets, Rules and Picture Book are combined in the Digital WellComm Assessment.

In the WellComm Digital Reporting Package, there is a digital scoresheet to be used alongside the paper resources in the toolkit.

The Screening Tool is flexible in its application. It is split into nine age sections for early years, and four for primary, each containing around ten items which are scored by answering either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The ‘Yes’ answers are simply added up to produce an overall score for that age band.

The Screening Tool can be used both quantitatively and qualitatively. This means that children are not only allocated a WellComm score, but it is clear from the profile where teaching and learning should be targeted. It also allows the practitioner to identify children who do not need any additional input or support at the moment. WellComm does this through its unique traffic-lights system; after screening, children are given a colour-code according to their overall score:

A key component of the WellComm Toolkit, The Big Book of Ideas ensures that children’s language learning needs can be identified, progress monitored and crucial skills enhanced and developed. It provides bespoke, fun and practical intervention activities, designed to stimulate and improve the speech and language skills of all children at all levels. They enable the practitioner to address specific areas of need as signposted from the child’s WellComm profile, thus ensuring that individual areas of need are targeted in a practical and engaging way.

Activities can be followed during one-to-one sessions with a child, in a small group or delivered in whole-class activities. Many of the interventions relate to activities already carried out in the classroom (for example, story time or discussion) and provide advice on how to tailor these typical classroom activities to individual children’s language needs. Items not achieved in the Screening Tool can also be used to signpost users to appropriate activities in The Big Book of Ideas. The Big Book of Ideas is also designed to help practitioners guide the parent/s to support their child’s development at home. The importance of involving parents and including them within activities is highlighted throughout. All activities have been written to be jargon-free and easy-to-use, so written advice and activities can be easily photocopied or shared electronically with parents and carers.

• Supporting language at home videos: These videos show strategies for modelling good language in the home environment and can be used with parents via parenting sessions, language support classes, training workshops etc.

• Online training: These free online training videos are 40-45 minutes long and are highly recommended for both new users of WellComm and also as a refresher for those familiar with WellComm.