Early Years Therapies Toolkit

Our Early Years Toolkits provides helpful advice and guidance on techniques that you can try at home with your child to help with any difficulties related to Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy.

The Early Years Toolkit is appropriate for children aged 0 – 4. If your child is at school, you can look at our School Aged Toolkit.

Early Years Therapy Toolkit

There are a number of activities and strategies that you can try at home to help and support your child – please take a look at the advice sheets below and download the ones that are applicable to your child.

These activities need to be tried for 2 to 3 months prior to making a request for Speech and Language Therapy or Occupational Therapy, with the exception for requests for children or young people who are stammering, which should be made immediately.

Welcome to Children & Family Health Devon’s Toolkit for children aged 0 – 4. This toolkit has been designed to support families, carers and professionals who have concerns about a child’s development. It provides a greater understanding of development, when to be concerned and how to help and focuses on difficulties that fall within the expertise of Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy.

Many children will show difficulties at some point in their development but most will progress without the need for a referral to us with the right environment and those who spend the most time with the child using of simple strategies may find them help to promote this.

A small proportion of children and young people will go on to require additional specialist support – and Children & Family Health Devon can provide this. This area will help you identify where you can help and where specialist help may be required.

Read more about Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy

Expected development and how to help

Your baby will develop in their own unique way and at their own pace. Their brain develops rapidly during the first three years of life and the interactions they have with the people and the world around them at this time play an important part in their development now and in the future. The information in the documents below will give you a general idea of the changes you can expect, but you shouldn’t worry if your child takes a slightly different course.

The advice sheets below are ordered in age and contain information on typical development for their age, what to look out for in your child and which toolkits to access below if there are concerns.