norfolk-community-health-and-care

Parents in Norwich have been invited to find out more about importance of good communication and steps they can take to help their child’s speech and language to develop at a special event taking place on Tuesday (May 13 2014).

The ‘Chatter Matters‘ event, which has been organised by Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) Health Visitors Hayley BirdSarah McLean and Tanya Allen, takes place at The Base at Hewett School on Cecil Road between 10am and 2pm.

Open to all parents with children under five, the day will look at all aspects of speech and language development while giving families suggestions about activities which promote good communication which they can enjoy at home. During the drop-in event, a new book swap initiative will also be launched to encourage parents and their children to reuse old books by exchanging them with others, in turn helping them to read together more often.

Hayley, Sarah and Tanya developed the idea for the event as part of the national ‘Building Community Capacity’ initiative, which encourages health visitors to use their expertise to help families with children under five take part in activities which will boost their health and wellbeing.

“We came up with the idea for Chatter Matters with the help of local parents, who told us they wanted more information about speech and language and good communication,” said Hayley. “Our aim is to empower them so that the feel able to do more with their children at home.

“Nursery nurses, a speech and language therapist, health visitors and representatives from the local library service, children’s centre and Afasic, which is voluntary organisation offering support to parents, will all be at the event, so there will be lots of expertise on hand if anyone would like any advice.

“We’ll be giving out free books to any children who come along, and will also be using the day to launch our new book swap initiative to encourage families to read more regularly. We hope that by reusing unwanted books, parents can save money while still giving their children the chance to enjoy a fantastic variety of different stories at home.”

Everyone is welcome to drop in to next Tuesday’s event. Alternatively, anyone who would like to swap a book can do so at the East City and Framingham Earl Children’s Centre in Duckett Close, Norwich.

Norfolk Community Health

www.norfolkcommunityhealthandcare.nhs.uk

 

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