How we talk to families about talking
Developed with the support of the Department for Education, our evidence-based key messages help local authorities guide families in supporting children's speech and language development.
Communication skills form the foundation of every child’s learning journey, social relationships, and future opportunities. Yet, too often, families lack the knowledge or confidence to engage in simple, effective behaviours that can make a lifelong difference. Especially during the critical early years from birth to age three. Right now, our research shows that 1.9 million children are behind in talking and understanding words – we must do more to help!
Our key messages are the result of research carried out by Future Narratives Lab, exploring the most effective ways to engage families, particularly those from marginalised and underrepresented communities. By understanding what resonates with families, the key messages are tailored to address the barriers many face and provide clear, actionable advice grounded in everyday life. They focus on what matters most to families: creating stronger family bonds, boosting brain development, and helping children develop communication skills that are essential for their future.
By delivering these evidence-based key messages through trusted professionals and accessible formats, we have an opportunity to empower families and create lasting change. By using this approach in your local area, you will not only deliver change at a local level – if we all use a similar approach when supporting families, we will have a much better chance of changing the national picture by building a consistent way of talking about talking. Using these key messages will ensure that every child has the best possible start in life.
Ultimately, these key messages could be a blueprint for change—but the success of this initiative depends on the dedication of practitioners like you. By fostering family engagement and championing best practices, we can create a ripple effect of positive change. Together, we can give every child the ability to express themselves confidently, connect meaningfully with others, and thrive in the years to come.
We worked with Future Narrative Labs to conduct two focus groups with a small number of families and an online survey of 1,010 families. We then followed up with 100 families a week later to see what had stayed with them.
We looked at the evidence base for which behaviours and strategies support children’s language and at the styles of messaging used by different campaigns. We used this to create a range of messages in different styles focusing on different aspects of development. We showed them to families and asked them to rate how likely they would be to follow each piece of advice. We also asked them about how likely they would be to follow advice from different people (e.g. friends, GPs) and in different formats (e.g. phone call, leaflet).
We have used this insight about families’ preferences for following advice to create our key messages, combining our knowledge about speech and language development with the information families tell us is important to them.
- Families think that speech and language development is important.
- Family response to the messages was positive overall, indicating that they would be likely to follow advice.
- Families felt that messages which focused on the impact of activities for their children were the most influential. Understanding the ‘why?’ of advice was important.
- Most of all, families highlighted messages stressing the impact on family bonding, brain development and communication skills. In the follow-up survey, families also highlighted the role that parents play in speech and language development as being memorable.
- Families gave higher ratings to messages written in a straightforward, neutral style or those which included a specific piece of advice.
- Screen time messaging was rated higher when framed around the benefits of reducing screens. This was a sensitive topic for families, so advice needs to be nuanced.
- Families gave the highest ratings to following advice from professionals such as speech and language therapists, Health Visitors/GPs or childminders/nursery workers. Social media influencers were given the lowest rating.
- Families gave the highest ratings to following advice received in-person/word of mouth and websites/internet search. Social media channels such as TikTok, Instagram or Facebook received the lowest ratings.
- 80% of families in the follow-up survey reported an impact on behaviour (their own or discussions with others).
The ability to communicate is fundamental to a child’s development, yet too many families struggle to access the right support at the right time. The key messages we’ve developed with the support of the Home Learning Environment team at the Department for Education provide a critical opportunity to address this gap. By using these messages to ensure families receive and can act on the information they need, practitioners can play a pivotal role in equipping families with the tools and confidence to nurture their children’s communication skills from the earliest moments.
Yes please! This project is not just about delivering a message—it’s about building a movement. To maximise the impact of this toolkit, we urge practitioners to embrace the opportunity to gather real-life feedback and data as they implement it in their communities. Through surveys and ongoing evaluation, we can learn more about what works, refine our approaches, and ensure the messages truly resonate with families from all walks of life. This iterative process is crucial for creating a lasting, evidence-based approach to transforming children’s communication outcomes.
