Good communication skills at 5 years of age are strongly linked with a range of positive outcomes in later life, including:

• reading and writing skills
• employment
• mental and physical health and wellbeing

Therefore, supporting these skills to develop is a good thing to do.

Learning to talk and communicate can be tricky for children, and sometimes they need extra help. Adults who know them best, like parents, teachers, nursery staff, and childminders, are usually the best people to help. This guide shows these adults what help is available in York. It includes support for all children to keep building their communication skills and more specialist help if needed.

This guide is divided into different age groups and levels of support. We suggest starting with the ‘getting advice’ section first because it's the most available and helpful for most children and families. If you need to, you can then look at the ‘getting help’, and then ‘getting more help’ sections.

In this guide, we also show when your child’s development will be checked so you know when to expect this. We also show what you can do if you have any concerns between these checks.