ECAT Guidance
Every Child a Talker (ECAT) is a national project to develop the language and communication of children from birth to five years of age. The project was set up after concern about the high levels of ‘language impoverishment’ in the UK, and how this affects children’s progress in school and chances in life.
ECAT strategies and resources are designed to help you to create a supportive and stimulating environment within your provision in which children can enjoy experimenting with and learning language.
ECAT will encourage the development of early language through everyday fun and interesting activities which reflect children’s interests and enable them to become confident and skilled communicators.
A low cost online training package is available to support practitioners.
National Strategies ECAT instalments
The National Strategies write materials to support Every Child A Talker (ECAT). These remain relevant documents and tools to support practitioners and can be downloaded from the links below.
ECAT tools
These ECAT activities are taken directly from the National Strategies.
Supports practitioners language and communication within the setting:
Looks at supporting language by focussing on the continuous provision:
A possible audit of language provision in your setting:
Top tips for talking: