Liverpool Learning Partnership
Reading From The Start: A Cross-Sector Project to Promote Early Communication Through Training and Community Implementation
This presentation outlines a cross-sector project delivered by Liverpool Learning Partnership, an education charity, with support from Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership and local authorities. The initiative aimed to build capacity and knowledge across Early Help, education, health, childcare, libraries and third sector professionals to support early communication, shared reading, and language development from pregnancy through toddlerhood.
The project focused on three evidence-informed training sessions: Read to Bump, focusing on communication and learning in utero; Books with Babies, supporting early shared reading, speaking and singing; and Toddler Tales, which encourages storytelling, play, and responsive interactions. Designed to be accessible across sectors, evaluations from the training showed it deepened professional understanding of the science of early learning and attachment.
The training was well received and led to follow-up activity in libraries and early years settings, where key practices were embedded into family-facing work with expectant parents and those with young children. The presentation will share insights from project implementation, participant feedback, and lessons learned about cross-sector collaboration and place-based intervention.
This project draws on a growing body of research in early childhood development, particularly the understanding that early interactions and brain development are crucial for the development of language, understanding and attachment (e.g. Partanen et al, 2013; Lang, Del Giudice and Schabus, 2020). This work connects the need for an understanding of developmental science and neuroscience with place-based intervention practices (Taylor, Buckley and Hennessy, 2017).
Lang, A., Del Giudice, R., & Schabus, M. (2020). Sleep, little baby: The calming effects of prenatal speech exposure on newborns’ sleep and heart rate. Brain Sciences, 10(8), 511.
Partanen, E., Kujala, T., Näätänen, R., Liitola, A., Sambeth, A., & Huotilainen, M. (2013). Fetal brain learns to process speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(37), 15145–15150.
Taylor, M., Buckley, E., & Hennessy, C. (2017). Historical review of place-based approaches. Lankelly Chase.