Adapting Early Years Language and Communication Support in Response to COVID-19 -- A Catalyst for Reflection and More Successful Parental Engagement?

COVID-19 impacted all aspects of children's lives. Research showed that teachers were most concerned about Communication and Language, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development, two of the three Prime Areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage which underpin all learning. The pandemic had a significant impact on early years settings. Practitioners reacted quickly, adapting the way they worked with children and families to ensure all children were supported, whether at home or in the education setting. This paper examines these short-term responses and reflects on what the disruption tells us about what is important to early years practitioners and parents. The Language Intervention in the Early Years (LIVELY) project, focusing on language and communication skills in the Early Years Foundation Stage, started just before the first lockdown and was therefore ideally placed to investigate changes that resulted from the pandemic. We interviewed 11 practitioners, from 10 schools and 1 nursery in the North East of England. Within the group, the experiences of children, families and practitioners varied; our aim was to identify common themes. Parental engagement, the relationships between schools and parents/caregivers which enable children's learning, became even more central and much of the support provided by settings focused on how parents and carers interacted with their children to support language and communication. This paper identifies some of the benefits of the imposed changes and how these could continue in early years settings post-pandemic.