Early Years
👦 Meet Jackson
Name: Jackson Kay
Age: 3 years 1 month
Setting: Sunshine Kids Day Nursery
Stage: EYFS
Background
Jackson started attending nursery 1 month ago, just after his 3rd birthday. He does 3 full days per week. He was very unsettled for the first few weeks, and separating from his parents at drop-offs continues to be difficult for him. When he has calmed down, he is very active exploring the different toys around the room, but will settle at favourite activities, such as building tracks for the trains or looking at ‘lift the flap’ books.
Jackson’s mum describes him as a shy and quiet child. She said she was starting to get a bit worried about his talking as he was still only using single words to communicate, but recently she has heard him use a couple of 2-word phrases at home. Jackson’s Health Visitor had previously offered to refer him to Speech and Language Therapy after his 2 year check, but his parents declined this intervention, as they felt he would get there with his talking in his own time.
What Jackson’s room leader has noticed:
- At nursery, Jackson does not seek comfort from staff members when he is upset, although his mum has said that at home he will always go to family members or put his arms out for cuddles when he is crying. Whilst he does not initiate them, he will accept hugs from nursery staff when they are offered and this helps him to calm down.
- Jackson is able to follow the nursery routine, and will respond to instructions in context such as ‘let’s all wash hands’ or ‘tidy up time’. However, he tends to be the last one to join in with these things, and if his room leader gives him an individual instruction such as ‘go and get me the big teddy’ then he needs to be shown what is meant.
- Jackson mainly uses single words to ask for help (e.g. ‘coat’ when he wants to go outside) or to comment on his play (e.g. ‘crash!’ when playing with vehicles). His room leader has not heard him joining words together, although sometimes he will use a longer phrase that sounds like speech but doesn’t make sense, and he then gets frustrated if adults can’t work out what he means.
- Jackson shows an interest in his peers and will happily play alongside them, and sometimes he will initiate with them by showing a toy. However, he has difficulties around sharing, so he will take toys from other children and when they get upset he will either look blankly at them or start to cry himself.
👉 Click ‘Next’ below to learn how Jackson’s room leader uses Verbo to identify SLCN