Overview - Prosiect Pengwin

What is Prosiect Pengwin?

A team of researchers led by Cardiff Metropolitan University have been commissioned by Welsh Government to develop a set of tools to monitor and support early speech, language, and communication (SLC) development in children growing up in Wales. The Welsh Government commissioned this study as up to 50% of children with speech, language and/or communication needs are currently being missed within current screening practices.

The Pengwin tool has been designed to fit with the Healthy Child Wales Programme Universal Scheduled contacts at 15 months, 27 months and 3 ½ years and identify children who are showing signs of speech, language and communication needs.  

This tool is designed to be used by the health visiting workforce and early years practitioners to screen children for speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN) and help any child identified with a need onto the right pathway for support. As there is currently little data available for children’s milestones in the Welsh language, a large part of this study will require us to collect data on language abilities from a representative sample of children in Wales.

To support the new tool, we are also developing training for the tool users and a range of interventions to support children identified with speech, language, or communication needs. To ensure that these interventions are appropriate and equitable, we will co-produce them with parents, SLTs and Early Years Practitioners alike.

FAQs:

♦   Who will carry out the tests?

The tools are designed to be carried out during a home visit. The discussion between the practitioner and the parent is central to the process, both in terms of talking about the child's development so far and discussing any concerns that arise. The primary user group for these tools are health visiting teams but they could also be carried out by any practitioner who is visiting the home and has the necessary knowledge and skills regarding speech, language and communication development at that age. For children who do not receive a 42m review by a member of the health visiting team, this tool may be carried out by an education practitioner who has the necessary skills regarding speech, language and communication development. The practitioner will need to be in a role where it is appropriate for them to discuss any concerns raised with the parents/carers and work together to decide on the next steps. In this instance it is also recommended that education practitioners communicate with the local health visiting team about the 42m Pengwin tool to avoid duplication of the assessment. This will support surveillance of need over time and shared knowledge to provide the best support for the family.

♦   What ages will children be screened and why at those age points?

Children will be screened at 15 months, 27 months, and 3 ½ years. These ages have been chosen by the Welsh Government and align with the Healthy Child Wales checkpoints.

♦   Can children be screened before or after those age points?

The Pengwin tool should not be used on children who have not yet reached the relevant age points as this may result in the child being unnecessarily identified with a concern.

♦   Is the Pengwin replacing the Wellcomm assessment?

The WELS-R review evaluated the Wellcomm (Early Years) against minimum recommended thresholds, i.e. reliability (internal consistency) = 0.6-0.7, Construct Validity = 0.8, Sensitivity = 0.8, Specificity = 0.8. The data available for children aged 3-6 years showed that the tool did not meet these recommended thresholds. There were no validation measures available for children under 3 years. It is not clear whether this tool is effectively identifying the children in need of additional support, therefore the review concluded that Wellcomm (Early Years) was not fit for purpose as a universal screening tool. The WELS-R review also explored which tools were available in Welsh and the Welcomm (Early Years) is not available in Welsh. Data from monolingual children cannot be applied to bilingual children due to differences in the rate and nature of speech and language development across these populations. This means that any screening tool developed for use with monolingual speakers of English cannot be applied to children who are exposed to other languages.

The Pengwin tools to support the identification of speech, language and communication needs at 15 months, 27 months and 42 months. To meet the needs of children living in Wales, the Pengwin will to be suitable for children hearing English, Welsh or a combination of English and Welsh. It will also support the user to take the level of exposure to each language (i.e. how much of each language they are hearing) into account when deciding whether the child is presenting with a speech, language and/or communication need.

In light of the above, when Prosiect Pengwin becomes available across Wales no additional funding for WellComm will be made available from Welsh Government.

♦   Do staff need to be Welsh speakers to deliver the bilingual tool?

The tool should be carried out in the child's main language (this could be the language that they heard first or the language that they hear most often during their daily lives). If the child's main language is Welsh, then the tool will need to be carried out by a Welsh speaker.

The 15-month and 27-month tools have been designed in such a way that they allow the parent/carer to discuss their child's speech and language development across both languages e.g. when the practitioner asks if the child has started saying any words yet, they are prompted to ask this question for Welsh and English where both languages are present in the child's life. For a child who is hearing both English and Welsh (but where Welsh is not considered to be the main language), the tool could be carried out in English.

The 42-month tool has a section where a practitioner shares pictures with the child in order to assess their understanding and use of language. For children hearing Welsh and English, this section will need to be carried out in both languages.

♦   Will there be a cost of implementation for local authorities?

There will be no costs attached to the Pengwin pathway.