Early Years Health and Development Team
We are a small team made up of two Early Years Health and Development Practitioners.
The Early Years Health and Development Practitioners provide support and advice to families for children up to the age of five with a significant development delay
We work in partnership with parents, colleagues within health services, local authority, and voluntary groups to promote health and wellbeing, also offering a mixture of virtual, telephone and face to face support around sleep, toileting, development, mental health and autism awareness.
Referral process and referral criteria
All referrals must meet the following criteria
- Wigan resident
- Registered with a Wigan General Practitioner.
Referrals for the Early Years Team are accepted for children aged 0-5 years (referrals will only be accepted prior to the end of the child’s reception academic year at school) with the following:
- An identified significant development concern which requires further assessment and intervention.
Sleep Better Course - This is a behavioural approach to sleep.
The Sleep Better course was designed by the Sleep charity and is for Parents and Carers. The course aims to help parents to understand and manage their child’s sleep.
This course takes place for 1.5hours a week for 5 consecutive weeks. Each weekly session covers different aspects of understanding and managing your child’s sleep difficulties.
The course offers:
- The Importance of Sleep.
- Developing a Good Bedtime Routine, learning about the sleep cycle, daytime naps and sleepy food.
- How to deal with night wakening and learning about average sleep needs.
Toileting workshop
The workshop is a course for parents and carers. The course aims to help parents to support their child’s toileting journey.
The course offers:
- To realise that each child is different. What works for one will not suit every child.
- To learn methods and strategies that may help your child to move forward with their toileting skills.
- To realise there is no ’quick fix’ it will take time and a consistent approach and effort
Play and Development Session
The Early Years Health and Development practitioner’s provide assessment and intervention for children from 0-5 years with significant developmental delay, who require support to access all aspects of meaningful play.
Activities are differentiated to support children in achieving their potential, providing parents with confidence to play with their child at their developmentally appropriate stage.
Behaviour support
Your child would be invited to a play and development session in the first instance and the family would be required to complete behaviour S.T.A.R.'s prior to this session to enable us to give specific strategies.
Please note that play and develoment sessions to also support behaviour are only for children up to the age of 4 years old.
Post Diagnosis sessions
The Early Years Health and Development Practitioners also deliver group post diagnostic sessions for the early years’ autism pathway.
Please visit Early Years Post Diagnostic page for the Post Diagnostic pack/Information
Contact details.
Email - wwl-tr.earlyyearshanddteam@nhs.net
Telephone - 0300 707 1472.