TinyTalk Nottingham North (Oceans of Fun)

Toddler Talking Wednesday 10:45 - 11:45 and Baby Signing Thursdays 10.35am -11.35am & 12.00pm - 1.00pm

My name is Kim and I am your Tiny Talk teacher for Nottingham North. I have classes in Eastwood, Hucknall and Ravenshead.

I am a qualified teacher specialising in Early Years and have taught in schools for six years, teaching Nursery and Reception. I started Tiny Talk because I have a huge passion for speech and language development and found that I could not focus on my passion whilst working full time. So in April 2022 I decided to take the plunge, leave my teaching career and start my Tiny Talk adventure! As a full time Early Years Teacher I found that using signs to support children's communication was essential. I used sign to support children with daily routine, toileting, understanding stories, during play, following instructions and when learning English as an additional language.

Singing is such a great way to interact with your child. In the classroom and now at home, I always make up random songs to familiar tunes as children respond differently to singing. Its fun, exciting, repetitive and also focuses children's attention therefore making it easy to pick up words and rhythm. Adding signs to songs is a fantastic way to support early communication as it helps children make connections between words and movements. It also supports understanding by offering a visual aid.

In November 2021 I also became a Mummy to Luca, which has also added to the excitement of starting Tiny Talk as I will be able to sign with him from the get go! I attended Tiny Talk newborns, Baby Sign and now Toddler Talk and we love it! Luca also joins me at my Eastwood class on a Tuesday!

Our classes are an interactive music class featuring well-known nursery rhymes with actions, specially composed music and instruments. We have hands-on sensory activities which delight your baby and develop all-round communication skills such as vocalising, listening and taking turns. They also stimulate your baby’s senses, encourage their tracking skills and develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Each week is a different theme such as bedtime, family or a trip to the park in order to give you the signs you need to share baby’s world and daily routine, using British Sign Language (BSL).

Toddler classes are suitable from 18m - school age and our quality classes continue to develop your child’s communication skills whilst you're having a brilliant time together. It’s the TinyTalk you love, but more physical and interactive to suit developing minds. Toddlers are not meant to sit still! Here we focus on building toddlers’ speech development, confidence and social skills through familiar TinyTalk action songs, stories and puppets your child loves. We learn a wider range of BSL signs and concepts such as counting and colours and have fun language games to make communicating fun!

Arthur is my first child and parenthood was very new to me so I found Tiny Talk to be invaluable. It was somewhere for me where I could make friends, engage and communicate with Arthur and get a snapshot into what he was thinking.

I joined Tiny Talk baby signing when my son was around 6 months old on a recommendation from a friend and haven't looked back since. I really feel that it has helped my son to communicate and also helped me and my family to communicate back to him. I’ll never forget the immense proudness I felt when he did his first sign, and I still feel this every time he learns a new sign or word, which is most days now! His favourite sign has always been Duck and it was one of his first signs as well. He’s still obsessed with them now!

I’ve also found that signing has helped me to avoid tantrums and to get some insight into his likes and dislikes. I remember taking him to the park and he was getting so excited and I wasn’t sure why. Then I noticed he was signing bird! It was so exciting to be able to understand what was making him so happy!

Times and availability

Booking essential