HSE South West is delighted to announce the launch of a new multilingual Happy Talk story book called ‘Nibbles Says Hello!’ at Nano Nagle Migrant centre, Cork City.
The event brought together librarians, early years educators, teachers and programme supporters on September 21st, to celebrate the expansion of Happy Talk beyond Cork city and into the wider HSE South West region.
The story follows Nibbles and Twitch on a journey around Ireland where they meet friends who teach them greetings and everyday words in a wide range of languages including Swahili, Arabic, Shona, Polish, Minceir Cant and Irish Sign Language.
CHILD LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Happy Talk is a HSE South West Speech and Language Therapy programme that aims to support child language development in socially disadvantaged communities. Through Happy Talk, speech and language therapists engage parents and early years educators in developing their capacity to strengthen the language and learning abilities of children aged 0-6 years.
As the programme expands beyond Cork city and into the wider HSE South West region, the Happy Talk bunnies, Nibbles and Twitch, feature in a new multilingual story book designed to celebrate communication, diversity and inclusion.
‘AN IMPORTANT STEP’
“Happy Talk has been part of children’s lives in Cork City for 15 years, and it’s incredibly special to see the programme now growing beyond the city. Nibbles Says Hello! captures the joy, connection and curiosity at the heart of early communication, and we are delighted to share it with children, families and educators across the HSE South West,” Aoife O’Shea, Senior Speech and Language Therapist, HSE South West said.
“We are honoured to showcase the beautiful illustrations by Gemma Lewsley, created with support from the TVG, Cork Deaf Association and Cork Migrant Centre. This book marks an important step in Happy Talk’s growth as we continue our journey through the national research project with UCC, funded by the HRB.
“We are grateful to the 791 children and parents who took part across 70 early education settings and schools,” she said.
Ahead of the launch, the Happy Talk team gave Senior Infants from St Marie’s of the Isle Primary School a special preview of Nibbles Says Hello! at the Cork City Library.
Mari O’Donovan, Head of Service and Integrated Healthcare Area Service Lead, HSE South West, said that Happy Talk is ‘a great example of how strong collaboration can enhance outcomes for children, families and communities’.
