Support Parents Early -
Strengthen Your Workforce
Toddler Talk is an expert-led toolkit, developed by speech and language therapists and psychologists, that supports parents during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life - a critical period for language, communication, and emotional development.
Designed for busy working parents, Toddler Talk provides practical, evidence-based guidance that reduces uncertainty and stress, while helping parents feel confident and supported as they return to work after maternity and paternity leave.
For employers, it’s a simple, high-impact way to support new parents, protect productivity, and strengthen retention.
Why the First 1,000 Days Matter?
The first 1,000 days lay the foundation for a child’s communication, learning, emotional regulation, and long-term outcomes. Yet many parents return to work during this period feeling unsure, overwhelmed, and worried about whether their child is developing as expected.
Small concerns such as missed milestones, delayed speech, behavioural challenges can
quickly escalate into stress, sleep disruption, and anxiety. Without early guidance, parents
often face long waiting lists for professional support, adding further pressure at home and at work.
Why This Matters for Employers?
The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are a period of rapid brain growth, emotional
development and learning formation.
Parenting pressures don’t stay at home. They often show up in the workplace as:
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reduced focus and productivity
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increased absenteeism
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higher stress and burnout
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employees questioning their ability to sustain work and family demands
Supporting parents early, before issues escalate helps organisations:
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retain experienced female talent after maternity leave
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reduce stress-related absence
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strengthen engagement and loyalty
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demonstrate a genuine commitment to family-friendly wellbeing
Toddler Talk enables employers to move beyond policy and goodwill, offering practical support that employees genuinely value.
What is Toddler Talk?
Toddler Talk is a parent-friendly early milestone toolkit, created by specialists in early communication, behaviour, and child development.
It supports parents to track, understand, and actively support their child’s development during the first 1,000 days a critical window for language, communication, and emotional growth.
At its core, Toddler Talk helps parents know what to look for, when to take action, and what they can do day to day to support optimal development.
How Toddler Talk Works
Toddler Talk combines a clear parent friendly milestone check connected to practical,
playful activities, organised across seven milestone building blocks across seven specific
developmental stages.
An easy to use, clear, stage-by-stage individualised and digital guide that helps parents:
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track early milestone development
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understand what to expect at each developmental milestone
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identify strengths and concerns
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select practical play activities to support development
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know what to do if they have concerns
Track
Keeping track of child's development provides reassurance
Monitor
Parents can confidently monitor their child's progress
Identify
Parents are able to identify any early concerns
Action
Parents can take action, if needed, without guesswork
Share
Parents can share with other early childhood development professionals.
Check Out The Videos...
How Organisations Use Toddler Talk
Toddler Talk is most commonly provided as a licensed benefit for employees returning from
maternity leave, either:
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automatically as part of a return-to-work package, or
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as an opt-in wellbeing benefit for new parents
Licences can be offered on a per-employee basis or rolled out across teams or locations.
The Business Impact:
Organisations using early parental support consistently report:
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smoother transitions back to work after maternity leave
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increased confidence and engagement among new parents
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reduced stress and presenteeism
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stronger retention of talent during early parenthood
Supporting parents early is not just a wellbeing initiative; it’s a retention and performance strategy.
Why Toddler Talk?
Toddler Talk is delivered by ParenTalk, specialists in evidence-based parental support for
working families. Our work is grounded in clinical expertise, education, and real-world research with employers and parents.
We partner with organisations to deliver targeted, practical support that fits real lives and real workplaces.
Next Steps...
If you’re exploring meaningful ways to support employees returning from maternity leave, we
would love to talk.
"Very easy to understand the questions & also got you thinking about child’s development & their strengths & weaknesses."
"I think that the map will be a great comfort and support to parents who need support for their children and can’t access it because of waiting lists."
"88% of parents said all parents could benefit from using the map at certain stages of their child's development."