With Michael Rosen as children’s laureate, we can look forward to a much overdue emphasis on sharing poetry with children. Tony Mitton is particularly good at writing for four to seven-year-olds. Look out for any of his collections, but particularly this one, Plum and The Red and White Spotted Handkerchief.

DVD - The Transporters: 15 five-minute animated films on DVD. Free from Culture Online, www.transporters.tv

Essentially a PSHE resource supporting emotional literacy, with special relevance to autism, but the animations narrated by Stephen Fry are also a good-quality stimulus for speaking and listening.

Websites - www.mape.org.uk activitiesBigBooksindex.htm and www.shoo rayner.co.uk klickbooks.

Big books are expensive, used infrequently, and hard to store. Online big books, used on digital display boards, serve the purpose well.

Michael Thorn is deputy head of Hawkes Farm Primary, East Sussex