ORGANISERS of the York branch of an innovative new child development project have hailed the work a major success - and are soon to launch it on the Internet.

The Playing With Words project is run on a national basis, with groups in 12 towns and cities across the UK.

It is aimed at getting parents and children involved in increasing adult understanding of children's language and communication.

One of the groups is based in Tang Hall, and, in phase one of the project, has been looking into various parts of pre-school child development for the last two years.

Phase two, which is just about to start, will involve 25 parents and children from the York group heading to London to officially launch a website of their work.

"It will be the first time in London for a lot of the people going, so it is an exciting time for us all. The group has worked really well, and the site will promote the work they have done in this area.

"It is very important each group reflects the influences and culture of their environment," said group co-researcher Andrea Oz. A total of 28 parents and children take part in the Tang Hall group, which Andrea said has worked "really, really well".

She said: "The idea of this project is that it would be parent-led. We wanted the parents and children to work together and become co-researchers into the way children communicate.

"The response has been pretty amazing, we are all really pleased. Now we look forward to building on what has been done and hopefully understanding even more about child communication."

"We are learning really amazing things from our kids," said Jenny Fotu, one of the parents involved in the York group. "Playing With Words has encouraged us to look at what's impacting on the lives of children in our area, what's interesting them, and how they learn. It's almost never what you expected."

Anyone who would like more information on Playing With Words, or would like to join the Tang Hall group, should ring Roz Eadon on 01223 307400.

Updated: 11:43 Thursday, November 29, 2001