5 Reasons Why I Love Being a Speech and Language Therapist

By Speech and Language therapist Gianina Giangrande

In 2012, I left a career in marketing to become a Speech and Language Therapist. It was the best decision I could have made and here's why.

1. Work with a Diverse Population

As a Speech and Language Therapist from New York City working for Magic Words Therapy in London, I’ve had the pleasure of working with people from cultures very different from my own. I’ve helped a Jamaican child with feeding difficulties eat rice and beans, a CBS news anchor reclaim her voice through vocal hygiene techniques, and a nonverbal child request ‘Driedel’ using an AAC device. How cool, right?

2. Geek out on Data

Data collection is a vital part of making clinical decisions on the effectiveness of treatment. If you love numbers like I do, there’s no greater thrill than seeing scientific proof that your client is making progress over time.

3. Have Creative Freedom

Speech and Language Therapy is as much an art as it is a science. It takes out-of-the box thinking and personalization to motivate children to attend in therapy. Where else can you make sparkling sound shakers and rockets from toilet tissue rolls?!

4. Never Get Bored

I’ve worked with both children and adults with disorders in feeding and swallowing, voice, articulation, phonology, expressive language, receptive language, and respiration. I’ve provided services in a hospital, a private clinic and the school setting to clients with Autism, Downs Syndrome, Aphasia, TBI, Stroke, Post-Chemotherapy difficulties and many more. Needless to say, I am CONSTANTLY learning.

5. Change Someone’s Life

I am humbled to know that the work I do has the power to break down the barriers of communication for an individual. It has driven me to become the advocate that I am for service provision for those who would benefit from Speech and Language Therapy. Cue the Mic drop.

Meet Our Cambridge Clinic Team

By speech and language therapist Bethany Potter

My name’s Beth and I’m one of the Magic Words therapists based at our new Cambridge clinic within Chestnuts Nursery.  

My first experience of speech and language therapy was not as a therapist but as a child with speech sound difficulties. I was struggling to say sounds in words like ‘cat’…especially difficult when your favourite film is the Aristocats!

I remember not wanting to go to therapy sessions because I would have to just sit and say the sounds I found really difficult; it felt like failing and was no fun at all. Now when planning sessions as a therapist, this memory is what drives me to create fun, interactive sessions where children don’t even realise it’s therapy!

Before studying to become a speech and language therapist I studied English Language and Linguistics. I developed an in depth understanding of child language acquisition and phonetics; this increased my interest in the world of speech and language therapy. Following this, I worked as a teaching assistant supporting children with a range of needs such as deafness and hearing impairment, ADHD, and dyslexia. I had always had an interest in speech and language therapy, but it was my role as a teaching assistant that really sparked my passion and I decided to go back to studying and start my career.  

The field of speech and language is so diverse and broad. I love working with all types of speech, language and communication difficulties. I have a particular love for working with early years, speech sound difficulties, language delay and hearing impairment. I’m sure this will only continue to grow throughout my career!  

Outside of my working day as a speech therapist, I enjoy yoga, running and exploring the world! My most recent trip was to Peru including the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, a home stay on Lake Titicaca and a visit to the Amazon!

Stammering is Universal – Part 2

By specialist Speech and Language therapist Frankie Paterson

Remember Beatrice and Ugandan speech therapist Duncan Musasizi? When Beatrice and her guardian came along for a second therapy session it was great to hear that Bea’s fluency had improved significantly in the week since the last session.

It’s a joy to watch Duncan in action as a therapist. He has such a warm and engaging therapeutic manner with children. His face, as you can see in the photo, is incredibly expressive and animated, this is a great quality to have as children are drawn to animated faces and they are most likely to join in play activities if they can see that the therapist is excited about the activity.

Duncan makes impressive use of a limited array of therapy resources. There are no big cupboards full of toys here, so this is essential. He has a set of colourful building blocks that he shows great ingenuity at using in lots of different ways. He used them in a fluency shaping technique aimed at helping Beatrice reduce the rate of her speech by saying a word each time she put a new block onto a tower.

At our last session Duncan had demonstrated a very simple activity aimed at slowing Beatrice down; her speech and everything else. Bea is inclined to want to get everything done in a rush, speaking and moving very quickly, always worrying about being late.

Duncan got Beatrice up and moving for this, a signature feature of his therapy style. They took steps along the tiled floor, stepping from tile to tile with a pause in between each step. As they’re taking steps they count from one to ten, saying a number per step. The first time Bea tried this she was characteristically rushing, taking much quicker steps than Duncan and seeming to be so intent on doing this perfectly she was hardly pausing to breathe. Over the session he managed to get her to slow right down to his slow pace of walking and counting and to copy his relaxed walking style.

Beatrice’s guardian reported that her fluency had improved significantly since our previous session. She had told the people at Beatrice’s Sunday school that they must let her talk and always let her finish what she is trying to say. She ordered the local children Bea plays with to be kind to her, to always let her talk at her own pace and never to laugh at her. I have a strong suspicion these people will do what she asks; I would certainly not mess with this woman! I was very struck by how fiercely protective of Beatrice this lady is. A real force of nature. I felt happy for Beatrice that after her difficult start in life she now has this kind and strong woman to look after her.

www.yellowhouseoutreach.org/

Stammering is universal

By specialist Speech and Language Therapist Frankie Paterson

It is my pleasure to introduce you to speech and language therapist Duncan Musasizi and his client Beatrice (to protect her identity I’m not using her real name). Duncan is an outstanding Ugandan speech and language therapist who I worked alongside at Yellow House Health and Outreach Services in Kenya earlier this month.

Beatrice was accompanied to the clinic by her new guardian, a friend of her Grandma who had died only a few weeks before. Beatrice’s Grandma had been her sole carer and she had entrusted this kind lady to be her new guardian once she passed.

Beatrice came across as a highly conscientious little girl with a propensity to want to do everything perfectly. She and her guardian arrived super early for the assessment as Beatrice had been insistent that they must not be late as she wanted to get back to school ASAP!
Her guardian described Beatrice a worrier and prone to always doing things at high speed. We have not used Beatrice’s real identity because, although her guardian was keen for Beatrice’s story to be told, she was wary of condemnation from people in their community who see having a stammer as being a curse from God. In parts of Kenyan society all forms of disability are seen as a huge weakness, the effect of curses or witchcraft. Parents of children with disabilities can have an incredibly hard time. They often feel they have no option, once their child’s disability becomes more obvious, but to keep them locked away indoors, away from potential judgement and rejection. These children often stop going to school and are socially isolated, exactly the opposite of what children with communication disabilities need.

Beatrice is lucky to have a guardian who is bravely ignoring the judgement of their community and doing her best to get them to accept her. Beatrice will be coming for weekly therapy with Duncan and I supported him to devise a treatment plan. Beatrice is aware of her stammer but is still so very little and has a lot of adjustment to make to her new life. Duncan is keeping it very simple, starting off with a few practical activities aimed at slowing Beatrice down. Not just her rate of speech but everything else as well. We gave her guardian advice on slowing down her own speech and holding herself back from giving Beatrice advice on how to talk, like that old chestnut ‘take a breath and start again’. We asked her just to focus on letting Beatrice talk and listening to the meaning of what she’s saying, instead of focusing on any moments of stammering.

Working with people who stammer in a very different culture has been hugely beneficial to my understanding of stammering as a universal human phenomenon. People who stammer across cultures may have daily struggles that differ somewhat but fundamentally the nature of the adversity they face is the same everywhere.

All over the world, what people who stammer need is for non-stammerers to have more awareness about what stammering really is. That having a stammer does not make someone weak, stupid or cursed or even that different to anyone else. That having a stammer is never a defining characteristic and that people who stammer need to be shown the same respect as any other person. People need to know what to do when talking to someone who stammers. Mainly: you don’t need to do anything special, just let them talk, in their own way and in their own time. People who stammer just want you to listen to them with the same respect that you would pay to any other person.

Eco Team at Magic Words Therapy

We'd like to introduce you to Susan Woodley, our new Eco Rep. Sue is one of our speech and language therapists and like the rest of us here at Magic Words Therapy she cares greatly about our planet and preserving our natural environment.

Sue is going to be spearheading Magic Words Therapy's campaign to make our organisation as eco-friendly as we can possibly be by making changes big and small. We want to reduce our waste, reduce our carbon emissions and possibly even plant a Magic Words Therapy garden. Watch this space!

Stammering and the Iceberg Beast

By Specialist Speech and Language Therapist Frankie Paterson

I was interested to learn about a proposed new way of thinking about aspects of stammering as a ‘beast’ that can be strengthened or weakened. Dr Rick Arenas thinks of a stammer as an ‘Iceberg Beast’ that can be slain. Rick, associate professor at the University of New Mexico, researches developmental stammering and is himself a person who stammers.

The idea of the Iceberg Beast originates from the iceberg analogy that’s been used to describe stammers since 1970 (J Sheenan).

The top of the iceberg, that’s visible above the water’s surface, represents stammering behaviours such as repetitions of sounds, words or syllables. This is the part of a stammer that is visible for others to see. The part of the iceberg that is submerged under the water is vastly bigger than top part. This underwater part represents the underlying aspects of a person’s stammer that tend to be invisible to others. These include anxiety about speaking, avoidance of speaking or of situations, emotions about speaking and stammering and beliefs about yourself and your place in the world as a result of the stammer.

Although Dr Arenas thinks this iceberg analogy is effective in portraying what being a person who stammers is really like, he has built on this iceberg idea using his own experiences as someone with a stammer and experiences that other people with stammers have shared with him. Dr Arenas has observed that for a person who stammers, the unseen part of the iceberg can be like a living entity that has the power to hold them back from living their life as they’d like to, and that it can grow, shrink and change over time. He has come to identify these undelying parts of his stammer as the Iceberg Beast, that can feed on certain types of things that give it fuel to grow and get stronger. At the same time, there are things that he can do that he knows will weaken and shrink his Iceberg Beast.

Rick explains “the beast is a cohesive collection of beliefs about stuttering that we allow to negatively impact how we live our lives”. Rick believes that as a person who stammers there are specific choices you can make that will make your iceberg beast either grow or get smaller. These choices are not ones you are stuck with and are destined to make forever. You can decide to make different choices.

What types of things allow the beast to grow?

· Not talking about your stammer with others or being open about it.

· Avoidance. Of words, situations, thoughts or truths about yourself and your stammer.

· Not accepting that you have a stammer.

· Being in denial about the stammer as being something that affects you or how much it affects you.

Rick believes that negative thoughts and feelings about stammering that are harboured for a long time and not talked about openly can ultimately transform into core negative beliefs about yourself and your stammer that your iceberg beast loves to feed upon, helping it to grow. For example, believing that you will always be too slow to get your words out, that people will always get impatient and bored when you try to talk or that you are weak or faulty because of your stammer.

Weapons Against the Beast

Rick lists ‘weapons’ that people who stammer can use to weaken and shrink the iceberg beast and so reduce the control that the stammer has over them:

· Daring to be open and vulnerable about your stammer.

· Allowing yourself to stammer openly and freely.

· Being honest with yourself about the impact the stammer has had on the way you’ve chosen to live your life.

· Self-Acceptance. Accepting all parts of your identity, including that you are a person who stammers.

· Authenticity with yourself and others.

· Talking openly with others about your stammer and thoughts, feelings and beliefs surrounding it.

Dr Rick suggests that useful questions to ask yourself are:

· What would you ideally be doing in your life that you currently are not doing because of the stammer?

· What do you avoid because of the stammer?

· In what ways is this actually impacting on how you live your life?

Dr Arenas believes that real lasting change comes from an exploration of your attitudes and beliefs about the stammer as opposed to focusing on the stammering behaviours themselves. He emphasises the fact that it is your beliefs and reactions to your stutter rather than the stuttering behaviours themselves that negatively affect your life. This echoes an idea from the stoic philosopher Epictetus that I have personally found invaluable in my own quest to change negative thoughts and the beliefs that underlie them. Epictetus stated that “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.” To bring this back to stammering, it could be said that the act of repeating words is not the cause of your pain as a person who stammers, the root cause of pain are the negative beliefs you hold , e.g. that stammering somehow makes you a lesser person or that other people seeing you stammer will make them dislike you or think you are weak.

Being brave enough to be vulnerable

The qualitative research professor Bréne Brown pioneered the idea of vulnerability being a powerful act that can be immensely healing and galvanising in her viral TED TALK . So what’s vulnerability all about for people who stammer?

· Daring to be truthful with yourself and others about your stammer.

· Being brave enough to show things to others you’d really rather hide from them because you are ashamed, namely openly stammering.

· Daring to really look inward at yourself and to share those observations with others.

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Unicorn or Beast?

I think this idea of imagining the internalised part of a stammer as a fluid entity that can increase or decrease in power depending on choices within your control could be incredibly liberating for many people who stammer. Giving limiting core beliefs an identity, so that you can put them under the microscope can be an empowering and healing exercise.

This is very much in the spirit of an exploratory assessment I often use where the client is asked to draw their stammer. The results are of course unique to each person and can be hugely valuable in understanding a client’s relationship with their stammer.

I think it’s important to recognise that each person’s core beliefs about their own stammering will be unique to them and so the identity they give them will be unique as well. For one person their internal stammer might well be visualised as a beast to be slain. But someone else might see theirs quite differently, for example as a majestic but troubled and misunderstood unicorn, to be tamed and calmed! Warlike imagery of using weapons to destroy a beast could be negative and unhelpful for some people who stammer. I wonder if for some people, attaching a more neutral image to their stammer could be somehow helpful in reducing the negative hold it might have over their lives.

If you want to hear more from Dr Arenas he is interviewed about his Iceberg Beast theory on the excellent podcast Stutter Talk.

What have Cleopatra and children with listening difficulties got in common?

by Wai Seng Thong (Speech and Language Therapist)

Attention and listening – the foundation of communication

When I think about communication, I always imagine the Egyptian pyramids which, like communication skills, need to be built on a solid foundation. Also, both the pyramids and communication are really amazing things! For communication skills to develop, the solid foundation you need is attention and listening skills and just like those builders of old, if you are not listening or paying attention things can go awry (Check out the pyramid of Sneferu, it went awry big style!)

What are attention and listening skills all about?

‘Attention and listening skills’, is a concept that we as speech and language therapists talk about regularly. So I decided for this blog, I will talk about this foundation of the communication pyramid (and no you don’t need to be Cleopatra to make sense of it!) 

Often I hear parents and teachers use commands such as ‘Sit down!’, ‘Stop!’, ‘No!’, ‘Don’t do that!’ when children are not listening and running around like headless chickens. This can be during meal times at home or even in the classroom during reading lessons. We all know how daunting it can be when children don’t listen. This can be so stressful for parents and teachers. It can even cause emotional tensions within families. Well let me tell you this, if you struggle with children who don’t listen; you are not alone.

Does my child have problems with attention and listening?

Have a think about these questions:

·         Can your child sit still?

·         Can they keep their hands still e.g. without fiddling?

·         Does your child look at the teacher or at you when you are talking?

·         Can they concentrate when there is a lot of background noise like TV or music?

·         Can they repeat an instruction back to you?

·         Can they sound out words?

·         Can they remember long words?

·         Do they seem not settle with one activity, but tend to flit from task to task or toy to toy?

·         Does it often look like they are tuning out?

If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions above, your child may have difficulties with their attention and listening skills.

You may be wondering why are these skills so vital? Or do we really need this skill nowadays as humans? To answer these questions lets go back to the desert in Egypt. Imagine the builder wasn’t paying attention or listening and cut the first stone for the foundations of the pyramid to the wrong size. This would obviously be disastrous. Difficulties with attention and listening can have an impact on all areas of learning; if a child is not able to listen and pay attention, they will find it difficult to process and then utilise important information in lessons when it is given to them. And then success in their classroom learning will be very hard to achieve.

How to assess?

Based on Reynell’s research there are six levels of typical development of attention and listening, these levels may be used to assess and understand the child’s development of attention and listening skills in relation to the developmental norms. Remember; there is a huge variation on what is considered ‘normal’ and I would urge people to question whether the term ‘normal’ is really fair or useful anyway? Levels like these are useful for the most part as they help us to see a sequence of levels of attention and listening development. For example, if a child is at a particular level, these levels help us by telling us what that child needs to be able to do next, to push on forward with their skill development and to reach the next level. These levels are:

Level 1 (typically birth to 1 year): Child’s attention is fleeting, shifting from one object, person, or event to another. The child will get distracted immediately by any new event such as someone walking by.

Level 2 (typically 1 – 2 years): Single channelled attention and the child can concentrate on a concrete task of their own choosing, however, will not tolerate any verbal or visual intervention from an adult.

Level 3 (typically 2 – 3 years): Child’s attention is still single channelled, but the child is not able to shift their attention away from the current task and then go back to the original activity with adult support.

Level 4 (typically 3 – 4 years): The child can alternate his/her full attention (both visual and auditory) between the adult and the task and now does this spontaneously without adult support.

Level 5 (typically 4 – 5 years): Double channelled attention. The child understands verbal instructions related to the task without interrupting the activity to look at the adult. Concentration span can still be short; however, they can cope with group situations.

Level 6 (typically 5 – 6 years): The child’s attention is well established and sustained.

How to support?

Due to the huge importance of attention and listening skills, I am often asked by both parents and teachers about how they can support children to become better at paying attention or listening to them. So I tell them this true story:

One day a good friend of mine shared her super-secret mouth-watering ‘Honey Mustard Chicken’ recipe, something I had tried for years to get to her to share. She really quickly told me all the ingredients, how to cook and prepare the chicken. Once I got home and tried to cook it, I found I had completely forgotten some of the ingredients and was hazy on the method, leading to a somewhat disappointing chicken dinner. However, when I went back grovelling again for the recipe, she told me the recipe step by step with great instructions and even with pictures and videos of her making it (such a kind friend she is). Then I went home and made the dish, following her instructions and step by step guide and as you can imagine it was YUM.

What would you rather do? Attempt to remember a long stream of complex instructions or remember a simple step by step set of instructions, with pictures? You are probably like me and would opt for the second method. Well it’s the same for children following adult instructions as it is for us as adults who are given a recipe or a set of directions to get to a place; too much information and no structure or visual support and we can all fail.

Now I am not saying this is easy. I do realise it’s hard to find ways to keep children focused especially in this busy and fast-paced Netflix and iPad era we now live in. So below I have shared with you my nine easy tips to support your child’s attention and listening skills:

1.       Always call your child’s name to gain attention. Like in a football match a player will call their teammate’s name when they want to pass the ball and get their attention.  

2.       Make sure you get your child’s eye contact before pointing to something, giving an instruction or asking a question as this not only shows them the good behaviour of eye contact but also helps to keep them focused.

3.       We sometimes forget children are smaller than us, so crouch down and get down on your child’s eye level to make sure they can focus on you.

4.       No one can focus on anything for too long. We as adults have our limits as well. We all need breaks from having to concentrate. So break times are important! This needs to be negotiated breaks with the child, for example giving 5 minutes’ free time once they have achieved a certain amount or focused on reading a book with you.

5.       Praise! Everyone loves praise so give specific and positive feedback to the child about their listening skills with phrases such as ‘Thank you for looking at me’, ‘Well done for waiting your turn.’  Sticker rewards are an amazing and cheap incentive to help children to be motivated for good listening. I have been reliably told smiley face stickers are their favourite (so a group of my preschool children told me!).

6.       In this manic world of noise and distraction try and create a quiet environment by reducing background noise such as TV before trying to get your child to listen to you.

7.       If a child looks confused or you’re not sure they understood what you have said to them, encourage ‘active listening’ by asking if they have understood or listened. You can help children use this as a strategy to compensate for their difficulties with attention and listening.

8.       Most vitally, like with my friend telling me the recipe, break longer instructions into short steps and leave plenty of time for children to process the information. Giving visual support to what you are saying is also highly useful.

9.       As adults, talking about things we are interested in with our friends means that  conversations flow. So when you’re talking to a child try to follow the child’s lead by talking to them about what they’re interested in or focused on. They will be more focused on the conversation if it’s interesting to them than if it’s not.

If you only remember only two pieces of advice from this blog, let it be these. Firstly: be like Cleopatra and make sure your child’s communication pyramid has a solid foundation. Without this structural base skill of attention and listening, everything else we try to build on it can end up wonky like poor Pharaoh Sneferu who has gone down in history as the Pharaoh who couldn’t build his pyramid straight! Secondly take heart in the knowledge that the Great Pyramid of Giza was not built in a day. It took many years and great patience to build. In the same way, developing a child’s attention and listening skills can take great perseverance and time, so do not worry if you do not get overnight success.

Working memory in school aged children

By Sonali Dutta, Speech and Language Therapist

WORKING MEMORY IN SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN

As a speech and language therapist I come across younger and older children who struggle with classroom-oriented tasks in school. When assessed by specialists, a good proportion of these children are found to have working memory difficulties. Working memory is responsible for retention and manipulation of information. As children get older, the learning-based tasks in school become more structured and complex, demanding high cognitive skills. Therefore, working memory plays a crucial role in determining children’s ability to handle learning challenges effectively. At home or in other social situations outside school, the environment is more play-based and relaxed and so the demands on working memory are likely to be less.

 WHAT IS WORKING MEMORY?

Working memory is one of the key cognitive processes required for effective learning and is often confused with short term memory. Short term memory is related to short-term storage of information. Whereas, according to recent research, working memory is a component of fluid reasoning i.e. ability to effectively identify key information from the task/environment and apply that knowledge. We use our working memory to register, maintain and manipulate information we see (visual) and hear (auditory) making it an integral part in our decision-making ability and behavior. Therefore, we can see how working memory skills can be closely related to achievement and learning in school aged children.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) measures working memory in one of its subtests for measuring intelligence. However, we should bear in mind that although working memory affects how a child learns and performs in tests, it is not a measure of a child’s overall intelligence and that the IQ (Intelligent Quotient) also has non-measurable components which do not correlate to working memory.

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF WORKING MEMORY DIFFICULTIES?

Working memory deficits have been linked to attention difficulties, learning difficulties (e.g. dyscalculia i.e. problems with arithmetic) and language difficulties (e.g. following complex instructions) in children. Children with working memory deficits have difficulty in tasks involving memory demands in retaining and processing specific or structured information. Therefore, subjects such as maths, reading and science may be particularly difficult for these children. Attention, auditory and visual perception and concentration are required for successful processing of information.

The article ‘Working memory in the classroom’ by psychology professor Susan E Garthercole highlights a study where the teachers described children with working memory problems as having attentional problems. This shows that the underlying working memory issues in children can be masked as attentional problems and are likely to remain unidentified and unaddressed. The article further mentions that ‘zoning out’ or ‘mind-wandering’ are common behaviours in children with low working memory capacity when performing a highly demanding cognitive task as they cannot cope with the information overload and fail to complete the task.

Children with working memory difficulties may show the following signs:

·         Struggles to follow complex verbal instructions in a classroom.

·         Has problems in the area of maths, reading (comprehension) and science.

·         Takes longer than peers to complete tasks or does not completing tasks.

·         Has attentional difficulties.

·         Gives delayed responses to complex questions/instructions.

·         Provides non-specific answers.

·         Comes across as being disorganized

·         Comes across as being forgetful.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

Speech and language therapists or educational psychologists can assess children’s working memory using formal or informal assessments involving specific recall/repetition tasks e.g. digit span (backwards and forwards repetition), picture span, letter/number sequencing etc. It is important to share with the child that they will have to work harder than most children to attend and concentrate in classroom tasks.

In our practice as speech and language therapists we always find that using visuals in  learning helps children retain and process information better. Being a mum with the knowledge of a speech and language therapist I know that hands on practical input and visuals helps my kids learn better. Recently I have used the hot kettle in my kitchen, a metal plate with ice and hand drawn diagrams to demonstrate the evaporation-condensation-precipitation to my 9-year-old daughter who was struggling to understand the water-cycle taught in school. She then went on to make her own illustration of the water-cycle and could not wait to show it to her teacher.

The following are some of the strategies teachers and parents can use to help children with working memory difficulties:

·         Eliminate distractions as much as possible during tasks (e.g. remove background noise, e.g. music, TV)

·         Gain the attention of the child by establishing eye contact with them.

·         Prepare the child for the task beforehand (e.g. provide an outline of what is going to be taught in the lesson). This will help information to go from short-term memory to long-term memory.

·         Provide clear and simple instructions.

·         Break down tasks and instructions into small chunks (not more than two-part instructions at a time).

·         Give the child the opportunity to rehearse or record the instruction (e.g. writing down the instruction).

·         Ask them to repeat the instruction to check if they understood.

·         Encourage the child to ask for repetition if they have not understood.

·         Encourage your child to keep notes, make outlines and use other brief reminders.

·         Encourage good organizational skills by using folders and dividers to keep work easily accessible and in order.

·         In school, providing notes and handouts will be useful when a child struggles to copy due to visual memory difficulties.

·         Visuals will help them understand and retain information better (e.g. visual timetable, flowcharts, diagrams, pictures, illustrations, videos).

A sensory approach to learning involving practical input and visuals will consolidate retention and learning (e.g. visual timetable, flowcharts, diagrams, pictures, illustrations, videos, demonstrations, hands on practical tasks).

My final week in Kisumu with Yellow House

By Catherine Clancy, Speech and Language Therapist

Unfortunately, I fell ill at the beginning of this week and it took me some time to get back to my usual self. However, I was able to attend a Communication Camp that had been organised by Yellow House to support parents of children with Cerebral Palsy. This post will be focused on the content of the camp and how Yellow House are raising awareness of cerebral palsy and empowering parents to support their children.

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On the left is Florence and the right is Duncan (with Gregory translating), who explained what communication is and ways in which children with cerebral palsy can successfully express themselves when speech is unclear or not present. The communication house is a lovely way to understand the foundations that need to be put in place before you can expect a child to understand spoken language, and then begin to express themselves using gestures and speech.

There was a specialist talk from an Occupational Therapist who discussed ways parents can support their child’s fine and gross motor skills through daily exercises. Here, John is demonstrating how to support a child’s ability to stand with support.

Here are some of the toys that the parents made for their children using those materials that are easily accessible to them – a very creative way of recycling waste into something kids can enjoy!

Whilst the parents were busy attending the talks within the camp, the children were taken into a separate room where they had the opportunity to play, sing and dance – it was a lot of fun and it was lovely to see the supporting adults interacting so freely and easily with the children – the children were in their element!

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After the camp and on my final day, I said bye to a client and his mother who has been supported through the use of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). A symptom of cerebral palsy for this client is stiff muscles and exaggerated reflexes (spasticity). Unfortunately, this means spoken language is extremely difficult for this boy and direct access to a communication board (e.g. pointing to a picture) is not possible. For this reason, eye gaze (looking at the picture) has allowed this client to communicate a preference when given a choice. This has given the mother a new way to communicate with her son and the joy that this brings to the both of them is wonderful to see!

My time working with Yellow House has been eye-opening, rewarding and enjoyable. I have met a team of people who are raising awareness of speech, language and communication needs in Western Kenya and are working hard to support children and their families. The stigma around disabilities is still very much present and during the camp many mothers expressed their sadness around the fact that friendships and relationships had ended simply because they had a child with a communication disability. However, seeing these parents come together and pro-actively learn about their child’s condition and how to best support them was very inspirational, which is heightened by the fact that these families are doing their best to integrate their children in their communities to reduce social stigma and normalise their child’s differences.

Goodbye Kisimu!

It has been lovely to see parents and families so invested in supporting their children.

By Catherine Clancy, Speech and Language Therapist

Week 3.

29.07.19: On Monday I spent the day at Russia working with the team to complete a triage. This is to support the management of new referrals who are seeking support for their child. Here, I completed case history questionnaires to find out the child’s strengths and difficulties, and as a team we discussed how to prioritise the new referrals seen. There are many people seeking support from Yellow House which can unfortunately mean long waiting times for clients to be seen. However, the triage gave us the opportunity to meet face-to-face with families and offer advice.

01.08.19: It’s August already! On Thursday I continue to see clients for their weekly therapy sessions. Above are some of the resources I made with the team to help children express their wants/needs and interests if they are finding spoken language difficult. When lunch time came around I thought I would try something new and ordered the local vegetables with chapati and beans – YUM!

30.07.19: On this day I continued to see clients for their weekly therapy sessions. The picture above shows a mother supporting her child through parent-child interaction strategies that aim to promote language development. The mother was focusing on following her child’s lead and using 1-2 key words to comment on her play. Videoing was used as a therapeutic tool to empower the mother to continue using those strategies that she used positively to support her child.

31.07.19: How was it Wednesday already?! (the weeks fly by!). I travelled to the EARC centre and continued seeing clients for their weekly therapy sessions. The photographs above show parents interacting with their children and supporting the use of low-tech augmentative communication. For these children, they were unable to communicate successfully using only speech and therefore a total communication approach has been adopted where we are using speech, gestures, key signs and a communication board to help them express their wants/needs/interests etc. Parental education is fundamental to the success of therapy as parents have to feel invested and motivated to use the strategies advised by us in order for therapy to have positive outcomes. Fortunately, both parents are open to learning to ways to communicate with their children and they are now aware that the belief ‘signing/pictures with stop my child from talking’ is only a myth!!

This week has been empowering and also eye-opening. It has been lovely to see parents and families so invested in supporting their children as ultimately, they are the experts on their child and have the opportunity to make the biggest impact - I have found videoing a great way of supporting this! However, the policies and procedures within the care system are very different to those we experience in the U.K. and it has required me to adapt a very flexible way of working to continue supporting children with the limited access to resources and early interventions.

My second week working for Yellow House

By Catherine Clancy, Speech and Language Therapist

19.07.19: On Friday I said goodbye to Maggie, one of the volunteers who has spent 10-weeks working with Yellow House Health and Outreach Services as a Speech and Language Therapy student from Torono University. It is great when students complete their clinical placements with Yellow House as it is a fantastic opportunity for clinical development, not only for the students but for the team themselves.

23.07.19: David (one of the Senior Speech and Language Therapists employed by Yellow House) and I spent the day working in the Speech and Language Therapy clinics situated within Russia, a hospital in Kisumu which is government funded. Here, I was working with children and their parents with a focus on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). This is about supporting children and their families to implement other forms of communication which is building on the child’s strength. An example might be using key word signing alongside speech as well as supporting the child to communicate through symbols on a communication board. Parent education plays a critical role here as it is vital for parents to be invested in the therapy for it to prove beneficial for the child!

The team work alongside other professionals in the hospital including occupational therapists who support patients in their own clinic (see picture above).

24.07.19: I travelled from Kisumu to the EARC (assessment and resource) centre on a matatu (local mini bus) which takes around 45 minutes. Here, I saw more clients for therapy, again focusing on the use of AAC. I incorporated the use of videoing with parents to support their interactions with the children and it was lovely to see parents getting down on the floor and supporting their child in the best way they knew how. After a busy morning, Duncan (one of the Speech and Language Therapists employed by Yellow House) and I enjoyed a local lunch of chapati, skumowiki (green vegetables) and green grams (lentils) – it was delicious!

26.07.19: After another busy day supporting clients from Russia, I went back to the office and caught up on paperwork and resource making. This is the office for Yellow House and where the team carryout all the administrative duties, including planning for communication camps – this is when they invite children and their families to a 2-day training camp where they learn all about different diagnoses, the impact on communication and how to support their child using a total communication approach.

My second week on working with Yellow House as a speech and language therapist has really allowed me to get ‘stuck in’ and see clients and their families for therapy. However, it has been essential for me to collaborate with the therapists working for Yellow House to support their clinical development and to ensure the interventions I am suggesting are realistic and functional for this setting. It has been great to learn from the team working here and I hope that I have supported them to feel more confident using AAC within their own practice!

My first week in Kisumu, Kenya

By Catherine Clancy, Speech & Language Therapist

14.07.19: Just before I flew out to Kisumu! 

23.07.19: My first day! I visited Russia, the hospital in Kisumu where Yellow House support clients with speech, language and communication difficulties. This is where I had a lunch of chapati and cooked greens during my lunch-break.  

24.07.19 The Educational Assessment & Resource Centre (EARC) in Vihiga, a 45-minute journey from Kisumu on a Matatu. Here, I supported assessment for new referrals to the service. 

I have had a busy but very eye-opening and rewarding first week with Yellow House! It was lovely to hear from families about how the use of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) has given them a new way to successfully communicate with their child. Recently, a client with cerebral palsy was taught to communicate using eye gaze with a symbol communication board and the mother has been overjoyed with how this has enabled her to talk with her son which for the past 8 years has not been possible. This mother is very proactive and supportive of her son and does her best to raise the awareness and acceptability of disability in her local community by ensuring her son is treated with respect, compassion and integrity. 

Attention Autism Bucket Time

By Wai Seng Thong (Speech and Language Therapist)

What is Attention Autism?

One of the things I love about visiting schools is the expressions of joy on the faces of the children I work with. When they know it is bucket time some children can barely stay sitting down. In case you have never heard about Attention Autism, it’s an intervention designed by Gina Davies, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, aiming to develop natural and spontaneous communication through the use of visually based and highly motivating activities for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

Attention Autism is one of my favourite activities as it makes learning fun and memorable for children. Before I start, NO you don’t need to be an X Factor level singer, but you do need to be able to hold a tune as this helps the children sing along. You also need to prepared to collect strange and fun toys to make the activity differ from week to week. I tend to use eBay and pound shops to add regularly to my collection.

All you need to do is have fun, as it engages the kids with your activity. If you are engaged, they will be too. It’s all about engagement, fun, motivation and showing them something worth communicating about.

Benefits of Attention Autism

Attention Autism is a regular part of my week. In the school I work in the children are always desperate to know what is in the bucket and jump up and down trying to look inside (this makes me think of children trying to take a sneaky peak in Santa’s toy bag on Christmas Eve!).

What is fascinating about this programme is that it sparks their curiosity and therefore creates reasons for them to communicate by asking questions, commenting and guessing what might be coming out of that mysterious bucket. From my experience of using this programme, it does not merely work on the children’s attention and listening skills, but also on their language skills (both receptive and expressive language skills). These can be a challenge for children with ASD. The sessions can be tailored to build on their vocabulary knowledge, for example, they can be themed around dinosaurs or superheroes etc.

What a session looks like and example activities

A myriad of themed activities can be incorporated into an Attention Autism programme. For example, bucket time can be filled with dinosaur toys (from sensory to wind up dinosaur toys etc).

I start with the song, ‘I’ve got something in my bucket, in my bucket, in my bucket. I’ve got something in my bucket, and I wonder what it is. Let’s look and see!’. The children sing along transfixed on the bucket, wondering what might be inside. Just a warning this song will take over your mind and at times I can hear it when I am mopping the floor or shopping! You then demonstrate the toys one by one and the idea is the kids watch, pay attention and do not touch. Hard to imagine, but it is surprisingly easy to achieve when following the attention autism programme.

The activities ‘Sleeping dinosaurs’ and ‘Roll the dinosaurs’ involve the children pretending to be asleep and rolling each other along the floor and more song singing. There are also more hands-on activities where children make dinosaurs with Play-Doh or arts and craft materials with big googly eyes. My kids love it all!

Useful tips when running an Attention Autism group

Always remember these useful tips when you are running an Attention Autism group:

•       Say less.

•       Use lots of pauses.

•       Exaggerate gestures and facial expressions.

•       Give time for thinking and stay quiet!

•       Show first then add words.

•       Have a clear idea of your objective.

•       Make sure your activity is the most exciting thing in the room! Cover up or remove distractions.

•       Turn disasters into ‘part of the plan’. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work out, this is a great way to model ‘uh oh’ and ‘oops’ etc.

As Gina Davies says: ‘let’s create an irresistible invitation for learning’. Attention Autism principles can be generalised into curriculum activities, for example, literacy and numeracy to facilitate learning and skills development.

Let’s really think about the activities we plan for kids. Is the activity irresistible? Is our activity worth communicating about? Fun and engaging activities create good memories. Let’s create a shared experience that is memorable and share laughs with our kids to help them learn.

For further information and more ideas on Attention Autism, take a look at these:

Facebook page - Gina Davies Autism Centre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFYnc4xcZ6k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMEhkD0W5Z8

Top 10 Language Apps

By Faye Nugent, - Magic Words Level 1 Speech & Language Therapist

There is a huge variety of apps available to support a child’s language development.  Here is a selection of 10 of the top apps:

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SPLINGO LANGUAGE UNIVERSE

Splingo Language Universe is an app that helps develop a child’s comprehension (understanding of language) by exploring the number of keywords a child can understand in a sentence.  It is an entertaining and motivating game that helps develop your child’s understanding of different aspects of language such as verbs, nouns, prepositions and adjectives. 

The app can be used with children at a developmental level of 18 months to a developmental level of 4 years and upwards.  It is customisable, so you can adapt the app to your child’s developmental level.  The app builds from single key word (e.g. ‘find the apple’) to more complex four key word instructions (e.g. ‘give the big red apple to the boy’). 

The app is available to download on Google Play (£2.39) and iTunes (£2.99).

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GRAMMAROPOLIS

Grammaropolis helps develop knowledge and understanding of parts of speech.  Each part of speech is explored using a map which includes a variety of games and activities to explain the item.  As the child explores each map their understanding is assessed by quizzes throughout.

The free download offers games and activities for nouns.  Within the app you can buy access to other resources such as; verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections.

The app is suitable for children aged 7-8 years onwards. 

The app is available to download on Google Play (free with option to buy extras) and iTunes (free with option to buy extras).  You can find out more information at: https://grammaropolis.com/

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VERBS NEWS - VIRTUAL SPEECH CENTRE

Verbs News helps support the development of a child’s understanding of different verb tenses (simple present, present continuous, simple past and simple future). 

The app introduces Andrew who is a news presenter, he explains the four verb tenses via an animated video.  There are a variety of options as you can select the words you would like to work on and the type of activity for example auditory bombardment (hearing the accurate model of the verb used in a sentence), fill in the blanks or make up sentences.  For each correct response, the child is awarded with an anchor microphone. At the end of the session, children can take the role of an anchor, record their own news, and watch it in the newsroom.

The app works best with an adult supporting the child as this gives the opportunity to discuss each verb and provide an accurate model if the child has any difficulties.

The app is available to download on iTunes (£9.99).  You can find out more information at: https://www.virtualspeechcenter.com/app/verbs_news

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PRONOUNS WITH SPLINGO

Pronouns with Splingo follows Splingo the speech and language alien helping to teach the understanding and expressive use of a variety of pronouns.  The app is engaging and motivating, after 5 correct responses the player gets to select three items to place in their virtual bedroom. 

The app is fully customisable giving you the option to choose the pronouns you work on, a UK or US voice for instruction and whether the verbal instructions are written down too.

The app is available for download on iTunes (£2.99)

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PREPOSITIONS JOURNEY - VIRTUAL SPEECH CENTRE

Prepositions Journey is a fun and interactive app. With adult support the app can be used to develop your child’s understanding of prepositions, as well as giving them the opportunity to use prepositions to expressively respond to ‘where?’ questions.  The app allows the player to record their responses, replay them and see if they are correct. 

The app can be adapted to the child’s needs as you can select the specific prepositions you would like to work on.  The app creates reports following completion of a game which collates the scores together for each player.

 The app can be downloaded on iTunes (£9.99). You can find out more information at: https://www.virtualspeechcenter.com/app/prepositions_journey_app

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MAGICAL CONCEPTS - VIRTUAL SPEECH CENTRE

The Magical Concepts app follows Mago the Magician as he guides the player through a variety of concepts.  The game is highly motivating and makes ‘drilling’ activities more engaging as the player earns a star for each correct answer.  With enough stars the child is rewarded with a magic show.

You can select from a wide variety of concepts making each game specific to your child and their needs.  The app focuses on the understanding of concepts, however with adult support can be adapted to work on the expressive use of concepts within the game.

The app is available for download on iTunes (£9.99).  You can find out more information at: https://www.virtualspeechcenter.com/app/magical_concepts_app

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SENTENCE WORKOUT - VIRTUAL SPEECH CENTRE

Sentence Workout is a useful app to help support the development of the written form and expressive use of a child’s sentence structures.  It focuses on a variety of sentence types including nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs in a variety of sentence types.

The app is flexible to your child’s needs.  You can adjust the target sentences, whether you work on them by saying or writing the sentence, and the number of correct answers required before the reward football game.

The app is suitable for children aged 6 years and older.  It is available for download on iTunes (£12.99).  You can find out more information at: https://www.virtualspeechcenter.com/app/sentence_workout_app

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WH QUESTIONS - SUPER DUPER PUBLICATIONS

The app works on a variety of ‘wh’ questions, it initially offers the ‘who?’ question pack, however within the app you can buy additional resources such as ‘what?’ or ‘why?’ questions etc.  In each question pack you can choose between 4 games to play as a single or multi-player game.  For example, in the multiple-choice game players can either answer the question or select the appropriate question for the answer given.

The app uses bright and fun images and sounds that are engaging.  This is a useful app that can be adapted dependent on your child’s needs.

The app is available to download on iTunes (free with option to buy extras).

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CATEGORIES - I CAN DO APPS

As the name suggests ‘Categories’ focuses on organising information into their appropriate category. A variety of skills can be developed including a child’s vocabulary, understanding, spoken language and problem solving and linking ideas and concepts.  The app offers 5 activities; identifying an image relating to a category with an option of 2 or 3 images to select from, finding another item in a category, finding two images that go together and identifying the ‘odd one out’.

The app uses images of real objects and is simple and easy to use.

It is available for download on iTunes (£4.99).  You can find out more information at: http://www.icandoapps.com/

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WH QUESTIONS WHY? PUZZLE GAME - SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, ONUR TEKIN

This app focuses on understanding and answering ‘why?’ questions which develops a child’s receptive and expressive language skills and problem-solving abilities.  The player can complete a short jigsaw of an image and then answer a ‘why?’ question, for example ‘why is the child’s ice cream melting?’. You can record your answers using the iPad’s microphone and compare these to the answer given.   

This app can be used with children aged 4+ years.  It can also be adjusted to your child’s needs and levels.

It is available for download on iTunes for Free with some In-App Purchases.  You can find out more information at: https://learnwhquestions.com/en/why/

‘A’ is for ‘Autovocabiography’…

By Elen Wales - Service Lead for Milton Keynes and Specialist Generalist Speech and Language Therapist, Developing Specialist in Hearing Impairment

Your vocabulary is a product of who you are, where you’re from and what you’ve done. No-one else will have the same vocabulary as you and I think that’s kind of cool. If you imagine all the words you know were written down it would be like your autobiography, your ‘autovocabiography’.

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One of my favourite books, being an unashamed speech and language geek, is Dialects of England by Peter Trudgill. He talks about the different words used to mean ‘truce’ by children in games in different parts of the UK, and has a map labelled with which were used where:

‘Truce’: barley, keys, skinch, kings, crosses, exes, cruces, cree, scribs, fainties

Sure enough my Dad used ‘kings’ in Scunthorpe and my Mum ‘skinch/skinchies’ in Sunderland. 

Most children hear about 45 million words by the age of 3. To develop a typical-sized vocabulary, between the ages of 18 months - 6 years, they need to learn about 8 new words a day. And that’s learn. Not just hear, or be exposed to, or say once, but to fully understand and be able to use appropriately - crikey. 

Vocabulary development is affected by:

• experiences: things we see and do, either in our own lives, or with others

• memory: ability to remember and retain the word

• opportunities: to practise and hear the word repeatedly

• motivation: how important / interesting is learning the word to the child?

• cognitive abilities: any learning difficulties or cognitive impairments

Research shows a child’s vocabulary is one the best predictors of educational achievement and employment. It’s our job, as parents, teachers, therapists and adults working with these kids, to help them write their own autovocabiography.

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'No one else will have the same vocabulary as you and I think that’s kind of cool.'

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So how can we do it, how can we nurture them to be best-sellers? Well, there’s lots of ways and you don’t need a whole load of resources to do it. Firstly, we need to acknowledge that words are more than their spelling. If you want to sound clever you can call it ‘semantics’, but this just translates as ‘word meaning’. The overall goal is to develop a child’s semantic network, or web, of what the words mean and how they link to one another.

Consider the word ‘spoon’. We know that:

• it has 1 syllable and rhymes with ‘moon’

• it can be made of metal, plastic and sometimes wood and come in a range of different sizes

• it is in the same family as the words ‘knife’ and ‘fork’, and that word family is called ‘cutlery’

• we use a spoon for eating, stirring, measuring and serving

• it has a handle part and bowl part, and is normally hard and sometimes shiny

• spoons are often in drawers in kitchens and on tables or in hands in the dining room

• the word can also be used as a mild insult implying someone is stupid

 Imagine a word like a spider on a web in the brain. When the spider has a strong web, and is linked to lots of different information about the word, if the child forgets a few of these links the spider is safe and web can still hold the spider in the brain. If the spider has a weak web, and is only connected to a few bits of information about the word, then if these few bits are forgotten the web cannot hold the spider and he falls out of the brain:

To build strong webs we need to approach the word and learning process from lots of different ways, utilise the power of repetition and keep it fun. You can try the following:

• ‘Word of the Day/Week’: stick it on the fridge as reminder for them and you, see who can use the word the most, maybe keeping a tally on the fridge as you go

• Read: support the child to read, read to them, get them to track the words as you read them - it’s all good

• ‘I-spy’: play I-spy but instead of using clues about what letter the word begins with, use information clues, e.g. “I-spy something made from metal…found in the kitchen…we can use to eat with…”

• Word stickers: It is notoriously hard to get kids to do extra work outside of school, but a bit is better than nothing. I send kids home with stickers on which have a word we have been working on, and if parents only have time to ask the kids why they have a bizarrely large sticker with a random word on, on the way to the car, then it’s a good start.

• Make it multisensory: turn it into a cheerleading song, e.g. “give me an S…S!...give me a P…P!...” 

• Word associations: start with a word and the next person needs to name something related and continue around everyone, e.g. ‘spoon - soup - bread - butter - cow - black and white - newspaper - book - paper’. Because everyone’s word webs are linked in different ways, it’s always surprising when someone links something to a word you never would have!

• Don’t give all the information straight away: cajole them into a conversation with you, e.g. rather than saying “I went to a party at the weekend”, just offer a teaser such as “You’ll never guess where I went at the weekend…”

Lastly - don’t underestimate the capacity of these kids. I’ll never forget the time a 5-year-old boy, with a language delay I might add, used the word ‘googolplex’ in a session with me. It took me a good few seconds to pick myself up off the floor and dig around in my brain for a vague meaning of the word, which I recognised, but would never have remembered to use. I’ve now listed him as co-author of my autovocabiography - I’m hoping it’s going to be a best seller.

Trudgill, P. (2000) Dialects of England, 2nded. Wiley

The colour of language! Making language colourful

By Carolyn Fox - Service Lead for Hearing Impairment & Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in Hearing Impairment

What is colourful semantics?

Speech and Language therapists work with children who find communicating tricky. This may be because they can’t produce some speech sounds, understand social rules for interacting or perhaps they have trouble putting words together to form sentences. Your speech and language therapist will be able to give you information on how to support your child’s language using different strategies. In this blog however, we will look at one therapy approach used by many speech and language therapists, Colourful Semantics (CS), created by Alison Bryan. Have you heard of it? Perhaps you and your speech and language therapist are already using it or some of its principles.

CS uses a colour coding system to highlight words within sentences. Splashing words with a little bit of colour helps children identify them, increases the predictability of what is coming next and makes it more likely that they will, after enough practice, be able to independently make the sentences following the colour coding rules.

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Let’s paint the scene for you

Having visual information helps children tune in to what they see as well as what they hear. Using colour gives children an additional hook to pin the language on to while they learn, providing them with the language boost they need. 

Still a bit blurry? Let’s paint a sentence for you!

Carolyn is eating an apple at home.

There are different parts that make up this sentence:

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Why we love colourful semantics

• Giving your child a structure for supporting their word order can help them express themselves and it will also help when it comes to writing. We love CS because it offers an easy to use way to do this. One colour follows another, so your child can do this themselves once they have learnt the colour coding rule and then you can check together that the words are in the correct order.  Using a sentence strip like the one below can prompt your child to put the pictures in the right order:

• This approach to language learning can be used at almost any stage. Your little language learner might just be starting to understand the concept of ‘who’, perhaps they are putting two words together or they may even be constructing more complex sentences. CS provides a flexible approach and can help expand your child’s sentences regardless of where they are on their journey. 

• You can spend time focusing on the important concepts such as ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘what’ before you begin putting sentences together. This can be lots of fun and ensures your child has a good grip of these concepts before moving forward. For example, if you are teaching your child ‘who’, take a blank orange (the who colour) sheet of paper and find lots of different pictures of people or animals. You can have fun cutting these out from magazines or looking through family photos. As you look through the pictures place them on the orange card. It is important to emphasize the words ‘who’ and ‘orange’ so your child makes the link between the two as this will help with sentence building later. You can say things like ‘Who is this?’, ‘It is grandma’, ‘That is who it is’, ‘Who is orange, I will put it on the orange card’

• You can follow the method described above for ‘who’ with all the different coloured parts of a sentence e.g. ‘doing’, ‘what’, ‘where’. Once your child is confident, you can mix up the pictures and see if you can sort them on to the right coloured cards. 

• CS not only helps children learn the sentence components and construct sentences, it also supports them in understanding questions and asking them. Whilst using this approach, as you emphasize the key words and colours, they will learn to pay attention to questions e.g. ‘Where did she go?’, ‘Can you find the blue word?’, ‘That is right’, ‘she went to the cinema’, ‘you found the blue word’, ‘where’.

• You can get as creative as you like! Once your child is confident, help them to expand their vocabulary by prompting for alternative orange, green and blue words. This will teach them that sentences change and are flexible. They can explore sentences and change words all within the safety of this neat colour system! Eventually this will support storytelling, making up alterative endings and beginnings and helping them order their story!

• Get a little silly! An important part of learning language is to make sure it is as fun as possible. We all learn the most when we can have a good giggle. Have words for each part of the sentence written on different coloured card that your child can chose randomly, then following the order of the colours, they can make their own silly sentences. 

Need more inspiration?

If you would like any more information on how to use colourful semantics or think it might be a useful approach for your child, then why not contact one of our therapists at Magic Words! 

Have fun!

5 signs your child might need speech therapy...

By Frankie Paterson - Director of Magic Words Therapy and Specialist Generalist Speech and Language Therapist, Developing Specialist in Stammering

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How to spot signs that your child might be struggling with speech sounds:

• Your child is non-intelligible to adults who do not know them well

• They miss sounds from the beginning or ends of their words

• The child has a limited range of speech sounds

• They get vowel sounds mixed up

• They have difficulty with multisyllabic words

Early intervention is key, so as soon as you notice any irregularities, get in touch with us!

Bilingualism: Children developing more than one language

By Sunita Shah - Service Lead for North West London and Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in Bilingualism

I grew up in a bilingual family and was exposed to Gujarati and English from birth, I learnt to speak Hindi watching films and trips to India. I have very basic knowledge of French, Spanish, Arabic, Urdu and Punjabi, which has been learnt through school, and families I have worked with.

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I have two boys…. English is the dominant language at home, although we always use a few Gujarati words. My children hear Gujarati spoken when I am interacting with friends and family. The oldest that is 5 years old understands a few phrases and is now beginning to speak a few phrases. This is to my total embarrassment as I have been a practicing Speech and Language Therapist for 18 years and 15 years of my practice I has specialised in working with bilingual children and families and developing Early Years Settings, Schools and Speech and Language Departments nationally to encourage children to develop more than one language. How services should support and identify bilingual children who have learning needs or underlying communication difficulties. I have been the Chair of the London Clinical Excellence network for a number of years and also the National Advisor for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapist in Bilingualism.

BACKGROUND

Did you know 75% of the world is bilingual? And there are over 6,000 living languages in the world. In London Schools over 200 languages are spoken.

Do you speak another language? How did you learn the languages you speak? Was it from birth? Is it the school you went to? Or a country that you lived in? How fluent are you in the language/s you speak? Do you children speak and understand the language/s as you?- wow lots of questions….

BILINGUALISM – A simple word yet such a complex term. How would you define bilingualism?
Is it?
The level at which they understand language?
The proficiency of the language spoken?
Should this extend beyond oral language reading/writing?
Is it dependent on the frequency/context of language use?

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HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE?

Many families disregard teaching their children an additional language, thinking it will confuse them…. THIS IS THE TOTAL OPPOSITE! Bilingualism has sooooooo many ADVANTAGES to the cognitive and language system which we will explore later.

So how do children develop another language? Well if you think about it an Elephant will ALWAYS be ‘big, grey with a tusk and trunk’ no matter what language you speak, you are not changing it into a tiger!, we have to always remember that children will bring their knowledge and experiences as a joint system when developing languages. An elephant will always be the same, so when a child is learning more than one language they are not learning two features just one… the only thing is in English we call it “Elephant” and in Gujarati for example it’s a “Hathi”. There is always a common underlying proficiency, (Work of Jim Cummins 1984:2001).

STAGE 1
Words
Initially the child develops an understanding of words e.g. 'chair' (= 'sit on it'). Then they develop a name 'label' (vocabulary), which might include names of objects from all the languages the child hears

STAGE 2
Sentences
When making sentences, children use rules to help them put the words together. The bilingual child initially only has one set of rules. Your child may mix rules from both languages or use the rules from the language he/she hears most. This stage makes the child's sentences sound incorrect or confused

STAGE 3
Competency
Develops when the child separates the vocabularies and rule systems for the two languages.
The child may also mix the two languages in one sentence, this mixing is a normal and acceptable feature in bilingual language development.

VOLTERRA/TAESCHNER 1978

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ADVANTAGES OF BILINGUALISM

There are many advantages to being bilingual… here are a few
• Bilingual children have found to have a higher IQ
• Increases academic potential
• Have increased self esteem
• Think more creatively
• Find it easier to learn other languages
• Bilingual children have better reading abilities
• Communicate with a range of people
• Job Opportunities
• More empathetic

I think one of the priceless and most precious things that being bilingual has given me is the ability to communicate with the elder generation… it’s been magical being able to communicate in the same language as my grandparents listening attentively and learning so much about their past, their experiences, and life teachings. Something I treasure immensely.

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TOP TIPS TO BILINGUALISM

• It is important that you continue to use all languages introduced to the child.

• Do not be concerned about mixing different languages in one sentence. This is natural for a bilingual speaker.

• The focus should be helping the child feel successful in giving and receiving a message. Continue speaking your chosen language/s to your child even if he or she speaks back to you in a different language. If the child responds the message has been understood.

• Use short phrases with lots of gesture and facial expression, as well as expression in your voice. This will help the child understand the meaning behind the words.

• Do not tell your child “answer in XXX Language”, this puts additional pressure on the child to communicate and the child may develop anxiety or refuse to communicate.

• Do not only use one language, its natural for bilinguals to switch between languages, be as natural as possible with your communications.

• Avoid one language one environment, one language one person scenarios. Communication should be free and natural for it to give the child consistent model in the home environment to learn.

• Remember it’s All about exposure to the language if you do not speak the languages in the household they child may have exposure from grandparents.

• Encourage your child’s attempts to communicate in either language, giving lots of praise.

• Use nursery rhymes and stories from any culture/language