By Speech and Language Therapist, Kate Eden

I have always been a creative person. Arts and crafts are a great hobby of mine, so finding a job that allows me to work with children and be creative at the same time was super! Working at Magic Words I see lots of different children for therapy throughout the week. It’s really important that all the children I work with are motivated and interested in the activities we are doing in therapy, that’s why I always check with children what their interests are at the start of the therapeutic process.

Whether it’s Super Mario, Minecraft, dinosaurs or drawing, tailoring therapy to the interests of my children means that they are much more engaged in the therapy sessions meaning that we get more out of our sessions. It’s really useful for me to stay in touch with what the children are currently watching and playing with too, as this allows me to have conversations with them on their level about the topics they are interested in. Plus, it means that I can use my creativity to plan and prepare how to incorporate these themes into the therapy activities for each session.

I use Twinkl and Teachers Pay Teachers as a first stop in checking for resources and activities within different themes. I always have a selection of colouring pictures with me, everything from transport to themed pictures for the time of year (winter wildlife and Christmas trees in winter!). I love finding games with lots of short turns that allow you to incorporate lots of repetitions of children’s targets throughout. Some of my favourite board games for this include Jenga and the classic Pop Up Pirate. I always carry lots of pairs games as these are great to work on speech sounds or practice target words. It’s always fun to switch it up as well, no one likes playing or doing the same thing for too long!