The Magic of Books

The Magic of Books: How Reading with Children Builds Happy, Hungry Minds

By Specialist Speech and Language Therapist Frankie Paterson

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

— Dr. Seuss, “I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!”

Books take children to new places by helping them do well in school and in life. The stories they read take them on journeys in their imaginations where they can discover new worlds and meet new people whilst encountering language and ideas that enrich their lives. Reading helps children develop critical thinking skills and empathy for others and enhances their wellbeing and mental health.
We know all this. There is a wealth of research to prove it. And yet in 2019 it was found by the NLT (National Literacy Trust) that 383,755 children and young people in the UK didn’t have a single book of their own. Disadvantaged children were found to be even more likely than their peers not to own a book (9.3% vs 6%). *

So how does reading and being read to help children? In order to learn to read and write children first need a strong foundation of good spoken language skills. Children’s spoken language develops through the ‘back and forth’ of turn-taking in conversation, exposure to a wide range of words to build vocabulary and to songs, rhymes, books and stories, including establishing regular reading habits and something called dialogic reading.

Dialogic reading is an interaction, a shared experience between adult and child over a book. The adult follows the child’s interest and they chat together about what’s on the page or about experiences the child may have had that relate to the story. Doing this makes story reading a bonding experience that yields a great deal in the way of language learning. Dialogic reading might even go beyond the power of spoken conversation for developing children’s language skills.** Through dialogic reading children hear words in a variety of contexts. Pictures in books support the child’s understanding of the story and of the new words being encountered. Valuable discussion can be had about the meanings of words or the reason characters might have acted or thought in a certain way; this helps children develop analytical and inferential thinking. Dialogic reading helps young children develop joint attention with an adult which is vital for all their future learning. Children who read with their parents are more likely to go on to read books independently for pleasure. Reading for pleasure has been found to be more important to a child’s academic success than their parents’ socio-economic status. ***

We also know that children who read for pleasure have significantly better mental wellbeing than their peers who don’t. **** During the first national lockdown in 2020 an NLT survey found that 3 in 5 (59.3%) of the children and young people asked said that reading makes them feel better. *****

Regular reading routines benefit everyone in the family, not just children. The ‘bath book bed’ ritual offers parents and children protected time together amidst busy family life. The act of a parent reading to a child shows them they are important enough to get Mum or Dad’s attention in that moment and so can be hugely instrumental in building healthy attachment. Daily reading with children benefits adults too. Five to ten minutes a day of reading a book with your child is a quick way to increase your confidence in your parenting skills while having the fun and bonding experience of escaping into a story together.******

You don’t need to have great reading skills for this. Storytime should be an interaction between you and your child more than an exercise in reading ability. What can you see on the page? What might happen next? Why did a character do what they did? How might they feel? How did the story make you feel? You can get so much interaction and language out of just looking at a picture book together without reading any of the words. I do this all the time in my therapy with children. For parents who really struggle with reading there are silent picture books, containing no words at all, where captivating stories are told through illustrations alone.

Our Magic of Words in Books project is as much about getting families reading together as it is about donating books to children. For every therapy session we deliver in 2021 we will donate books to children who need them. Alongside this we are launching a campaign to show parents and educators how to share books with children in the way we do it in our therapy sessions.

I’ll leave you with some thoughts about how to get children passionate about reading. Most importantly make sure that they’re accessing books they’re excited and captivated by. Scour the library, local bookshop or online bookseller for books about things your child is into or that will capture their unique imagination. There are millions of books out there and you will be able to find some your child likes. Continue reading with your children way beyond the age they can read for themselves, carry on as long as they’ll let you! Ten minutes a day is enough. Even fitting in two or three minutes at different times in the day will do them, and you, the world of good.

* National Literacy Trust’s ninth Annual Literacy Survey, 2019.
** E. T. Rodriguez, C. S. Tamis-LeMonda, M. E. Spellmann et al., “The formative role of home literacy experiences across the first three years of life in children from low-income families,” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 677–694, 2009.
*** OECD (2010), PISA 2009 Results: Learning to Learn: Student Engagement, Strategies and Practices (Volume III)
**** The National Literacy Trust’s eighth Annual Literacy Survey of 49,047 children and young people aged 8 to 18 in the UK. https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/mental-wellbeing-reading-and-writing/
***** https://literacytrust.org.uk/news/jacqueline-wilson-our-first-author-week-our-relaunched-virtual-school-library-oak-national-academy/
****** Egmont’s Reading for Pleasure Survey February 2019. https://www.egmontbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2020/05/Reading-for-Pleasure-2019-paper.pdf

How to Know if Your Child Has Sensory Feeding Difficulties & How To Help

By Magic Words Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in Complex Needs, Raveena Ravinga

Here at Magic Words Therapy we have therapists, like me, who are specialists in supporting people who have feeding difficulties, that means difficulty with eating and drinking. This includes feeding difficulties that are sensory in nature.

A sensory feeding difficulty is when a child eats very few foods because they struggle with how foods taste, smell, feel, look, and even sound when eaten. We use all our senses when we have food in front of us, children with sensory feeding difficulties can experience a sensory overload when presented with food, causing them to have an aversion to foods and often resulting in a very restricted diet. This can be very worrying for parents who are struggling to make sure their child is not undernourished.

Here are my top 3 tips for parents of children with sensory feeding issues:

Concentrate on the food not your child’s behaviour

For all foods that your child does and does not accept, think about how the food presents:

Is it wet or dry? Is it smooth or crunchy? What other foods are the same colour? How does it sound? Does it have a strong smell?

This will help you understand your child’s sensory difficulties more and help you think of other foods your child may accept.

Remove all pressure

Food and mealtimes can already be a time your child does not look forward to, we want to try and create as much of a positive experience as possible. Part of this is removing all pressure for them to touch, smell and taste new foods. Be supportive if they refuse new foods.

Make food fun

Give your child the opportunity to experience food outside of mealtimes. Use different foods to do arts and crafts, e.g. make a Mr. Potato Head using different veggies for the arms, legs, eyes, mouth, hat. Or make a rainbow using different coloured foods. Let your child play with food. Get them involved in the kitchen when you’re baking, ask them to pass you different ingredients and get them to mix ingredients together. Give them choices of fun ingredients to put in! Give them as much hands-on exploration as possible. Take baby steps if needed, remember no pressure.

Our Top 3 Innovative Uses of Online Speech Therapy

By Magic Words Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in Complex Needs, Raveena Reniga

We at Magic Words Therapy are currently getting to grips with using online therapy, some of us for the first time, as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. We have been relishing the challenge to adapt to this new way of working and as a team we’re developing innovative new ways to provide speech therapy online. Here are our top 3 innovative uses of online speech therapy:

1. Arts and crafts – online therapy can and should be much more than just sitting at the computer. Therapists and clients can participate in practical activities together, e.g. creating art projects through turn taking, listening and following and giving directions. Craft projects can be completely tailored to each child’s interests, whether those interests be Lego, Peppa Pig or Spiderman. Something motivating can be created for every child.

2. Motivating games – an advantage of online therapy is that as the child is at home as opposed to school, the child’s most motivating toys are within arm’s reach, so us therapists at Magic Words have been using this to our advantage! Children can be really excited to share their favourite toys with us and become motivated when these are incorporated into the therapy sessions. This can work perfectly for listening and receptive language games. This is also a great way for parents to watch the games so that they can then repeat them, using toys they have to hand, between therapy sessions.

3. The World Wide Web – having a two-way screenshare option on our specialist platform has meant we are able to access the vast range of interactive activities and resources that are available to us online. We can adapt these to suit our therapy goals, working on targets whilst the children are having fun!

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Online therapy is becoming more and more popular as a way for families to connect with expert speech and language therapists, and for all the right reasons. Our team at Magic Words is loving being part of this exciting journey of discovery into the vast potentials of online speech therapy.

Providing Feedback to children with SEMH

By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, Gianina Giangrande

Children with Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH) needs will face more failures in their life than the average child. As a result, their baseline level of motivation may be gravely low and easily undone. It is therefore important that feedback they receive in response to performance is constructive as opposed to negative.

According to McLachlan and Elks (2015), an effective way to deliver feedback is to apply their model of constructive criticism.

Great work!

Open with a positive remark (+)

You used relative pronouns effectively in your story.

Provide a specific positive critique (+)

Remember that a new sentence starts with a capital letter.

Provide a specific negative critique (-)

I liked your use of descriptors. It helped me visualize the story well. Well done!

Close with a positive remark (+)

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Feedback can be provided orally but is most helpful if provided in a written format for the child to reference. Review the feedback with the child to make sure he or she understands the comments. If the child is expected to update the work, you can write the critique on a post-it note to be placed on the new submission. This will encourage him or her to apply your advice.

The more positive and concrete interactions students with Social, Emotional, and Mental Health needs have with you, the greater the trust that will develop. Trust is a core component of a positive interaction and, while it can take time, it is well worth the uphill climb.

Elks, L., & McLachlan, H. (2008). Secondary language builders: Speech and language support for 11–16s. St. Mabyn, United Kingdom: Elklan.

Online Therapy for School Children During Lockdown

By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, Catherine Clancy

How we at Magic Words Therapy are continuing to support the schools and school children who rely on us during the COVID-19 lockdown

During this period of lockdown Magic Words Online has already helped hundreds of children across the 50 schools we work in to continue uninterrupted with their regular speech therapy sessions. Despite the suddenness with which we had to shift from face-to-face sessions to online speech therapy, the results have been extremely positive with great feedback from parents, SENCos and the children themselves.

We are also helping the staff teams of the schools we work with to update their skills by providing online training courses to help with their CPD and forums for teachers and teaching assistants to ask us questions and get support on how they can best support children with speech, language and communication needs.

I personally see online speech therapy as an innovative way of working with children to ensure they continue to make the progress they need to reach their potential. Therapists like myself work hard within schools, supporting children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) and it would be heart-breaking to see that progress plateau, or even more upsetting, regress, during this unprecedented time of COVID-19.

This is why speech therapists like me are working closely with schools to ensure that children can access our therapy in a new way. Online speech therapy allows us to connect with children and support their progress using a live platform that is creative and resourceful. I have personally found online therapy to be fun and engaging for the children through the various in-built apps, games and the interactive and gameified nature of the activities.

This big shift in delivery of therapy to 100% online has opened our eyes to the many benefits of conducting therapy online. Once we have fought this pandemic together, I hope that online therapy will continue to help children access speech and language therapy within schools across the world.

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If you have any concerns about your child’s speech, language or communication, now is the perfect time to refer your child for a free online assessment: https://www.magicwordstherapy.co.uk/onlinetherapy-children

A therapist like myself will assess your child’s needs online and discuss the support we could give moving forwards. You will be able to see for yourself the interactive nature of online therapy and how this can be an effective solution for supporting your child’s progress towards their communication goals.

3 Myths About Your Child's Speech and Language Development

By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, Eva Chan

Myth 1: Signing with my child will delay his talking

Fact: Signing provides extra clues to help your child better understand and bridge the communication barrier. Makaton is a unique language programme that incorporates signs, symbols and speech to facilitate effective communication.

An example of how helpful Makaton signing can be is if your child has difficulty understanding concepts of position such as on, in and under, supplementing these spoken words with Makaton signs will provide your child with a clear visual cue. It will also allow your child to express themselves effectively and eliminate any frustration they might feel when trying to communicate.

Myth 2: Asking my child to repeat her sentences when she stammers will help with her fluency

Fact: When a child is being put on the spot, their level of anxiety increases and that makes stammering worse. Instead of asking her to repeat her sentences, provide her with your undivided attention and let her know that she has all the time in the world to express her thoughts.

Myth 3: Children learning more than one language should be encouraged not to mix words from both languages in a sentence

Fact: Mixing different languages in one sentence, which is also known as ‘code switching’ is common for most children who are bilingual and if they are doing it, this is a good thing!

This is normal for children immersed in a bilingual environment. Code switching does not mean your child is confused by being exposed to more than one language. Rather, code switching is a sophisticated way of interacting unique to bilinguals as they are able to access words from multiple languages to best get their point across. Children who code switch are actually showing impressive skill with how they are developing language, so be proud of them rather than worried! As a child progresses in their language journey, most children will be able to effectively tell languages apart and switch between them appropriately.

Switching to Online Speech Therapy

By Magic Words Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in Complex Needs, Raveena Reniga

Just like many other Speech Therapists all over the world during the last few weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown I have been exploring the very interesting world of online speech therapy. Going from seeing all my clients face to face, I thought it would be a whole new world. To my surprise, online speech therapy has many similarities to face to face therapy.

Something that has by far exceeded my expectations is the large variety of activities we have available to us on our Magic Words Online platform that are designed focus on all aspects of speech and language therapy. Not only that, we are also able put our own resources that we create onto our specialist platform.

I have been able to continue working on the same targets with the children I had been seeing face to face and I have seen the children continue to progress and excel without losing any of the fun of face to face! Activities can be tailored in the same way as face to face and for some children who are really into technology, this use of it in our speech therapy has made them even more motivated. It has been a fantastic way to maintain their social interaction.

For the few children who have not been able to access online therapy directly, I have been able to work directly with their parents/carers to support their child’s speech and language development at home. This support has ranged from creating personalised home programmes with daily activities, to supporting parents to adapt their environment and communication styles to integrate therapy into their daily routine, reviewing progress regularly.

For those who have not yet experienced it, online therapy can be daunting. I would definitely recommend any parent to speak with a therapist who can talk through how it could work for them and their child. It may just surprise you too!

How Does Hearing Affect Speech, Language and Communication Development?

By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, by Catherine Clancy

If you have concerns about your child’s speech, language and communication skills, one of the first questions to ask is: what is my child’s hearing like?

It has been well documented over many years that hearing is fundamental for speech and language development. If a child cannot clearly hear the sounds in the word being said, how can we expect a child to identify these sounds, discriminate these from other sounds and produce them? How can we then expect a child to develop his or her vocabulary?

A new-born hearing screening is offered to all babies in England which helps to identify babies with permanent hearing loss as soon as possible. Your child’s hearing may then be tested as part of a review for his or her health and development from 9 months – 2.5 years. Most children will then have a hearing test when they start school, at around 4 or 5 years old.

We are very fortunate in the UK with our NHS to have free screenings like these in place that support early identification of hearing difficulties. However, if you have concerns about your child’s speech, language and communication skills you should ask the question: what is my child’s hearing like? If you also have concerns about your child’s ability to hear, then their hearing can be checked at any other time by speaking to your GP or health visitor who will support a referral to audiology. It is important that your child’s hearing has been assessed in the last year if they are presenting with delayed speech and language skills.

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A therapist like myself will assess your child’s needs online and discuss the support moving forwards. https://www.magicwordstherapy.co.uk/our-team

Facilitating Positive Interactions with your child with SEMH Needs

By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, Gianina Giangrande

The more we focus on creating the right kind of environment for our children with SEMH (Social, Emotional, and Mental Health) needs, with an emphasis on warm relationships and suitable stimulation, the more we will see the secure and happy side of them. With schools closed and routines drastically altered, the PRIDE model (Gershenson, Lyon and Budd, 2010) gives parents ways to think about positive interaction in the home environment.

P: praise appropriate behavior.

Encourage positive behavior being displayed by making specific and anchored statements (e.g. “I love how you helped your brother prepare lunch”).

R: reflect appropriate speech.

Reply to your children’s remarks to show that you are listening and respond using slightly more complex sentences and wording to model it to them. (e.g. Child: I made a dragon. Parent:Wow, you made a really unique and devilish dragon. I like how the eyes show his deviousness).

I: imitate appropriate behavior/ engagement.

Imitate your child’s actions when they demonstrate appropriate engagement to reinforce your togetherness (e.g. If your child starts making up dance moves, join in and do the same).

D: describe appropriate behavior.

Be vocal about what the child is doing well so that they know they are engaging appropriately, and they feel praised (e.g. I like how you’re waiting nicely for your brother to finish).

E: be enthusiastic in tone and body language.

Keep your interactions positive and playful to help your child maintain interest and want to build on the experience (e.g. parent uses a lively tone and frequent smiles while together).

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The impact of applying these strategies will be nurturing a child to have greater self-esteem and be more willing to engage in positive interactions. Thus, the child will have greater access to social opportunities in his or her world. A win-win for all!

Online Speech Therapy: Top Tips for Parents

By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, Eva Chan

Here are some top tips for parents to help you prepare for your child's online speech therapy session so that they can get the most out of this highly effective way of accessing speech and language therapy.

SET THEIR EXPECTATIONS

Before the session, discuss with your child the differences between an online session compared to a face-to-face session. Explain they’ll be seeing and talking to their therapist on a screen!

ENVIRONMENT

Choose an appropriate environment. Reduce the background noise by setting up your laptop or tablet in a calm, distraction-free place in your home. A home office, or a sitting room would be ideal. To further reduce distractions, try giving them headphones.

EQUIPMENT

While most children will probably know how to work a mouse or touch pad, some training in this may be required for younger children who are not familiar with these. If you can help them to learn to use a mouse or touch pad your child can then join in onscreen drawing on the virtual whiteboard during the online therapy session. This is a really fun and useful part of online speech therapy.

PREPARATION

You can always set up a trial session with your therapist beforehand. Get your child to roleplay and get comfortable before a session starts. Allow ample time to prepare for a session so you are ready to go at the scheduled time!

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Making the change from face-to-face sessions to online speech therapy sessions can be a little daunting to think about but in practice it’s not too different once you get going! In fact,most of my clients have engaged and responded extremely well to online therapy. Which child do you know that wouldn’t want a virtual sticker or to play an online game as a reward after some good work?! Children seem to love seeing us through a screen and get very excited to see us in their living room!

Apps for Online Speech Therapy

By Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist, Susan Woodley

At Magic Words Online our online speech therapy platform has a fantastic range of built in communication apps. Here’s a selection of the apps we use in our online speech therapy and a bit about how they can help with a variety of different communication difficulties.

Auditory Workout

This app looks at following instructions and is recommended for use with children aged 4-10. It helps develop children’s key word understanding of language and understanding of concepts such as prepositions (positional language), size and colour. There are over 1000 different instructions on the app, meaning it can be tailored specifically to a child’s needs.  It uses engaging colourful pictures and with every correct answer the child earns a basketball. Once the child has earned 5 basketballs, they can play a game!

Articulation Carnival

This is a great app for children with speech sound difficulties. It can support children at every stage of their speech sound therapy. From working at producing the sound in words, phrases and sentences. The therapist can go through flashcards relating to the target sound or can play a memory game with the client.

Social Skills with Billy

This app can be used to help develop social skills, so is useful for working with our clients that have ASC (autistic spectrum condition) or social communication difficulties. You can work through social situations with the main character Billy, working out what are the appropriate things to say and do. There are over 100 real life situations to work through: birthday parties, going to the doctors, family dinners and so many more. Using this on our online therapy platform give the therapist and the client the opportunity to discuss the situations and the responses too.

Comprehension Aphasia

We also have apps to use with our adult clients. Comprehension Aphasia is an app designed for use with clients with Aphasia, central auditory processing disorder and Autism. It looks at understanding of yes/no questions and following directions with increasing levels of difficulty. It also has the option to have background noise, helping create an environment that simulates the difficulties our clients face in real life.

Wh- Question Island

This app can be used to work on children’s Blank Level understanding. Blank Levels relate to understanding different types of questions. The app starts with ‘what’ questions and progresses all the way to ‘why’ questions. It can be adjusted to the child’s level of need; with either multiple choice questions or the child giving the answer to the therapist. Using the app online gives the child the opportunity to discuss their answer and improve their understanding of the questions even more.

Magical Concepts

This is a fantastic app which works on understanding of language concepts such as same/different, positional language and size. It also works on understanding of describing words and emotions. This app uses photos to help develop children’s understanding in a real life context.

Syntax Workout

This app works on children’s use of spoken language. It focusses on grammatical elements that children with language disorders or autism may commonly find difficult, such as pronouns (he/she, his/hers) and function words (is/are). This uses a mix of photos and pictures with sentences for the child to complete

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If you’d like to know more about online speech therapy and how it could work for you just get in contact and one of our expert speech therapists will give you a call to discuss your needs and what we can do to help you achieve your own personal communication goals.

We Love Stories: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

By Speech and Language Therapist, Charlotte Twelvetree

Book Details:

“We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day. We’re not scared… UH OH …”

Anyone who has read this book will be singing this line in their head the same way that I did whilst writing it! In fact, this catchy, rhythmic, sing-song pattern is one of my favourite elements of this story and is what makes it so brilliant for helping develop language and communication in children.

I also love the variety of ways this book can be read and how it can be used in different environments.

It has an element of nostalgia for me on a personal level. As a child I can remember so clearly the excitement of going to the local library with my Mum to borrow this book. It was even better when they had the supersize version available!

Here are a few of my favourite ways to use this wonderful book:

Creating opportunities for communication:

The repetitive nature of this story can be used to create opportunities for children to communicate in any way possible. You can use pauses in repetitive phrases to allow your child to ‘fill the gap’.

Your child will then have the opportunity to complete the phrase. This can be done verbally, using vocalisations, communication boards, communication books, switches, a range of high-tech AAC, and signing.

It can also be used to request for continuation of the story because of the predictable adventure which is going to follow.

Sensory Stories:

Sensory stories can be used to bring life to books and immerse children in a story. Sensory stories are great for supporting children with sensory differences, learning disabilities, attention and language difficulties. Children can experience a wide range of textures, smells, lights, movements, tastes and sounds related to the story.

I regularly read this book outside where the children can see, smell, feel, and experience the grass, mud and water. Using our senses can be very beneficial in developing a child’s understanding of language. I also use a sensory bag to create the effect of the obstacles you come across in the story. For example; we will throw foam balls in the air, turn on fans, and feel ice cubes to create the experience of the snowstorm.

Language exposure:

“You can’t go over it. You can’t go under it. You’ve got to go through it!”

There are always lots of smiles and laughs when you get children to move. We love acting out this story as if we are trying to get through the different obstacles. Especially at the end when we tip-toe ‘through the cave’ trying not to wake the angry bear. It is a fun and engaging way to teach positional language and concepts such as ‘loud’ and ‘quiet’.

Joint Attention and Social Communication Development:

I have used different elements of this story during Attention Autism activities at all 4 stages. You can tell this story in such an entertaining way that you become the most exciting person in the room, encouraging joint attention skills. My personal favourite is getting children to take it in turns to make their way through the grass, mud, forest, snowstorm and the cave.

Narrative and Story-telling Skills:

There is a clear, repetitive, and well-illustrated sequence of events throughout this story. This creates a great opportunities for story-telling. Encourage your child to tell you what is happening. Think about ‘who?’, ‘what doing?’, ‘what?’, and ‘where?’

For example; “The girl is walking through the river”

This book gives endless opportunities for you to get creative!

For more information about Attention Autism, please click on the link

http://ginadavies.co.uk/

We’re going on a bear hunt by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

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We Love Stories: Penguin

By Speech and Language Therapist, Claire Blagden

Book Details

Ben gets a present. He opens it and inside is a penguin. Keen to have lots of fun with his new friend, Ben says, “Hello Penguin” but Penguin says nothing.

Author Polly Dunbar has entertainingly illustrated some of the very typical (and sometimes very strange) things we do as adults to try to help children talk. The story of Penguin highlights just how difficult speaking can be for some children and that we don’t always know the reasons why.

Ben tries everything he can think of to make his new friend speak, including;

Asking questions: “Can’t you talk?”

Being silly: blowing raspberries, tickling and even ignoring him.

Coaxing: “Will you talk to me if I stand on my head?”

Penguin does not say a word.

Ben’s frustration builds and builds…. Penguin can sense it. Until eventually, Penguin’s steadfast silence tips Ben over the edge. Ben loses all sense of rationality and has a full meltdown demanding that Penguin says something. There follows a twist in the tale, which sees Ben and Penguin have an extraordinary encounter with a big blue lion who eats Ben in the blink of an eye for being too noisy. Penguin (still silent) bravely rescues Ben from the lion’s belly and their very special friendship is cemented. This is the catalyst for a change in their relationship, from one of expectation and uncertainty to love and security and where (much to Ben’s relief) Penguin opens up and tells Ben EVERYTHING.

How does this relate to Speech and Language skills?

The entire process of talking; from first words to full sentences is very complex and most of the time we don’t think about it unless we encounter a problem. Picture this very familiar scenario; at home your child never stops talking. You go out to meet a friend, your child hides behind you and doesn’t say a word. You encourage them to look and prompt them kindly: “Say hello”. Your child turns away, grips your leg tighter and buries their face into your coat. At this point you might feel a little awkward, you don’t want people to think your child is being rude so you might say something like; “come on, don’t be silly, you can say hello can’t you?” Or maybe a grandparent or another family member has come to visit and you notice your child goes from being a chatterbox to being reluctant to answer all granny’s questions. Or maybe you are a teacher? You know Sally can talk because you’ve seen her talk to her friends at playtime but she won’t answer the register or speak to you in class. This kinds of scenario can result in a bit of a stalemate. It can feel very worrying to see such a change in a child’s behavior too.

When in a situation where we are not sure what to do, adults sometimes say or do things that they wouldn’t ordinarily if they’d had time to think about it a bit more. For example, Ben tries every trick in the book to get Penguin to speak which only makes Penguin more anxious about talking but Ben hasn’t considered this.

Some of the phrases below might sound familiar to you. Maybe you’ve said them or have heard someone else say a similar thing?

“Have you forgotten how to talk?”

“He’s just being a bit shy today”

“If you don’t say thank you, you won’t be able to come to play again”

“Grandma will think you are rude if you don’t say bye bye”

Can you spot what all these phrases have in common? Well, they all carry a weight of expectation for the child to speak on demand. Most of us can relate to feeling similar anxieties as young people. Remember that time in school when you were dreading being the one picked to answer a question in class?

So.. what can you say or do instead?

It’s a relatively simple formula. Try to ‘say what you would like your child to say’ (but please don’t ask them to say it).

Back to the earlier scenarios…

Instead of “Say hello” you could say “Oh look, there’s Lucy. Hi Lucy! Hi, we are glad to see you”. Instead of “Say thank you” you could say “I bet you had lots of fun, thank you for playing together”. Instead of “Say bye bye” you could say “Bye bye Grandma, see you soon, bye bye” (cue lots of enthusiastic waving).

You can also use comments instead of asking questions to create opportunities for children to speak if they want to. This removes some of the pressure or expectation for the child to respond straightaway.

Instead of “What did you do at school today?” you could say “I bet you had a busy day, I’d love to know what you did”.

In schools, instead of “Who can tell me..?” you could say “Who would like to show me..” and give children alternative ways of participating that don’t rely solely on speech.

Try not to ask questions, bribe, coax or even gently encourage ‘on demand speech’. It’s not useful as a strategy for encouraging children to use language, in fact it can have quite the opposite effect (and you avoid getting eaten by a lion so it’s a win-win).

Some children are naturally quieter than others, as are lots of adults. We live in a society that rewards extroverts but let’s remember that not all of us enjoy being center stage. The same goes for children too. As early as pre-school, children are rewarded for putting up their hands to speak, to be active participants in a busy language-rich environment, but not all children will want to get involved in these outward displays of confidence. It’s easy to forget this and focus on trying to develop children’s ‘confidence’ as something others can see rather than focusing on building confidence through acceptance and respect for a child’s very individual personality and character.

NB: If you notice a persistent pattern of differences in your child’s speaking habits in different places, or if you have a child in your setting who you feel is more than ‘just a bit quiet’ please contact a Speech and Language Therapist to discuss. We will be able to give you advice and recommend further help if needed.

Penguin, written and illustrated by Polly Dunbar

We Love Stories: Giraffes Can’t Dance

By Speech and Language Therapist, Bethany Potter

In this series ‘We Love Stories’ our Magic Words Speech Therapists are going to be letting you know their favourite story books to use with children to develop their speech, language and communication skills and give you tips on how to make the most out of these stories.

It’s Bethany’s turn first! She’s chosen ‘Giraffes Can’t Dance’.

Book details: Gerald the giraffe is very good at standing still and eating leaves off trees but when it comes to dancing, he is pretty bad. His bandy knees and thin legs make dancing very difficult so instead of joining his jungle friends on the dance floor, he gets laughed at which makes him very upset. With some help and inspiration from a friendly cricket, Gerald discovers that anyone can dance… if you just have the right music. Gerald wows the jungle animals with his dazzling dancing.

Speech and Language targets: Books are a fantastic resource for addressing speech and language targets. Here are my tried and tested ideas on how Giraffes Can’t Dance can be used with children to develop their skills in lots of different ways. The overall moral of the story and the use of rhyme makes this a very enjoyable story to share during your next story time as a parent or therapy session as a Speech Therapist!

Teaching the moral of the story: Giraffes Can’t Dance is an important story for teaching children about accepting that everyone is different, embracing their own differences, and building confidence and self-esteem.

Rhyme & sound awareness:

Rhyme – Rhyme is used throughout this book in words such as ‘floor and roar’, ‘trees and knees’.

Syllable counting – how many syllables are in… ‘giraffe, elephant, dance’

Initial sounds – recognising what sound the word starts with to develop phonological awareness.

Speech sounds:

‘j’ in ‘giraffe, Gerald, jungle, imagine’.

‘n’ in ‘neck, knees, animal’.

‘r’ in ‘run, really, rhinos, roar, rock, rolled’.

‘d’ in ‘dance, different, dancer, Gerald, bad, sad’.

‘r’ blends in ‘crooked, trees, grass, froze, dream, crept’.

Vocabulary:

- Adjectives – tall, long, slim, bad, thin, splendid, clumsy, little, beautiful.

- Nouns – animal names: giraffe, warthogs, rhinos, lions, chimps, cricket, baboons.

Giraffes Can’t Dance, Written by Giles Andreae and Illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees.

Getting Creative with Therapy

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!

Teletherapy: The top 3 benefits of Online Therapy

By Speech and Language Therapist, Catherine Clancy

Magic Words Therapy has recently collaborated with specialist, bespoke online speech therapy software, designed by tech experts and speech therapists to start offering the option of online therapy sessions with the aim of making our therapy services more accessible to more people.

Our use of Online Therapy has provided convenience and flexibility for families we already see for therapy. For example, some families who live further away from our clinic have now chosen to receive some or all of their therapy sessions via teletherapy, from the comfort of their own living rooms. Teletherapy completely cuts out the time they used to spend travelling and sitting in traffic, giving them more time in their week to spend together.

During online sessions, we can provide therapy in real-time to support communication targets via this motivating and versatile platform, so that clients can access our high-quality therapy in a way that works around busy lifestyles.  

We have found that the idea of Online Therapy can initially seem quite daunting for some clients, particularly to those who are a bit technology-phobic! However, having recently started delivering online therapy myself I’m excited to have branched out into this new and innovative field. Using teletherapy is actually pretty straight forward for both the therapist and the client. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was compared to my expectations.

I have been impressed by how teletherapy has supported children’s progress and positively influenced my delivery of therapy. Below are my top 3 benefits of using online speech and language therapy:

1.  Greater Flexibility: Teletherapy has allowed me to work flexibly around the busy lifestyles of the families I support. A parent decided to make the switch to teletherapy as it gave her family the ability to integrate regular sessions within a busy weekly routine, where commuting to clinic for therapy sessions would not have been realistic. 

2.     A Motivating and Versatile Platform: I have found that children love working with me via teletherapy sessions as they are really motivated to use technology they love like laptops and tablets. Online Therapy contains fun and engaging online resources that make it very enticing for children to join in with the activities. As a therapist I love that we can upload our own personalised resources onto the platform as well as being able to use apps from Virtual Speech Centre. Virtual Speech Centre is a well-renowned speech and language therapy app developer. https://www.virtualspeechcenter.com/

3.     Better Use of Home Resources: Teletherapy is an online service where families and clients link in from home whilst the therapist is usually in an office environment. Because clients don’t have access to clinic resources, the therapist has to work innovatively to use online therapy resources and toys within the child’s everyday environment. This often means therapy is more functional as families are supported to use activities, resources and toys that are easily accessible. This supports the carryover of therapy and overall progress with targets. 

In addition to my top 3 benefits of teletherapy, I think it’s really important to mention that the use of Teletherapy has also helped Magic Words Therapy and the families we support to reduce our collective impact on climate change. Online therapy sessions have resulted in less air-polluting car use for both therapists and families and a greater emphasis on online resources that don’t require printing which uses lots of paper and ink. 

Despite its undeniable benefits there are of course some limitations to Teletherapy. This way of accessing therapy can work well for most clients, but not all. For some clients, face-to-face sessions are essential in order to support their engagement in therapy and overall outcomes. If you would like to discuss teletherapy as an option for your child I would highly recommend speaking to one of our therapists about this. They will be able to get to know your child and identify whether teletherapy would work for them and their unique needs.

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.