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

What's the effect of screen use on the development of children’s speech, language and communication skills?

By Frankie Paterson - Specialist Magic Words Speech and Language Therapist

As speech and language therapists we are concerned with anything that could be affecting how children's speech, language and communication skills develop. We have been wondering about how lots of screen time is affecting children. We are keen to look into this issue as, with millions of children now using tablets for several hours a day from as young as 18 months old, we worry that this could be having an affect on how many of their early cognitive skills are developing, including language development and the development of their attention and listening skills.

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I recently listened to a programme on Radio 4 called ‘Why Can’t Our Children Talk?’.

I was very interested to hear on this programme that many teachers across the UK are voicing concerns about screen time. This echoes the concerns that I am hearing from the teachers I work with in schools in Luton. Many of the teachers who are voicing concerns have been working with children of 4 or 5 years old for many years and they are struck by recent marked differences in how children of 4 or 5 are presenting in terms of their language and attention skills.  Here's what one teacher had to say on Radio 4 about her own experience with children and screens:

 “Our children.. over the past 3 or 4 years, if you’ve got the interactive whiteboard on in the classroom they find it impossible to do anything apart from look at the screen… If there’s you to look at as the teacher.. telling them a story or there’s a screen, even if there’s nothing on it, they’re naturally pulled to look at the screen…They.. struggle with making eye contact because often when they’ve been hearing nursery rhymes.. it’s obviously been on a tablet where it’s been a.. brightly coloured screen they’ve been looking at rather than looking at somebody’s face”- Lorraine Boothe, Reception class teacher and assistant head at Chaul Lane Infant School. 

The Radio 4 programme featured a study that has recently been carried out on 900 toddlers in Canada. A clear link was found between language development and screen time in children under 2. It was conducted by Professor Catherine Birkin, a paediatrician in Toronto. She said:

“Children who used mobile devices.. had a higher risk of an expressive language problem at 18 months of age”

Apart from this one study in Canada there is no other evidence as yet about whether screen time is adversely affecting children's development or not. Much more clinical research needs to be conducted into this question before firm conclusions can be arrived at. However I think this question is hugely important as it has implications that we need to take seriously as a society

The Benefits of a Fidget Toy

By Danielle Allen - Service Administrator

In today’s modern age, many of us with children do find ourselves letting them watch YouTube from time to time. The videos more often than not, consist of unboxing of toys, some of which are fidget spinners. I could never understand why my children found these entertaining which is why I took it upon myself to research these types of toys. The more research I did either online or speaking to my son’s nursery teacher, I came to the positive conclusion that there is a benefit to the use of these toys.

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My son has struggled with poor attention and listening which can cause disruption in his nursery activities. With him moving into reception this year, I decided to further my research into fidget sensory toys to see if they could be of use for my son and other children who struggle with similar behavioural issues. I found that not only do they help with attention and listening but also ASD, anxiety and many more. From fidget spinners to fidget cubes, putty to taggy blankets, sensory balls to squishies. The list is endless on the variety of sensory toys available which allow families the ability to do trial and error for which one works best for your child.

A recent purchase for my son was a sensory fidget bag with a variety of toys inside. I actually found this from a fantastic online store on Facebook called Once Upon A Time. I showed my colleagues who have now purchased these for their children they see in clinic and at school. There has been great feedback from both the children and parents.

So, what exactly is a fidget toy and how do they help? Fidget sensory toys are tools which can help boost attention through the use of the toy which could allow him or her to focus more at school or at home. As I had mentioned before, there are a variety of different toys available from the way they look, to the way they feel, and in the general use. The fidget spinner for example, has a central disc on ball bearings with extended wings allowing you to spin the device. Or there is the fidget cube which has sensory tools on each face of the cube such as, a roller ball or a spring action button.

Overall, there are numerous benefits using these toys to address certain struggles a child faces at school or at home. The biggest is increasing the concentration and focus of a child. Studies have shown that using the left and right hemispheres of the brain is required for learning and carrying out task. Fidget toys have been proven to help these as movement and sensory input are essential and allow this to happen. Case studies have assisted this research in confirming that increased focus in a learning setting was achieved in a student who was using a stress ball.

Another huge benefit is using these toys to reduce anxiety. Fidget toys, although not a cure, can have a calming effect of those who suffer with anxiety or sensory issues, such as ADHD and ASD. It can help relieve the symptoms the user gets notably in the hands and fingers, they keep their hands busy. Some parents and teachers have raised concerns of it becoming more of a distraction however with children with ADHD or ASD for example, a situation can become overwhelming causing more disruption and potential harm. Fidget toys allow the child to fidget which can be a minor disruption at first, but can have a vast amount of benefits such as a soothing or calming effect. This can then develop to increased concentration and focus which boosts the productivity and learning for the child and classmates.

From a personal perspective, I have found fidget sensory toys highly beneficial for my son and am hoping he will continue to improve when he starts reception. It is a working progress which I will take at his pace as after all, it is going to be beneficial for him growing and building up his skills with attention and listening. I am looking forward to trying the variety of fidget toys we have and testing which ones help him focus more.

Glue ear. So, you have been told your child has this, now what?

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

What is glue ear?

Glue ear is also known as Otitis Media. If you have heard of these terms before, it is likely that either your child or a child of someone you know has suffered with it.  But what exactly is it, how does it affect your child and how concerned do you need to be? Well in this blog, we will be looking at this sticky subject and providing you with some answers and advice. 

Your ear is a clever little listening device that is made up of three parts; the outer, middle and inner ear. For us to hear sounds, the sound must pass from the outer ear, into the middle and inner ear and it then sends the sound information to the brain for processing. However, in a child with glue ear, the sound has a bit of difficulty passing through. It enters the outer ear but when it gets to the middle ear it meets an obstacle; sticky fluid, hence the name ‘glue ear’. A child with glue ear is therefore unable to ear all the auditory information that they should due to this trespassing substance in the middle ear. 

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Glue ear is common in young children 

Glue ear is most common in children between ages 2 and 5, this is also an optimum sound and language learning period! Around 15-20 percent of this age group will suffer from it at some point (Peer, L, 2005). Older children can get it too, although this is less common.

Signs to look out for if you are worried that your child may have glue ear

Knowing what to look out for is very important as glue ear will come and go. This means that children with glue ear will at times have no problems hearing and at other times they will struggle.

Watch out for:

• Lots of yawning?? Does your child seem more tired these days?

• Complaints of ear pain. If glue ear is present it may be causing some discomfort. 

• Is your child waking you up in the night (more than they usually do?)

• Does your child seem like they always have a cold? Are they breathing through their mouth?

• Does your child seem to ignore you when you ask them to do something? (More than they usually do?!) Do they generally seem like they are finding it hard to hear?

• Is your child angrier? Frustrated?

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Will glue ear have an impact on my child’s ability to learn?

All children will respond and behave differently when they have glue ear. There are many ways it can impact upon their ability to stay focused. Look at the list below to get informed and if you notice any of these things, it may be worth getting your child’s ears checked. 

Your child may:

• Need more repetitions of words and instructions or generally be slow to learn new information.

• Get confused or mishear information. 

• Have trouble staying on task or focused at school.

• Have limited vocabulary knowledge or they may not be learning words at same rate as their peers.

• Find it hard to join in games or follow the rules of a game.

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What can I do to support my child’s hearing?

If you are concerned, the first thing you should do is get a hearing test for your child. From there, there are some things you can do to help your child focus and support their hearing potential.  

• Talk about what it means to listen. Raise your child’s awareness to this e.g. the importance of facing the person, looking at the speaker, telling an adult when you don’t understand.

• Obtain your child’s full attention when you are speaking to them

• Where possible, reduce background noise e.g. mobile phones, television.

• Talk to your child at their level so they can see your face and lips. This will give them invaluable extra information about the words and sounds that you are saying. 

• Give your child the time that they need to process what you are saying. If needed, break down your sentences in to chunks. 

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If in doubt, check it out

In some cases, the sticky fluid will go away without treatment, but it is best to get your child checked out just in case. 

Speak to your GP and tell them what you have noticed and what you are worried about. There are different ways forward in terms of treatment. Your child may be given antibiotics. If this fails to resolve the sticky issue, then grommets may be offered. These are placed into the ear and will drain out the fluid.

Early identification is always better. In the case of glue ear, the earlier the problem is identified, the sooner your child can be given treatment. Early treatment will decrease any adverse effects on language learning and general development.

For more information and support, contact one of our Magic Words therapists for a chat or take a look at the NCDS website:

NCDS Website

Mummy-hood and Speech and Language Therapy

By Hannah Heslam - Speech and Language Therapist

As a speech and language therapist and a Mum it can be handy to have all this knowledge about speech and language development. It’s been useful to be able to see where my children are in relation to the developmental milestones I have used so much in my role as a therapist. I felt absolute fascination when each of my little ones finally started talking which was a delight and a worry, as for any Mum. 

When I was 32 weeks pregnant with my second child I became concerned that my baby was not moving. I was encouraged by my other Mummy friends to seek advice, and by the evening I was in the hospital having an emergency C-section.  It was a scary time and I was presented with some challenging prospects for my baby, a beautiful boy.

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My Journey

Having had a relatively easy pregnancy with my first little boy I wasn't prepared for or expecting to have my second child born early. It was a difficult time being swept into the delivery room and told by doctors it was going to be a hard journey ahead. He was born weighing 3lbs 4oz and spent just under 4 weeks in intensive and special care.  However, he has just turned 5 years old and is surprising us all the time with how well he is doing, achieving in line with or above expected levels at school and with his happy, cheeky personality. I’m sure he couldn’t have done so well without all the support of our family and friends.

At around 2 ½ years old, despite being able to put words together, his speech was at times difficult to understand. Wanting the best for my son and for him to be able to communicate as effectively as possible with other children, I started to carry out some speech activities through play. This really improved his intelligibility.  At about 3 ½ years old he did still make some sounds by releasing air through his nose instead of his mouth and he received some excellent therapy from a specialist speech and language therapist which resolved this issue.

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"Being a speech and language therapist and a mum, I'm extremely passionate about how early intervention really does work. I've seen the results in children I work with and in my own little one of course"

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Some words of advice about speech and language

I feel that my speech and language knowledge has supported me with my own children and I know that not everyone will have this wealth of knowledge.  With Magic Words our goal is to support children with speech, language and communication needs. Below are a few key pieces of advice for you:

Repeat and Expand:

To help with your little one's language development, repeat and expand what they say. This helps to show them how they can build their sentences and to value what they are interested in communicating about e.g. Child: ‘I have car’. Parent: ‘Yes, you have a blue car’. 

Commenting is great:

As parents we naturally want to ask our child lots of questions to check how they are getting on. A great way to develop language is to reduce the pressure of questions and to model language to our children by asking 1 question to 4 comments. Think of a hand, 1 question (your thumb) to every 4 comments (your fingers). 

Use modelling:

If your child has unclear speech, when they say a word that isn't clear, instead of correcting them, model it back to them so that they can hear a good model of how it should be said. For example, Child: ‘I have a dat’. Parent: ‘Yes, you do have a cat’.  This allows your little one to hear how to say the tricky word but takes away the pressure of having to say it themselves.

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The wonderful world of Pablo!

By Danielle Allen - Service Administrator

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is still a disorder that is vastly looked over. It is a complex disorder that has a variety of levels from mild escalating up to severe. Luckily today, although overlooked, people are becoming more aware of it and that it isn’t just a child misbehaving in the supermarket. As a mother I have found it hard trying to explain to my children why other people may act or look a little different to them and have found it such a relief that Cbeebies cover a wide range of disabilities and disorders in their TV shows or with their presenters. From previously working in an NHS setting providing paediatric training and now working in a Speech and Language Therapy setting for paediatrics, I have had some exposure to ASD children, but it wasn’t an area I was particularly knowledgeable in until doing my own research and then discovering the Cbeebies show Pablo which was released late 2017.

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After work I often join my children on the sofa for a cuddle and to relax to the sound of the TV in the background whilst they tell me about their day at school. It has become routine now that once I get in we will put on Cbeebies for the 5.45pm show of Pablo. This is incredibly child friendly and explains in a simplistic way about the many troubles someone who has autism could be experiencing and why they react the way they do. Even with Pablo's autism being as mild as it is, the programme helps outline what autism is. Not only is it informative for the child watching but also for us as the parent or carer. In the show each character represents a different area of autism and although all those who have autism do not necessarily show all areas of it, it is a guide to and broad representation of autism.

• Noa the dinosaur is great at problem solving but finds it hard to read others facial expressions

• Llama loves to repeat things others say and has a keen eye for detail

• Draff the giraffe loves to learn facts and is often heard saying “in point of fact”

• Mouse doesn’t like loud noises or crowded places but is very organised and is also a perfectionist

• Tang the orangutan is hyperactive but also isn’t good at reading social cues or other people’s feelings

• Wren often is seen flapping her wings to calm down, she also lacks concentration and is easily distracted

Many parents and others who have ASD have praised Cbeebies on social media since the premiere of the show in October 2017, leaving comments on Twitter such as:

 'My son Jaime is Autistic and I firmly believe that exposing children early to Autism and Autistic behaviour helps children become more accepting of their Autistic peers. Can't wait to watch the show with the little ones.'

 'I'm so happy you've done this there is hope for awareness :)'

‘I never thought I'd reach that point in my life where I started watching CBeebies again without kids. But, being like him, I am just compelled to watch #pablo. And after a few months, I just feel I have to say, @CBeebiesHQ, you done good. #ActuallyAutistic’

‘Pablo is the most moving, un-politically correct & realistic show 4 #Autism makes me cry!’

Another parent simply posted 'This is just so good I could cry’ with a variety of crying emojis.

It is amazing that something as simple as a show can have such a positive impact on the ASD community and help spread awareness in such a creative way that is easy to understand and enjoyable to watch. What makes the show even more remarkable and relatable is that the young boy who plays Pablo is an ASD child himself! We have seen Cbeebies do this with many topics, Justin Fletcher’s shows for example, Something Special being a prime example for making children aware that everyone is different and special in their own way. Even though my children are still very young at the ages 3 and 5, I am glad they’re getting exposure to the disabilities and difficulties of others through the shows they see on Cbeebies, unlike my childhood growing up where there was very little exposure.

So as a mum of two, I applaud Cbeebies, they have a household of Pablo super fans! I’d also like to applaud them with their wide range of shows exposing children and families to the different cultures and disabilities that are in world around them, I’m sure I’m not alone with that thought!

Have we forgotten how to play?

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

Looking back at my fond childhood memories of growing up in Macclesfield, Cheshire, us kids had a fantastic time playing with friends and family.  In those days it was safe to play on the streets in the neighbourhood; hide and seek, water fights, hand stands, chasing friends, chasing balls and annoying my older brother whilst he and his friends jumped over cans with their skateboards.  Those were the days... fun...carefree... days filled with happiness and laughter. We didn’t need mobile phones for our Mums to monitor our whereabouts, we would just run to the command “dinners ready!”.  When we were indoors we would eagerly wait for a knock on the door and a “is Suni allowed to come out and play?”.

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Reflecting on these treasured days of my childhood I feel very aware of how much things have changed since then. Now that we are so governed by social media, tablets and technology.  It is not just the influence of this technology but also how safe we feel our children are to have the freedoms we enjoyed. I know that bringing up my own children in Harrow I would never even let them out the front door without me by their side.   

The question I really feel we need to ask ourselves in our modern world of tablets and consoles is whether we as a society have forgotten how to play. We are bombarded with marketing for so many different types of toys and games, but as a parent wanting to choose toys that will enhance your child’s development; what do you choose?  As a mother myself being exposed to the world of children’s toys I find that there can be such a pressure to choose toys that help my children’s learning of letters, numbers, shapes, colours, handwriting... the list goes on! I find myself wondering whether 3 year olds really need to know the names of all the planets in the solar system or all the names of the bones in our bodies? There seems to have been such a shift towards play being a tool for developing our children’s academic abilities that we have forgotten what is really important.  We need to get back to letting our children just be children! Let them play, get messy, have fun and use their imaginations!

How often do you actually just sit on the floor and play with your child? Are you able to switch off your urges to encourage your child to be focusing on learning and instead to simply let go, follow your child’s lead and pretend to be a fairy in a grotto with them or a wizard battling through an enchanting forest? 

I am not saying tablets and watching TV should not play a part in children’s lives. I know myself as a full time working mum arriving home late that there is that moment of peace you get when they are watching a favourite movie or playing on their tablets so you can just get all the household tasks  done!! Also in today’s technology focused world our children do need to be able to use t technology adeptly in order to be able to compete in the job market when they grow up.

We need to consider what we are exposing our children to. How much opportunity are we giving them to develop their social interaction skills, imagination and ability to communicate using language? To best achieve this, tablets and the TV need to be switched off and we need to play with our children and interact with them in a fully conscious way.  There are some great board games available which develop vital skills such as turn taking and interaction and children just love to win! Most importantly these games are about having fun together, about children laughing when their parents are silly, fun and play their games... Even if you’re not following the ‘adult rules’ of how things should be done.  It’s all about letting go and sharing the play experience with our children.

Sometimes when I look at my boy’s playroom it looks like Toy-r-us has just thrown up in there!  The best thing I did last year was to put all my their toys in the garage in boxes and called this their ‘toy shop’. My elder boy aged 5 is allowed to go in there once a week with his little basket. First he returns last week’s allowance of toys and then he chooses a new selection of toys that he will play with for the week ahead.  This ‘toy library’ system has made him appreciate his toys more, encouraged good behaviour in return for treat days on weekends, and promoted much more  excitement about always having something new to play with.  Most importantly from my perspective this scheme has improved his concentration skills. He is far more engaged with the toys he’s playing with as he has fewer toys to flit between.

A helpful thing to remember to do is to take a step back and think carefully before spending money on expensive toys for your children. Instead use your imagination and think of activities you can do together to help develop your child’s imagination and interaction. Things like making dens, playing dress-up and magical tea parties with dinosaurs and fairies.  Take time out to bake cakes and cookies with them; it’s motivating, fun and can really bring on their language, confidence and life skills.

There is such an emphasis placed nowadays on parents needing to DO THINGS and SPEND MONEY with on children like taking them to various experiences and activity centres. It’s so important to find balance with this kind of thing.  You don’t want your child getting so used to always going out to be passively entertained that when they are at home you are unable to have fun as a family. Try having fun with music and books; using interactive story telling and acting out scenes using funny voices for the characters.

Research is showing that today’s children are developing their play and imaginations skills later than children in the past. Also children’s lung capacity is decreasing and there is a higher instance of asthma. No wonder really as we don’t go out as regularly in the fresh air. This winter let’s wrap the kids up warm and go and pay in the park or the woods.

Let’s spend time with our children. Let’s teach them and remind ourselves how to let go, have fun and use our imaginations. So that when they are adults they treasure the memories they had growing up with their friends and families, having fun and just playing... just being kids

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!