How to develop language through small world play and stories

There are lots of ideas for nursery staff to use but there aren't many places which actually says 'how' to do it. It's very refreshing, however, to find someone who tells exactly what needs doing to achieve goals. Micheal Jones, an excellent source of information on all things language and ommunication does exactly this. He has a wealth of practical suggestions on his website and training courses. I was looking at ideas for activities for a group of children who need are beginning to use small world play but are too reliant on the adult's input into this. They also love stories. This is what Micheal says:

Young children, and especially those aged 2 to 3 years, are beginning to use language to express ideas, as well as meet their needs. They are also beginning to learn a lot from each other. They show more involvement if there is a balance between child initiated and adult led/supported/supervised activities.One of the ways that adults can support expression of ideas is through sharing books, and particularly simple stories. But how to sustain children’s interest, and especially when working with a small group, in a ‘free-flow’
environment, without making the activity too structured and adult led?
One way is to introduce toys that feature in a story, before sharing the story. For example, you have planned to share a story about farm animals. You will need a bag full of soft farm animal toys or puppets, a bag of small plastic farm animals, a large cloth, and your story book. NB. This activity works best if two adults are involved. If you do it on your own, you will find that most of your language will be ‘managing language’ rather than interaction. If you know that children learning English as a second language will be involved, it will be helpful to find out how to say some of the key words in the story in their home language. (You can find this out from parents or other practitioners). Encourage the children to take the soft toys out of the bag one at a time, and talk about what they have found, what noises they make, etc. This is the adult led
part. Let the children play with the toys, and talk to each other. This is the adult  supervised part. Then take over again, by asking the children to sit in a circle and close their eyes. Hide the toys under a large cloth. When the children open their eyes they can take turns to feel under the cloth, and take out an animal of their choice. Talk about what they have found. Let the children play with the toys again. Now put the soft toys to one side and introduce the bag of small plastic farm animals. Let the children take them out one by one, play with them, hide them under the cloth and play with them again.

By this time some children may want to move away, but some may want to look at the pictures in the storybook, and others will want to share the whole story. If you are telling the story, it helps to let children know that you expect them to stay and join in with the whole story. It helps to keep the story very brief, perhaps just commenting on the pictures. Individual children may want to stay and share the whole story. Try following up a session like this with an activity in the creative area; e.g. making a farm using plasticene, play dough, colouring with large felt pens etc.

Michael Jones is an Early Language Consultant  For more of his excellent ideas see: http://www.talkformeaning.co.uk/

Love your voice

Today the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (CASLPA) is celebrating World Voice Day. The theme for 2012, "Love Your Voice," aims to remind us that our voice is an essential communication tool and encourages everyone to assess their vocal health and take action to improve or maintain good voice habits.

People with voice problems may experience a variety of symptoms, such as changes in vocal pitch, hoarseness, loss of voice or throat discomfort when talking or singing. Through a variety of assessment and treatment approaches, speech-language pathologists work with other health professionals to help improve voice disorders.

“Most people take their voices for granted until a problem develops,” says CASLPA speech-language pathologist member Dr. Linda Rammage, Director of the Provincial Voice Care Resource Program in Vancouver, B.C. “In order to stay flexible and work properly, the vocal folds need to be well hydrated and relaxed, and the speaker needs to be able to hear his/her own voice, to calibrate it based on acoustic feedback.”

People with voice problems may experience a variety of symptoms, such as changes in vocal pitch, hoarseness, loss of voice or throat discomfort when talking or singing. Through a variety of assessment and treatment approaches, speech-language pathologists work with other health professionals to help improve voice disorders.

“We live in a noisy world and often people cannot hear themselves as they speak so they tense their throat and breathing muscles,” adds Rammage. “We stand on a busy street yelling into our cell phones or sing with the radio as we are driving in our cars in traffic without thinking about the strain we are putting on our vocal folds.”

Voice dysfunction can be caused by lifestyle and behavioural factors such as talking over noise and yelling; neurological problems such as Parkinson’s Disease and strokes; environmental irritants such as cigarette smoke, cancer, and respiratory infections and viruses. In most cases, voice problems are caused by a combination of lifestyle, emotional factors, reflux and vocal habits.

If you or someone you know has a communication problem or limitation, CASLPA recommends consulting an S-LP or audiologist. For more information about the role these professionals play in the management of communication disorders or to find an S-LP or audiologist in your area, visit CASLPA’s website atwww.speechandhearing.ca.

Is obsessing with Thomas the tank a sign of ASD?

Many of us who work with Children with ASD know that a familiar obsession with pre-school boys with the condition, is Thomas the Tank engine. One expert I know said she thought we could probably use it as part of an autism checklist, it's so popular for children with ASD to wear the jumpers and be clutching Thomas or Percy etc.


According to a new study, however, the  Reverend W. Awdry, the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, was on to something in 1943 when he developed the smiling steam engine. It turns out that putting a human face on a cartoon train, bus or tram can help children with autism understand emotions.

The head of the University of Cambridge's Autism Research Centre, Simon Baron-Cohen, conducted a study using a series of 15 animated stories called The Transporters. Each episode focused on a different emotion - from simple ones such as happy, sad and angry to more complex emotions such as sorry, ashamed, tired and joking. 

The findings, published in the Journal of Autism and Development Disorders in November, showed children with autism spectrum conditions had improved emotion recognition after watching the 3D program for 15 minutes a day over a month. Professor Baron-Cohen said using mechanical vehicles also helped, as things such as trains and trams behaved in predictable ways. ''Children with autism and Asperger syndrome love order and predictability. So they shy away from people. To them, we're confusing and unpredictable,'' he said.
Read more at http://www.annakennedyonline.com/page.aspx?id=478

What does a speech and language therapist do?

I've just read a post on Netmums asking for advice about a 2 year old. He has been referred to speech therapy but she doesn't think it's a good move because he doesn't talk. There were similar stories on there with many replies from well meaning mums trying to make her feel better but with a  recurrent theme of total misconception of the role of a speech and language therapist. Unfortunately, when I tried to post to explain the moderator removed my post as 'advertising'.

The consensus of opinion was that Speech and language (SLTs to help my typing rate!) DID speech work in a session, a bit like a physio session where they work your muscles maybe. They didn't seem to think they had any role apart from taking the child along. So..... let's see what we can briefly do to explain.

We work with children and adults who have problems communicating. That may be a speech difficulty so that just the person's sounds are the problem, a language issue so that the person's understanding or ability to say words, phrases or sentences is affected or it may be an interaction difficulty. We do not just work with speech sound problems.

When your young child has a problem the SLT will always want to see what the foundation skills are like. The diagram below shows what I mean:

The SLT will look at all these things before deciding on a course of action.

Whatever the problem, the parent is the key in helping the child so that helping the parent fully understand the issues involved and then showing them HOW they can work on the issues in everyday, real situations is the crux of any therapy.

We have designed a 10 week programme with Chuckle Productions to demonstrate what they can do at home to help their children's communication. Parents often say they are too busy but we aim to show them how they can turn every activity into a communication activity. How many times a day do we change a nappy? 5,6 more? So that's 6 potential communication opportunities! We have been commissioned by the adult education dept and will pilot it and write it up.

Functional communication will always be the aim for children who are not talking. This is to help the child understand situations and to be able to tell us what they want etc. This may be to encourage pointing, using pictures/symbols or signing. Usually, if you give a child an alternative way to communicate it relieves the pressure and they often make progress with spoken language.

So if your SLT seems to be asking a lot of questions and then just 'playing' with your child in the first session, don't worry she is using all her training, expertise and professional judgement to work out what best for your little one.

If you are worried about your child, have a look at this progress checker http://www.talkingpoint.org.uk/Parent/Directory/Progress-Checker.aspx
and if you are still worried seek advice from your local SLT. For NHS services use google, for private www.helpwithtalking.com

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk

CHILDREN with speech difficulties that are not addressed before they start school face a higher risk of being bullied and falling behind in learning by early primary school

A new study confirms what we already knew. A communication problem of any kind will lead to children having problems fitting in and making progress at school.

The study, based on tracking thousands of Australian children, has prompted a call for speech impairment in early childhood to be taken as seriously as problems such as hearing loss, asthma and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

A senior lecturer in speech pathology at Charles Sturt University, Jane McCormack, said 20 per cent to 25 per cent of pre-school-aged children experienced language and speech problems, putting them at higher risk of later problems at school and socially.

Advertisement: Story continues below

''Communication impairment is highly prevalent but the children who experience it are not receiving the support they need as a result of inconsistent policies and the lack of services,'' Dr McCormack said.

The study tracked 4329 children from the age of four or five until they were eight or nine.

It found children identified as having speech problems in the year before they started school were significantly more likely than their peers with no history of speech difficulties to be doing worse in a range of areas at age eight or nine.

They were at higher risk of problems with literacy and maths and less attentive and eager to learn. Teachers and parents were more likely to rate the children as less competent in school achievement.

These findings are similar to British research which shows that a child's progress at 4 may be a determiner of future success or failure. This is exactly why I started the Smart talkers Pre-School communication groups.

www.smarttalkers.org.uk

Act together for Autism

Today, The National Autistic Society (NAS) have launched an online campaigns guide to help implement theAutism Act 2009 in England.

The publication of Act Together: a step-by-step guide to getting the most out of the Autism Act coincides with World Autism Awareness Day, and provides campaigners with the information they need to improve services for adults with autism.

The Autism Act 2009 was a landmark piece of legislation. It was the first ever disability-specific law and led to the production of two important documents: the adult autism strategy for England, and statutory guidance for local authorities and the NHS.

Since the publication of the strategy and statutory guidance some authorities – particularly those with a long-standing history of working with people with autism – have taken great strides in improving planning, services and outcomes for people with autism. Others, however, have a long way to go.

Act Together is an eight-step guide will provide you with all you need to know to campaign locally to implement the strategy and statutory guidance, provide helpful hints when you get stuck and highlight the good work that is already taking place. It covers:

1. The knowledge 
2. Understand what needs to be done first
3. Choose your target
4. What is going on in your area?
5. Take the campaign to the top
6. Involve yourself
7. Keep up the pressure
8. Start again!

At the moment the guide is an online resource, but we will be producing a number of printed copies. If you would like a printed copy when they are available, please email

Visit the Act Together website at www.autism.org.uk/act-together