Are you looking for a career change for 2015? Our Smart Talkers franchises, may be for you

 

All children can benefit from our award winning  communication groups. They are designed to help develop confident, successful communicators. Spoken language skills are the basis for most educational tasks so the better the speech, language and communication skills the easier they will find it when they start school.

We use puppets, games, stories and songs to make it as fun as possible. We get great feedback from parents, carers and the children themselves! It's not really like working, as it's tremendous fun working with pre-school children.

We have lots of different groups: Small Talkers. Teeny Talkers. Baby Talkers, Chatter Tots and Stories and Songs. There are also lots of other packages for nurseries and projects for schools that we do.

We are looking for franchisees in many areas of the UK or further afield. No experience or qualification required as full training is given. Business support and back-up is an important part of the package. We also have licenses for speech and language therapists so they can run groups in their areas.

We have designated areas for franchisees, find out if your area is available by emailing info@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk

www.smarttalkers.org.uk

Our friends at Jitta Bugs are launching brand new classes: Phonic Bugs

Jittabugs are proud to announce they use the Jolly phonics system in our Phonics sessions read more about Jolly Phonics It uses the synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory, enabling children to become fluent readers. The sounds are taught in a specific order (not alphabetically). This enables children to begin building words as early as possible.

There are five skills taught in phonics, they are –

• Learning the letter sounds
• Learning letter formation
• Blending
• Identifying the sounds in words (segmenting)
• Tricky words

At Jittabugs we only concentrate on Learning the letter sounds and using those sounds in song and dance & sensory.

This program is aimed at age 2-5 years old. Some of our tutors offer this class in a 30 minute session, others 45 mins to an hour. We don't sit at desks, this is an informal, fun, educational class. We sit in a circle on the floor and sing songs, use movement and multi- sensory to enhance our learning of Phonics and numbers . In some sessions art and craft may be included at the end of the session using the Phonic & Number handouts.

They are also doing Number Bugs to teach early maths skills.

Tutors offering these classes Dawn -Tyne & Wear, Caroline- Taunton, Lynsdsey-South Shields, Margot-Durham, Jen-Blackpool

Caroline Ashworth

www.jittabugs.com

Better Communication - Last call for pilot schools for January from the Communication Trust!

The Balanced System® Scheme for Schools is a whole system approach to improving outcomes for children and young people across the whole range of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

The Scheme provides tools for school development as well as the option to gain an award in SLCN and is supported by NAPLIC and Afasic. The Scheme for Schools has been developed in response to demand from schools for a whole system’s approach to understanding the school’s role in commissioning and providing support for children and young people with SLCN, alongside specialist services such as speech and language therapists and specialist teachers.

To find out more about how to register your school for the January  2015 pilot please click here. 

Product Spotlight: Preschool Make A Book

As you know we are always looking for quality materials we can use in speech therapy. We love this idea from Mojo Publications:

Preschool Make A Book is an activity program geared to clients in the developing phase of language who present with delay or disorder. The book is composed of ten units, each containing  a 4-episode picture sequence. You can use the pictures to make beautiful and versatile mini books by cutting/gluing or folding the pictures. At the bottom of each picture, write your target (based on your goals). 

There are three steps: 1. Choose your pictures 2. Choose your targets 3. Make a book. Here is a finished one that I made by cutting and gluing.

You can write just about anything under these pictures. They can be simple (single vocabulary) or more complex (complete sentences with pronouns, verb tense, etc). You can even use these pictures with your clients who have autism and need more of a social story.

I developed this product when I saw a need for speech therapy products to look a little more modern and fun. I wanted to create something that look distinctive but approachable, to be open and versatile yet simple to execute in therapy and at home. Preschool Make A Book is based on an activity I often chose when working with preschoolers, and I am very proud of how it turned out.

Please check out my website www.mojopublications.ca You can download an ebook or purchase a hard copy (which comes with the free ebook). For a limited time, there is a 15% discount. Just type 15%PMAB at checkout. 

Elissa Benjamin