Help, what can I get to work on my child's speech, language or communication skills at home?

There is no substitute for direct work with a speech and language therapist but sometimes the waiting list is very long or the availability is poor in your area. If your child is struggling with a speech, language or communication issue, what are you supposed to do? You could 'google' the problem, but how do you know what you find is credible or value for money?

We decide to set up a site where we could sell books, activity packs, games and ideas, which are written by, or certainly endorsed by, practicing speech and language therapists. Parents can search by age or the 'problem' to find materials which will help at home. www.speechtherapyactivities.co.uk

There are old favourites such as Toddler Talk from ICAN alongside new materials such as the Auditory Memory pack. We'll be adding more very soon such as Hanen's More Than Words and It Takes Two to Talk. If there's any area in particular you'd like something for, please let us know. We're already working on a phonological awareness pack for pre-reading or pre-speech work skills and a word finding pack for those who struggle to access the words they know.

 

Get in touch at the usual address  info@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk or enquiries@speechtherapyactivities.co.uk We look forwards to hearing from you.

Communication Leaders

This new initiative from the Communication Trust looks excellent. 

Communication Leaders is a peer-mentoring approach to supporting the language and communication development of primary and secondary pupils. It allows children and young people to take on a unique leadership role in communication within their schools and homes. 

You can choose how to implement this approach in your school. You'll find everything you need in the link below, including a training session for staff to introduce the approach and resources to the chosen Communication Leaders, the resource packs, and a video showing staff and Communication Leaders talking about their experiences from the pilot project.  
Click here

Choose carefully where you tell your children about your divorce

Many parents feel anxious and worried about how to tell their children about their impending divorce as it is a major life change.

I always recommend choosing your time carefully. You must been in a “good place” yourself as if you are tearful, angry or overwhelmed your child will feel insecure and anxious and distressed. Never tell your children just before important events such as a birthday or a friend’s party that they have been looking forward to, or a designated special day out. The best time is early in a weekend or school holiday where you are on hand to be around and on hand to answer their questions, reassure them and give them lots of hugs and cuddles if they need them. Give them time to absorb what’s happening.

Children are very perceptive and often know more than you think. Their concerns will revolve primarily around their own needs; they want to know how the divorce will affect them. Will they have to move home? Will they still keep their pets? Will they still go to Cornwall with Granny in July? One client mentioned that the second question that her son asked her was "Will we have to return to dial-up internet?"  So be prepared to give your children information about how the divorce will affect their 'day-to-day' lives. They don't want to give up their friends or change schools because you are getting divorced and remember that the age of your child is an important factor to consider in what you say. A simple and direct summary of the situation is often a good beginning. Very young children will have a limited understanding of the meaning of 'divorce,' while older children will have more questions which guide the conversation.

Sue Atkins is an internationally recognised Parenting Expert, Broadcaster, Speaker and Author of the Amazon best selling books  "Parenting Made Easy – How To Raise Happy Children” & “Raising Happy Children for Dummies" one in the famous black and yellow series as well as author of the highly acclaimed Parenting Made Easy CDs. She has just launched the 1^st in her series of Parenting Made Easy apps for iPhones and iPads – The Secrets To Well Behaved Kids https://itunes.apple.com/app/sue-atkins-parenting-made/id439743586?mt=8

Bad parenting: the root of all evil?

A controversial statement by Sir Michael Wilshaw, OFSTED's Chief Inspector, cites bad parenting as the root of society's problems as reported on in:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2462110/Sir-Michael-Wilshaw-attacks-hollowed-fragmented-families.html

What do you think? Is he right, are we to blame or is this another attack on parents designed to make us feel more guilty than we already do? I'd love to know your thoughts...........

Tell us a joke.........

The communication Trust has teamed up with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) to launch Voice Box 2013 – a national joke-telling competition designed to raise awareness of the fun and importance of communication.

RCSLT are inviting mainstream primary and special schools in England to work on their own, or with their speech and language therapists, to hold a joke-telling competition between 2nd September and 4th October 2013. You then send RCSLT the winning joke from your school by Monday 7th October and a judging panel will shortlist the 10 best jokes they receive.

RCSLT will invite the shortlisted joke tellers and their parent or guardian to the Houses of Parliament on Monday 28th October for a national final, hosted by The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.

For more information please click here.

Who has the most influence on the development of a child's speech, language and communication?

Even if a child is in full-time day care, the parents still have the most influence on a child's communication development according to the latest research (Routledge et al 2012). This Hanen page shows parents why http://www.hanen.org/Special-Pages/BSHM.aspx?_cldee=bGliYnloaWxsMUBhb2wuY29t

Cracking Communication conference: Manchester

King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester will hold this exciting event on Tuesday 13th November.

There will be information and advice to help schools support outcomes for all children and young people through enhancing and promoting good language and communication skills. This conference follows on from our successful inaugural Cracking Communication conference held in London and will bring together the leading experts in speech, language and communication from the voluntary, education and private sectors.

The aim of the conference is to link together policy, evidence and practice in order to support schools to identify children with speech, language and communication needs and to enable all children to achieve their full potential through better communication skills. We are very excited about this event, with a fantastic range of speakers including:

• Anne Duffy, HMI, Ofsted
• Geoff Lindsay, the Better Communication Research Programme
• Wendy Lee, Professional Director, The Communication Trust

Keynote speeches
Will link together policy, evidence and practice and you can view the timetable for the day .

Workshops
Will focus on practical advice and tools that will enable school leaders to consider a range of practical solutions, based on good practice and clear evidence for their own individual communities.

Exhibition
Will also be on offer throughout the day to give participants the opportunity to network and see resources firsthand.

The conference will be suitable for the following audience:

• Primary and Secondary head teachers and deputy head teachers
• Curriculum leads, leads for teaching and learning and anyone implementing National Curriculum changes in their schools
• SENCO's
• Commissioners in the education and health sectors

Register now!
Book your place now to take advantage of the early bird rate of £150 per delegate
If you would like to register for the event, please visit www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/conference or contact Jo Bolton jbolton@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

 

New director for Communication Trust

The Communication Trust, a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication, has welcomed its new Director, Anne Fox. Fox, who previously worked at NCT as Head of Corporate Communications, will lead the organisation through its next strategic period. 

Anne Fox, Director of The Communication Trust, says: "I am delighted to join The Communication Trust at this exciting and challenging time. Moving forwards, the Trust will work to ensure children’s communication is a burning issue. We will do this by sharing what works for all children and those  with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) to the widest possible audience.  

“Good communication skills are key in the 21st  century and every child should have the opportunity to be understood. In five years, the Trust has achieved so much and we have trail blazed the way for collaborative working with our consortium members. Our challenge now is to build on the success of the  Hello campaign and to leave no stone unturned as we make the clear link between communication skills and life chances.” 

Adrian Hosford, Chair of The Communication Trust, said: "We are delighted to welcome Anne to The Communication Trust. Anne brings with her a wealth of experience around collaborative working and uniting different groups under a common cause.  Her valuable expertise and leadership will drive the Trust forwards and help us achieve the best outcomes for children, young people and their families.”

Farewell to Communication Trust Director

 Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director of The Communication Trust, a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary and community based organisations specialising in speech, language and communication, has announced that she is to step down after five years in post.


Kerwin-Nye originally founded The Communication Trust in 2007 alongside BT, I CAN, Council for Disabled Children and Afasic to support the development and training of the children’s workforce and
to influence policy. Five years on, and the Trust has:
• Grown from 8 to 48 consortium members and been cited by The Cabinet Office as an exemplar model of collaboration and coalition.
• Extended the reach of the Trust by training over 3,000 people in the early years, schools and youth justice workforce on how to support children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
• Impacted heavily on policy including successful influencing of speech, language and communication in the early years agenda.
• Developed, in partnership with City and Guilds, a new mandatory Level 3 Award in supporting children and young people’s speech, language and communication.
• Delivered the Hello campaign (national year of communication) in partnership with Jean Gross CBE, formerly Communication Champion for children. 200 Local Co-ordinators supported Hello,
320,000 free resources were disseminated to families and the children’s workforce and it is estimated that 72% of UK adults were reached by Hello media coverage (Metrika analysis).


In her previous role as Director of Communications for I CAN, Anita developed the Make Chatter Matter campaign. This seminal campaign helped lobby for the Bercow Review into Services for Children and
Young People (0-19) with Speech, Language and Communication Needs calling for a Communication Champion and awareness raising campaign to make communication everyone’s business. Anita Kerwin-Nye says: “I am remarkably proud of The Communication Trust and how far we have come in five years. As a collective of voluntary organisations, we have striven to improve services and
awareness for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). “When I first joined the speech and language sector, there was very little general awareness that
communication skills were a vital commodity for individuals, families and society as a whole. It was hidden that 1 million children have some form of SLCN that can affect them early, severely and for life.
The children’s workforce felt under confident in this area and parents were battling a system where their child’s needs were falling between the stools of health and education. “To put SLCN on the map, we have had to emerge the vital importance of all children and young
people’s communication development. Early identification of children’s needs is only possible when there is recognition amongst the workforce and parents about what typical communication development looks like. We still have a long way to go but things have improved and the voluntary sector has acted as one of the biggest catalysts for change.
Kerwin-Nye continues: “By developing a coalition of 48 voluntary organisations, The Communication Trust speaks as one voice on speech and language issues whilst supporting individual members’ work
streams. There is so much credibility and expertise held within the Trust and the focus over the next six months will be on showcasing what works to support children’s communication and SLCN and
disseminating it to the widest possible audience.


“As we put the finishing touches to The Communication Trust’s Impact Report outlining the difference we have made in five years, it feels the right time to move on. A strong strategy has been put in place
for the next five years and I know I am leaving it in the very capable hands of the Trust’s staff team. Norbert Lieckfeldt, Chief Executive of The British Stammering Association, says: “It is unusual to have a
coalition of this kind. In a time when organisational mergers and cost efficiency drives are coming into force, The Communication Trust is a model of how it can be done. Anita’s leadership and her ability to
bring organisations together to work towards a common goal, whilst supporting their individual strategies, have been remarkable. She will be sorely missed but her legacy is leaving the Trust and its
members in a strong position and with a clear direction for future work.”


Kerwin-Nye will be succeeded from May 1st in the interim by Cara Evans, Operations Director, who will work closely with Adrian Hosford, Chair of The Communication Trust, on implementing the Trust’s next
five year plan. The Trust will be building on the legacy of the Hello campaign by launching a campaign in the near future to place communication at the heart of schools’ policy and practice.

What is your favourite nursery rhyme?

What is your favourite? Why do you like it? We would love to know!


Some that we sing:

• Old MacDonald. You can add to this by having pictures of animals so that younger ones can choose what to sing next
• If you're happy and you know it: get the child to choose, if they don't you could always sing about what they are doing e.g. Wriggle your legs, give a smile, 
• Incy wincy Spider, add the actions
• Twinkle Twinkle: by far the favourite of the Bony Hay Teeny Talker group!
• The Scarecrow song; they love the adult lying on the floor too
• Baa baa black sheep: some of the language is bit obscure e.g. dame, master etc but it doesn't matter
• Humpty Dumpty: sad but they like it
• Hickory Dickory: all four verses to make full use 
• Wind the bobbin up: simple but effective
• Wheels on the bus; have pictures of the options so the can choose what's next
• Sleeping bunnies: I'm always surprised how they love this given that it's so simple.
• 5 little monkeys: add sign or actions
• 6 fat sausages: add sign or actions
• Head, shoulders, knee and toes: do it really slowly so they can access it
• 5 Little ducks:  add sign or actions

I have a bag of props and a little book of pictures so that children can choose what they want to sing. You can make it into a spoken language activity too by hiding 1 prop in a bag, talking about it then asking what song you could sing about it.

www.smarttalkers.org.uk

BT launch communication triathlon

BT's Openreach division has fired the starting gun on the UK's first national Communication Triathlon for schools - with support from children's charity I CAN.

The Communication Triathlon is a series of active and fun-filled events for primary schools - intended to boost speaking and listening skills - which can be undertaken by a class, a year group or a whole school over the course of a week or even a day.

The programme encourages children to take part in three London 2012-themed speaking and listening activities around thinking, talking and teamwork, and is split across 4-7 and 7-11-year-olds.

The Communication Triathlon is part of the communication, collaboration and citizenship strand of Get Set - the official London 2012 education programme - and one of three education programmes BT is running as a London 2012 sustainability partner.

Liz Johnson, 100m breaststroke gold medal winner at the 2008 Paralympic Games, helped launch the Communications Triathlon. She said: "Sport has been a big part of my life so it was an honour to help kick-start a programme that uses sport to help children with their communication skills."

http://www.communicationtriathlon.org.uk/

Are boys more confident talkers? Is 'Kevin the teenage male' unfair?

The National Literacy Trust in conjuction with the Communication Trust have just published the results of an extensive survey which appears to contradict the stereo-typical male teenager. 'Kevin' was a Harry Enfield 1990s character who was pleasant and polite until he hit around 13 and then became moody, un-communicative, anti-parents, anti-school, anti-everything only talking by grunts or groans. Is this concept outdated and unfair now?  

The study looked at 6,865 young people between 8 and 16 found that boys are more confident communicators than girls, particularly when speaking in front  of their classmates and teachers.

69% of boys compared to 57% of girls said they were either ‘very confident’ or ‘confident’ when speaking in front of classmates. The research found that more boys than girls value and realise the importance of communication skills, believing that if you speak well it makes you seem more intelligent and that people judge you on the words and phrases that you use. Boys were also more confident in talking with teachers(81% compared with 78%).

 The research also discovered that:

• Boys are more likely than girls to strongly agree that communication skills are taken for granted (32% vs 23%).
• Boys see a danger that they will not be taken seriously if they don’t express their views clearly (66% of boys think this compared with 58% of girls).
• More boys are more likely to feel very confident explaining their point of view than girls (35% vs 29%).
• 47% of boys strongly agree that good communication skills give them confidence in social situations compared to only 39% of girls.
• Girls place less importance on being well-spoken - they are more likely than boys to disagree that those with ‘posh accents’ are better speakers (46% vs 39%).
• When asked about factors affecting good communication, girls are more likely to think it is important to see the other person’s face (69% girls vs 64% boys) while boys are more likely to think it is important to hear other people’s voices (84% boys vs 79% girls)
• Overall most young people believe the family play a crucial role in developing children’s communication skills. However, more boys than girls believe that children should just ‘pick up’ communication skills (19% vs 15%). 

Director of charity the National Literacy Trust, which works to improve reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, Jonathan Douglas, says:

“In the national year of communication, it’s heartening to see a new ‘voice conscious’ generation of boys emerging. While many people believe teenage boys are not the most articulate members of society, like Harry Enfield’s ’Kevin the teenager’ character, our research shows this is an outdated view. The survey paints a completely different picture of young males as confident communicators who are incredibly aware of the important role communication skills play in a successful school, work and social life.

“Sadly, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to gain the communication skills they need for success. This is why we are taking business volunteers into schools to work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them develop the vital skills they need for working environments.”

Professional Director for The Communication Trust, Wendy Lee, says:

“Employers often bemoan the lack of young people’s communication skills. They want young people to enter the workplace with strong communication skills. This survey highlights how vital communication skills are to young people for success at school and work. It busts the myth that boys don’t value communication – they deserve more credit for being ‘communication conscious’.

“However, it is concerning that more boys than girls believe communication skills are something children should just be able to ‘pick up’. It is important to recognise that these skills do not develop by chance; adults play a fundamental role in supporting language and communication development. This ‘self taught’ attitude that boys have to communication is really important to highlight. Despite this survey finding boys in general are confident about communication, evidence shows that the proportion of boys to girls with speech, language and communication difficulties is around 4:1.

“These young people can become skilled at masking their difficulties to avoid being singled out or needing help. Struggling to communicate can be hugely frustrating and can lead to poor behaviour and low self confidence, again masking underlying difficulties. It is vital all young people, but particularly those vulnerable young people with communication difficulties, are supported to ensure they have the skills they need to do well in life.

The Hello campaign (the national year of communication) is run by The Communication Trust in partnership with Jean Gross, the Government’s Communication Champion. Hello exists to make children and young people’s communication development a priority during 2011 and beyond.

The Communication Trust is made up of 40 leading voluntary organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication. Independent charity the National Literacy Trust is a member of The Communication Trust and is working closely withHello to ensure that every young person in the UK develops the speaking and literacy skills they need for a bright, happy and successful future.

The National Literacy Trust takes business volunteers into secondary schools where they help students develop communication skills for the workplace by taking part in a series of creative workshops. The approach is yielding impressive results with the young people taking part gaining both skills and confidence.

Milad, a pupil at Rosedale College in Hayes says: “I definitely think (the project) is a positive thing, it really helps you to gain confidence. I used to think communication was just something that happens – being taught it improves your confidence level as a person.  Going for a job interview now I would know how to talk. I’d be who I am but talk to some people differently.”

What do you think? Is this your experience? Are boys generally more confident than girls? Id welcome your comments and ideas please

Tips for Talking from I CAN

"In the same way as your child does not learn how to walk straight away, he won’t know how to talk straight away either. He will, however, spend much of the time in his first few months, weeks and even days preparing for his first words. Communicating orally is a highly developed skill which depends on a range of abilities - the ability to understand the words being used by others; being able to think of the right word and put it into a sentence correctly; and being able to make the sounds necessary to form words. All of these skills rely on a whole set of underlying abilities that most children start to develop from the moment that they are born.
The stages of communication development are the same the world over and all children rely on those around them to help develop the skills of communication. As a parent, you will have a key role in helping your child to talk. The parent section of the talking point website (www.talkingpoint.org.uk) is full of hints and tips to help you when your child is learning to talk. There are many other useful factsheets, books, articles and programmes (some of which are listed below). This factsheet helps you with the basics – what you need to do to help your child communicate. The tips here will be useful to your child whatever their age and whether or not they are communicating at the same level as their peers:
Here are the tips:
• For young children, have fun with nursery thymes and songs, especially those with actions.
• Encourage your child to listen to different sounds such as cars, animals, the telephone
• Imitate the sounds you hear, make funny noises for your child to copy. This will help awaken an interest in sounds and help your child to understand that sounds have meanings
• Gain your child’s attention when you want to talk together. It is better to say “Ryan, please come over here”, than to say “Come over here, Ryan” because then your child will be focussed once you call his name
• Encourage your child to communicate in any way, not just through words, Actions and gestures will all help to develop words
• Listen carefully to your child and give him time to finish. Take turns to speak
• Always respond in some way when your child says something – no matter what it is that he says
• Spend some special time with your child every day. The level of talking will depend on the age of your child. Talk together when you are playing, or talk about school or make plans for the future.
• Allow plenty of gaps around the sentences that you are using to your child. This will allow him time to think about what you have said and maybe to formulate a response
• When talking with your child, use sentences that are roughly one word longer than the sentences your child uses.ie. if they are using one word, you use two; if they are using four, you use five. This will help extend your child’s sentences as they can hear what the sentence structures for longer sentences are like.
• If your child says something incorrectly, say it back the right way rather than “correcting him”. Eg. If your child says “Goggy bit it”, you can say “Yes, the dog bit it, didn’t he?”. He is more likely to change what he says in the future when he has worked it out for himself.
• When talking to younger children, try and think about how you are talking: use short sentences, vary the melody for interest, slow down slightly and pause after each sentence.
• Try to make TV time shared time – sit down with your child to watch programmes that are for children of his age".
More information is available in -
“Baby Talk : Strengthen Your Child's Ability to Listen, Understand, and Communicate “ by Sally Dr Ward Published by Ballantine Publishing Group (2001) ISBN: 0345437071;
“Listen to Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Children's Language” by David Crystal Publisher: Penguin UK; New Ed edition (June 1999) ISBN: 0140110151
“Chatterchart – a family guide to children’s communication development” Available from I CAN

Our first ever competition

We want to spread the word about the Smart Talkers Pre-School groups and so we need more people to know about them. We have a prize draw for anyone to enter if they recommend the Smart Talkers Pre-School groups Facebook Page. The winner will receive a Champagne Tea-time Hamper from John Lewis. The closing date is 30th September 2010.



We also have a special  'finders fee' of £1000 if you recommend someone who becomes a franchisee.

Smart Talkers Pre-school Groups are a series of groups  to provide a fun way to stimulate children's spoken language development. Devised by qualified, experienced specialist speech & language therapists, these sessions are for all children. www.smarttalkers.org.uk Using signing, games, stories & songs, we work on everything a child needs to be a confident, successful, effective communicator including attention, listening, vocabulary, understanding and expressive language skills. We have different classes available for different age groups:
Small Talkers: especially for 3- 4 year olds to prepare them for school.
Tiny Talkers: for around 2 -3 years
Baby Talk: for around 0m - 2 years
Baby Smart Signers: 0-2 years
Toddler Smart Signers: 2-3 years
Small Talk Smart Signers: 3-4 years

So, to be in with a  chance of the hamper go to our Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1003637090&v=photos&so=0#!/pages/Smart-Talkers-Pre-School-groups/126998813993019?ref=ts and if you could spend £1000 before Christmas pass our details on to your 'likely' friends. It's a great opportunity to have fun, earn money and make a real difference!

Word finding frustration

I went to a great party at the weekend, it started early and went on til late. I'm not sure how much I had to drink but this morning I didn't feel too bad. Not really so much as a headache. What I did experience, through the combination of alcohol and lack of sleep probably, was a temporary word finding difficulty. I was trying to tell some-one how funny I'd found Chris Evans' stand-in on the radio 2 breakfast show last week. Try as I might I couldn't think of his name: I could picture his face, his suits, I knew he was small, Irish and proudly gay but for hours his name eluded me. I had to google 'breakfast show stand-in' to get it...... Graham Norton of course! Then I wanted to say the name of a place: I could recall the letter it began with, the number of syllables etc. but not the actual name. I was angry, frustrated and bewildered. The more I tried the harder it was!

We all get this tip-of the tongue experience from time to time and people have probably heard about stroke patients suffering this difficulty. There are however, so many children who have this problem most of the time. I have 4 regular clients with this difficulty on my current caseload, they use a lot of 'thingy', 'whatsit' or words similar to the one they want e.g. one child said, 'I'm going swimming and I don't need my armpits now!' They might talk around the word e.g. elephant, 'You know it's grey and got a long thingy'. They look normal, are bright and chatty but have a problem which gets in the way of them being able to express themselves fully. Sometimes they have other language based issues which compound things. They are probably aware of their problem and have associated anxiety. The problem is the more stressed they are, the harder it will be. As with the tip-of-the-tongue experiences we all have, when we're relaxed the elusive words are recalled. It's definitely a problem that's getting worse. One of the NHS Therapists has 2 in one school and she does a course specifically to share our approach.

I've always sympathised with them and done my best to teach them strategies to help but today I could really empathise. I'll be OK tomorrow but they have to live with this all day everyday and people just don't understand.

Sadie Lewis' work is widely respected in this area.

Brief mention..........

Although the Smart Talker groups were designed for everyone, not just children with identified difficulties, we have several children with very significant problems who come along. I write the programmes so they can be tailored to each child. The others who run the groups are either Speech and Language Therapists or experienced, capable individuals with early years backgrounds. It's more important for prospective franchisees to be the right type of person than the qualifications they have. All the children make progress but some are worthy of a special mention:

Louis began to attend the Small Talker group in September 2009 with some of his nursery peers and others. He had no speech but was known to have a small repertoire of signs that he understood. However, he was so withdrawn that he did not appear to have the confidence to look at a person when they spoke to him, let alone reply. Communication was extremely difficult with foster parents and nursery staff having to guess what he wanted. Even pointing was a problem. He was reported to be a single word level for understanding but this was not evident in his performance. Mainstream schooling appeared to be ‘out of the question’. He was almost 4.

He has been attending the group weekly since and his nursery teacher has worked very hard with him. He is not recognisable as the same child: he appears, happy, confident and relaxed in the group. He takes turns and gives responses both vocally and by sign. He spontaneously points things outs and names items. Comprehension is now 2-3-word level. He initiates interaction with children and adults. He does everything I expect of the others.

It gives me a lump in my throat to see how much he enjoys the group and how he has come on…… and he’s going to mainstream school!!!' YESSSSSS! It will be tough and he'll need a great deal of support but how fantastic!