We all know that interacting with children is important, but are we RESPONDING to our child’s interactions?

How do children learn new words and use them correctly? Yes, you got it, from us, the adults; and their peers. But, children can watch and listen to adults on the television and on DVD’s etc. is that just as good? The answer is NO! Children need the response of others to help guide their learning of language and communication.

I was really interested to read the following link the other day:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130924091802.htm

Detailing a new study by researchers at the University of Washington, Temple University, and the University of Delaware, appears in the journal Child Development; and they have questioned why learning from video has proven to be more difficult for children to learn words. They have found that it's the responsiveness of the interactions that's key: ‘When we respond to children in timely and meaningful ways, they learn -- even when that response comes from a screen.’ i.e. skype.

This also supports my previous blog regarding the fact that mobile phones can be a barrier to successful and effective communication.

http://www.smarttalkersblog.com/2013/09/mobile-phones-are-huge-barrier-to.html

It is so important to let children know that their attempts at communication are valued and important! To do that, all you need to do is listen attentively, and respond to what they said. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go into elaborate detail of what paint and brush they used to paint their picture in nursery, nor should you just give an uninterested response of ‘that’s nice dear’ etc. Get down on their level, give them plenty of eye contact, use facial expressions and gestures, intonate your voice etc. None of which is rocket science but, it will have wonderful effects on your child’s self-esteem.

As Libby Hill has mentioned previously, Hanen have a great term called 'owling' and we all need to do more of this:

• Observe
• Wait
• Listen

So, take a step back and see every day activities as an opportunity to listen to your child and respond to their communication attempts. You are your child’s ‘model’ of communication!

Georgina White

A third of parents don't read a bedtime story!

On Thursday, when I was on my way home, I heard a report on the radio about the fact that a third of parents are no longer reading their children a bed time story!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2418076/Third-parents-longer-read-bedtime-story-children.html

I was both shocked and worried to hear such a report. The article states that some parents claim they do not have the time, or are to stressed to read to their children! In fact a parent said this to me last week. Yes, we do have very stressful and busy lives but, one story can open the door for a lot more opportunities for our children. We, as adults (parents, carers, early years practitioners, teachers etc) should be providing children with the opportunity to access books and stories, or even stories we make up ourselves. There are no rules or regulations to what we should read, how often, when or where; just take the opportunities while you can. For example, you may be waiting for the bus, you could read the advertisements on the bus and talk about what they might mean; or you may be having a coffee and you could look at a magazine or newspaper together. The possibilities to access written print and encourage language around it are endless.

There are so many benefits to reading to children that I could just fill a whole page, and more telling you about it. However, instead of 'reinventing the wheel', please see links below for a previous blog written by Libby Hill; detailing and evidencing the benefits of reading to your child.

http://www.smarttalkersblog.com/2012/02/books-are-old-fashioned-out-dated-and.html

In all of our pre- school language groups we always include a story. The children love it, and so do the parents. Whenever I look around the room I can see that parents are just as engrossed in the story, and will often laugh along. In fact, I often find that a story at the start of session can often act as a good 'ice breaker' for those children, and adults that find these situations difficult. I also like to choose a 'special helper' each week, and they get to choose a story for the group.

So please, make it your resolution to include stories, and books into your everyday routine with the children you know!

I would love to hear how you incorporate stories and books into you everyday life.

Thank you,

Georgina White

Hanen: A tip for parents of young children who communicate without words

Take a look at this tip from Hanen

They offer sensible, practical advice and programmes to help parents and practitioners. Communication opportunities are everywhere. Have  a look at this one:

Sing songs with your child and build in opportunities for him to take turns

Sing simple songs with your child, especially ones with actions, like “Row Row Row your Boat”, and build in opportunities for him to participate. This is a fun way for him to learn to take his turn in an interaction, as well as to learn new words.

• Sing a new song the same way a few times so your child learns the song and its “high point”. High points are the most interesting parts of a song. In “Row, Row, Row your Boat”, the high points are the rocking back and forth while you and your child sit on the floor, holding outstretched hands, and saying the last word after a long pause – i.e., “dream”.

• Once your child is familiar with the song, pause before a high point and wait for him to respond.

For example, when singing “Row Row Row your Boat”, sing the song through once or twice and then, still holding his hands, WAIT for him to ask you to sing it again (he will probably make a sound or rock back and forth to ask you to do it again).

Or, you can start to sing the song while rocking back and forth, pausing mid-song so he can ask you to continue.

Or, you can slow down and pause before the last word (“dream”), so he can make a sound - any sound - to end the song.

• To take his turn during songs, your child may wriggle, make a sound, look at you, point to something or perform an action. Accept anything as his turn and then continue immediately. The most important thing is that he takes a turn and has fun while doing it.

Small Talk are licensed Hanen Trainers www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk Please let us know if you would like to know more about the training we could do for you

Too busy to talk to our children... so what?

If you are asked the question: what makes humans different to animals? Many people would answer that it is our unique ability to communicate. However, in the 21st century this fantastic achievement is being eroded. Language learning just seemed to happen effortlessly and easily in the past. Without TV, computer games, DVDs etc it was much easier to 'just' interact. 


As well as the technological developments there are other pressures of modern living which are having a major impact on this interaction.This was conformed by a recent ICAN survey which reported on parents' busy lives.The survey of 2,000 parents by children’s communication charity I CAN found that parents often have to work longer hours and therefore spend less time with their children. Three-quarters of those surveyed are taking on extra work and 35 per cent admitted increased workloads meant they rarely have time to talk to their children. One in five parents said they are too tired to talk with their children when they get home from work and 55 per cent said they have less quality time with them due to work.

Among those surveyed, one in five has taken a second job and a similar proportion is taking work home. A third said work calls or responding to emails at home often hampers attempts to talk with their children. 

Yet the lack of parental interaction can cause a huge knock on effect. Parents have a major role to play in developing their children's speech, language and communication skills so paucity of their interaction means that spoken language skills will not be as good as they should be. This will then later affect schooling as they need an appropriate level of spoken language  before they are ready to learn written language.Too many children are starting school without these necessary levels.


It is very hard being a parent today, we have many, many pressures to cope with which weren't around in the 60s and 70s and so many other issues that make us feel guilty for not being the perfect parent. I should know, I am a single parent with my own business,  which is may be the worst combination for time demands. However, it's vital to make time for them as that's probably the most important thing you can do.

We've all made New Years resolutions about dieting, getting fit, earning more money but may be we should have a resolution of just spending more quality time with our children. I want mine to look back at their childhood and remember the time we had together, not that I was too busy for them. At the end of the day they are more important than anything else. 


I've just done a reality check and know I could be better, how about you?


Our Pre-School groups are ideal to focus on pre-school interaction. We are also Hanen licensed Speech and language therapists so qualified to encourage parent-child interaction   www.smarttalkers.org.uk www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk

Will there be a book in your child's Christmas stocking?

My own children don't enjoy reading at all as they are not natural readers. They would choose almost anything over reading to occupy their time. However, there will be several books in each of their stockings as they are important for so many reasons. One of which is the special time we share as I read to them with my arms around them. I treasure this time as it's great for cementing the bond we have. We discuss the story, chat about our day and unwind ready for bed.

However, the proportion of children without books is increasing according to the National Literacy Trust. It is now one in three, compared with one in 10 in 2005. Children with their own books were more likely to be above-average readers and do better at school, the study of 18,000 children suggested. Poorer children and boys were less likely to have books, it added. The survey was carried out in September with school-aged children from 111 schools across the UK. It suggested that a third (33.2%) did not have books of their own. That translates to 3.8m children UK-wide.

Is this important? Yes!!!! books are important for so many reasons see http://www.smarttalkersblog.com/2010/06/reading-is-important-too.html for more details.

They are an important vehicle for parent-child interaction. A great tool for sharing!


Will there be any books in your child's Christmas stocking?

How to interact with pre-schoolers

I have seen some really good nursery worker-child interaction this week and some awful examples too. I won't  name and shame the bad ones but the good ones need mentioning. Jayne from Little people Nursery in Burntwood and Kelly, Lynne and Sara from Little Springs in Rugeley are all natural communicators. They have a skill for interacting with pre-schoolers which really brings out the best in the children. I mentioned it to one of them and she dismissed it by saying it was instinctive but in reality, nowadays it isn't. Our natural talents as communicators are diminishing. 

So what makes them so good, why are they able to bring out the best in the little ones? The Hanen course I went on last week was all about showing parents how small changes to their own behaviour can have a dramatic effect on their child's communication. According to Hanen, the following techniques help to engage a young child in conversation:

• Accept anything the child says as meaningful and try to interpret it for them. For example, a non-verbal child took a coat to Sara and lifted his arms, she said, 'Oh, you want your coat on? I'll put your coat on'. 'Coat on' is exactly what he would have said if he could talk. I also saw a TA just take a coat from a child who handed it to her and put it on while carrying on a conversation with another adult. This was a missed opportunity for interaction.
• When interacting with a child always have eye contact. Kelly was giving instructions to a child about a whole group activity so she crouched down to his level. Always be on their level with your face turned to the child's to face. The same TA mentioned above gave a very long and complex instruction 30 reception children while facing  away from them and trying to talk over her shoulder. Out of the 30, it looked as if just 2 little girls actually understood the task. Then to add insult to injury they were all told off for 'not listening'!
• Use lots of different tones of voice, facial expressions and gestures. These help children to interpret the meaning of what is being said. All the staff mentioned are very expressive which helps keep their attention too. Imagine if you were in a  foreign country where you didn't understand everything that was said to you,  it would be really helpful if people used facial expression and gesture to supplement what they said to you. A quiet, flat affect is also the easiest way to switch off a child. Life is exciting to a two and three year old, working with them gives an opportunity for adults to be excited about it too!
• Follow the child’s lead in playing even if the child plays with a toy in a different way than would be expected. It's only adults who stick to rigid rules while playing, who says the jigsaw pieces can't be spun or stacked or become chips?
• Keep the conversation going by using the right type of questions. Try to avoid closed questions like “What is this?” or questions that answer themselves like “You want a biscuit, don’t you?”. Rather, use choice questions like “Do you want juice or tea?” or open-ended questions like “What happened?”
• Wait for a child to say something, don't step in and anticipate. As with the coat example earlier, if a child who can talk, just hands the coat, wait for him to ask you to put it on. Hanen have what they call 'owling': observe, wait and listen. 
• Add onto what the child says, so if the child says blue car, say 'yes a big blue car'. Jayne is excellent at doing this in a really natural way.

If you want to read more these very simple but powerful tips there are two Hanen publications which are well worth the effort to read. They are clear, simplistic and very, very sensible.

  

Small Talk SLT are able to offer Hanen 'It takes Two to Talk' programme for parents and from July 'Learning language and loving it' for early years professionals. www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk

Baby Signing Expert

We are delighted to be associated with a brand new site all about signing. Read my thoughts about its positive contribution to the parent-child interaction . Baby Signing Expert is a not-for-profit site providing free resources and information about baby signing for parents, professionals and care settings in the UK. Baby signing is an increasingly popular activity that you can do with your baby. Its not hard to see why – the proven benefits of being able to communicate with your baby as their speech develops range from better bonding to accelerated language acquisition. Baby Signing Expert is a collaboration between Speech and Language Therapists, British Sign Language and Makaton qualified signing teachers, ICAN trained professionals as well as input from Early Years BSL author Cath Smith.  Supporting your child’s communication development, we’ve got the experience and professional knowledge to gently guide you to success. Our Goals 1. To provide clear guidelines to enable parents to choose a quality baby signing class 2. To promote best practice, consistency and high standards within the baby signing industry 3. To point carers to classes that can offer an inclusive service, if they or their children are Deaf/ hard of hearing or have delay in speech/ language/communication 4. To provide an accurate, informative and ethical point of reference for parents, child care settings and children’s services. 5. To promote British Sign Language and Deaf Awareness Please 'like' on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/BabySigningExpert info@babysigningexpert.org.uk http://www.babysigningexpert.org.uk

Related articles

• Teaching Your Baby Sign Language (nateo10.wordpress.com)
• http://www.articlesbase.com/childhood-education-articles/should-i-sign-with-my-baby-or-not-4104728.html