Smart Talkers are awarded by Netmums

We are delighted to have been recognised by the parents who come along to our classes in the recent Netmums awards. Thank you to everyone who voted for us. It makes it even more special that its a parent vote.


The particular class hi-lighted was the Teeny Talker group at Silkmore Children's Centre. This is for two year olds who are not talking as much or as well as expected. There are many reasons for this but we try to narrow  the gap as the recent Roulestone 2011 study (basis for the think 2 project) showed that children need to be identified at two so that early intervention can begin. Roulestone et al showed that if a child is delayed at 2 years, without intervention, he will still be delayed upon school entry and may never catch up.


We work on attention, listening, auditory memory, vocabulary plus other receptive and expressive language skills in a very simple format. We use puppets, stories, songs, bubbles and games.


We do other Teeny Talker groups across the area and also do Teeny Talker demonstration training for staff of 2 year olds where we run a group for 6 weeks in the nursery (no cover costs incurred then!). However, if you  want to get away from the children, we also do training courses for parents and staff with a variety of accredited courses at levels 1, 2 and 3.


www.smarttalkers.org.uk

Do you want to do what's best for your child?

Did you hear the Communication Tsar Jean Gross talking about children' s low levels of speech, language and communication on Radio 4 today? This area is the most important area of a child's development and underpins most of the others.  We have children who have a specific difficulty through no-one's fault (1.2 million) but many, many more who have deprived language so they may not even know their own name or that they even have a name by the time they come to nursery. Addressing this issue is 'the Holy Grail of breaking the problems today,' asserts Neil Wilson, Head Teacher from Manchester.This is so true and one of the reasons why I started the Smart Talkers pre-School Communication Groups www.smarttalkers.org.uk.

All parents want what's best for their children but the problem is, they don't know enough about the development of communication and their essential role in that process. We need desperately to address this, which is exactly what the Hello Campaign is attempting to do. Unfortunately it's a massive task and one which needs to be regular, consistent and ongoing. Smart Talkers have several strategies in our support of this aim:

•  Baby Talk to discuss the important relevant issues with parents or parents-to-be e.g. how old should the baby be before we need to talk to them?, TV, forwards facing pushchairs, nursery ryhmes etc. The Smart Talkers representative leads the discussion with all the up to date information, she doesn't tell them what to think but by the end they have all the ideas to make their own minds up
• Teeny Talkers which are groups for 2 - 3 year olds
• Small Talkers which are groups to help prepare 3-4 year olds for school
• Other signing groups, story-times, demonstration training all designed to work on speech, language and communication

While we do offer more formal training to parents, carers and staff, I feel that the groups of parents who really need this information are not likely to sit down to learn in these traditional ways. I find that informal, low-key demonstration is much more valuable. We're not telling them what to do, as again that can be detrimental, we're showing  and suggesting. In any event, they are not threatened by a woman sitting on the floor singing with her hand in a puppet, so they are more relaxed and open to suggestion! The first session I did at a Children's Centre was a great example: the parents had been told to come along by their social workers. They knew that it was to be a  speech therapist running the groups and that their children all had delayed language. They came along full of resentment; the hostility almost palpable!! At the end of the first session, the folded arms had relaxed a little and they agreed somewhat reluctantly to attend the following week of their own accord. By week 3, I still had the originals apart from one family and some parents who were trying the activities, by week 6 they were all doing the activities and singing the songs at home!! 

In case you missed it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9550000/9550285.stm www.smarttalkers.org.uk

Become a Smart Talkers Pre-School Communication Group franchisee

We are looking for individuals with enthusiasm, drive and energy to become Smart Talkers  Pre-school groups franchisees

Do you want to:

• Run your own business?
• Have the privilege of working with pre-school children & their parents?
• Work hours to suit you, to achieve a work/life balance?
• Achieve a good income from a low investment?
• Be part of a unique pre-school business?

What we offer Smart Talkers franchisees:

• Full training, which is unique to Smart Talkers
• Business support & advice
• Back up and continual monitoring from a speech & language therapy team
• Your own web-page on the national web site www.Smarttalkers.org.uk which you can update as often as you like
• The opportunity to be part of an exciting team
• A comprehensive franchise agreement
• An designated individual area

We offer a fantastic range of groups and sessions for franchisees to deliver in nurseries, pre-schools and community settings.

No qualifications or  previous experience necessary.

To listen to our podcast and watch a video click here: 

http://www.smarttalkers.org.uk/business_opportunity.php  

Small Talk Speech & Language Therapy in 2010

We've had a great year this year and I can't believe it has gone by so fast. I thought I'd re-cap some of our achievements this year. We:

• launched the groups as a franchise opportunity
• recruited franchisees both nationally and internationally
• have written a comprehensive training course for franchisees to be delivered in person or long distance
• taken part in a buddying scheme with staff and parents from a nursery and neighbouring pre-school
• developed the signing in nurseries and pre-schools to two 6 weeks courses
• Introduced stories with Jack
• extended the groups to include school age children
• have done lots of training with teachers, TAs, parents and carers
• launched an independent ASD assessment service
• started a blog as part of a social media marketing campaign which has a good monthly readership
• set up a local group for independent SLTs for ASTLIP
• were nominated for several awards & short-listed for a couple plus the groups were nominated for the What's on 4 Little ones awards
• were extremely busy on the independent speech therapy side with consistent No 1 google rankings
• developed and pilotted Teeny Talkers Training package
• worked with lots of NHS therapists
• started to put together an international bulletin for SLT/SLPs to be launched in January
• appeared on the radio several times
• had good local and regional press coverage

There's more that I cant recall right now and still things we didn't do that we wanted to but I'm proud of our achievements and I'm looking forwards to developing and extending next year. So here's to a fabulous 2011 for us all!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Libby, Franky, Helen, Nicky, Sumathi, Dee, Amy, Vanessa, Jennie and of course, Jack!! xx

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk   www.smarttalkers.org.uk

0844 704 5888

Auditory Memory

There are several different types of memory including long term and short term. Children may have a good long term memory but have difficulties with their auditory memory.

Auditory memory is the ability to process information presented orally, analyse it mentally and store it to be recalled later.  

Auditory memory is one of the most important learning skills. Children with weak auditory skills often have difficulty understanding what words mean, and can show a delayed grasp of language. This is because children need to  remember word sounds and piece them together to form words. Furthermore, since many children learn to read by being read to, those with problems with auditory learning will likely take longer to learn to read, and these delays may be reflected later in life with poor reading and writing skills.

We work on strategies to help auditory memory skills in small Talkers and Teeny Talkers from Smart Talkers Pre-School Communication Groups

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Smart Talkers Pre-School Communication Groups from Small Talk SLT Ltd

I wanted some photographs that I could use which really showed the children 'at work'. Horn End Rugeley allowed us to photograph a group there. Thank you so much to Emma and staff! Sara Moseley, my favourite photographer came and coped extremely well, despite the very small space, to achieve some great shots. Here are a taster!

They show how the children concentrate, puzzle over things and generally have a good time while working on attention, listening, social interaction, auditory memory, vocabulary, understanding and expressive language skills. 


We use songs, games, puppets, stories and signing to achieve the aims.... the children just think they're having fun!

Who is the strange woman with Jack? Answers on a postcard please....................

Sara can be contacted at saramoselyphotography.co.uk  Horn End Rugeley www.hornend.co.uk

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!