Communicate without writing!

The Communication Trust is calling on primary and secondary schools across the UK to put down their pens and pick up language on October 10th 2012. 

The Trust will be providing a portfolio of free materials including an activity pack, assembly plans and lesson plans for primary and secondary that reflect the increased focus on embedding speech, language and communication into all subjects. 

Schools will be encouraged to run No Pens Day Wednesday activities including podcasting, 
interactive story-telling, maths games, debating, vocabulary games and talk homework that will highlight the importance of language for learning for pupils and provide a day of 'no marking' for school staff. 

Anne Fox, Director of The Communication Trust, said: "No Pens Day Wednesday is a fantastic initiative that highlights the importance of speaking and listening approaches in the classroom. Ofsted has emphasised that pupils need more opportunities to become articulate and research has shown that too often our classrooms are dominated by teacher talk. 
"We are calling on schools to run their No Pens Day on October 10th or at another time that suits them. Feedback from schools last year was overwhelmingly positive.  No Pens Day Wednesday increased pupils engagement in activities, improved confidence and respect between pupils and helped those who struggle with the written word. Teachers reported back the benefits of lots of talk in the classroom, particularly on pupils vocabulary." 

My son George aged 9 yrs thought it was 'the best day ever!' last year when St Peters, Hixon joined in.

No Pens Day Wednesday was originally run as a flagship event of the Hello campaign (national year of communication) last year. The unique event proved popular with 800 schools taking part and leading academics including Professor Andrew Pollard and Jean Gross, formerly Communication Champion, backed the whole-day focus on  speaking and listening. Schools can register to receive the No Pens Day Wednesday materials here   
http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/schools/no-pens-day-wednesday.aspx  

For more information, visit www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk  

Are you worried about your child's hearing?

Approximately one child in a thousand will be born with hearing difficulties in the UK every year.  Early diagnosis is very important. When your baby is born, his/her hearing will be tested before you leave hospital.  This is part of the Newborn Hearing Screening 

Programme.

The following may indicate a potential hearing difficulty:

• The child may not respond when called
• Delay in learning to speak
• Difficulties in listening and attending to speech
• Speech is unclear
• Possible inappropriate behaviour or temper tantrums
• Watches the face/lips intently

If you are worried about your child’s hearing, do not hesitate to contact your doctor who will be able to refer you to an audiologist.  They will carry out some tests to establish whether or not your child has a hearing loss.

There are two main types of hearing difficulty or deafness:

1.  Conductive deafness – sounds are unable to pass through the outer and middle ear.  This is often caused by a build up of fluid in the middle ear known as “glue ear”.  This type of deafness can be temporary and may be aided by the insertion of grommets to drain the fluid.

2.  Sensori-neural deafness – due to damage or loss of hair cells in the cochlea in the inner ear.

A child may sometimes have a mixture of the above two forms of deafness.

A child may be born deaf or become deaf following an illness such as meningitis.  Sometimes a child may become deaf and the cause is not known.

There are different levels of deafness.  They are measured in decibels (dB).  These are usually classified as:

• Mild                  20-40 dB
• Moderate       41-70 dB
• Severe           71-95 dB
• Profound       95+

If a child is deaf in one ear it is known as unilateral deafness; in both ears, bilateral deafness.

A speech and language therapist will help to assess the impact on speech, language and communication.

What's your favourite children's book?

The parents of our Smart Talkers groups have voted for their favourite story. Here is their list:

• The hungry caterpiller
• What the lady bird heard
• Stick man
• Walking through the jungle
• Whatever next?
• Room on the broom
• Dear Zoo
• We're going on a bear hunt
• The tiger who came to tea
• The Grufello

What do you think, is yours on the list? We'd love to know....

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.”

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S HEALTH OUTCOMES FORUM REPORT

The Communication Trust has welcomed recommendations from the Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum to improve health-related care for children and young people and address long-standing system issues.

The Forum launched by the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, included the Government's former Communication Champion, Jean Gross CBE. Last year, The Communication
Trust managed and delivered the National Year of Communication (Hello campaign) in partnership with Jean Gross. Cara Evans, Interim Director at The Communication Trust, said: “The Communication Trust is  particularly pleased the  Health Outcomes Forum report makes strong recommendations around more effective integration of health with education, social care and other local authority led services.

"Over 1 million children and young people in the UK today have some form of long term and
persistent speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). For too long these children have
fallen through the cracks of health and education, being passed from one agency to another, with
families stuck in the middle of local disputes.

"Improving joint commissioning of services for children and young people with SLCN is vital and we
need to take their views, and those of their families, firmly into account. The Trust wants to ensure
that children with SLCN and users of alternative and augmentative communication aids (AAC) are
supported to express their opinions on matters that directly affect their life chances.

“The Trust wholly endorses the recommendation that  all those working with children and young
people should possess the right knowledge and skills to support children and young people's
communication development and to be able to identify when they are struggling."

Julie Wagge, Director of Speech and Language Therapy Services at Symbol UK, one of the Trust’s
consortium members, said: “Getting it right for children and young people with SLCN relies heavily
on effective joint commissioning. An inherent difficulty has always been that the specialist resource -
speech and language therapists - sits within the NHS but the ultimate legal responsibility to provide
therapy sits with the local authority as the education provider.  "The care pathway for children with SLCN includes nursery-based provision and schools. Effective clinical outcomes rely heavily on the collaboration between practitioners, teachers, speech and language therapists (SLTs) and parents. Early and timely intervention is critical or we face great economic and societal costs down the line."

At the end of the National Year of Communication, Jean Gross CBE published her final report as the
Government's Communication Champion for children. It highlighted that joint commissioning is still
not taking place in seven out of ten local areas. The report can be downloaded from
www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/media/9683/nwm_final_jean_gross_two_years_on_report.pdf

We need to be very aware of HOW we are interacting with our babies and children

Why Love Matters With Sue Gerhardt

Start date	04-Sep-2012
Duration	1 day, 10am - 12noon
Location	London
Price	£35.00 (inc. VAT)

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• Course Description
  

  The daily challenge of looking after you kids, getting them to school, making sure they don’t only eat junk food, and putting them to bed before you fall asleep, doesn’t leave much time to think about how your choices as a parent are affecting society. But it is dangerous not to, argues practising psychoanalytic psychotherapist and parenting guru, Sue Gerhardt. Looking outwards from our self-contained domestic worlds also sheds light on how the ‘broken society’ might be affecting our children.

  You won’t be preached to or chastised here, but persuaded to re-evaluate your family and community dynamics. When a baby’s behaviour is observed, it is clear that human beings are naturally communicative and want to be connected to others. But if we don't change the way we bring up children, beginning from the moment they come into the world, Britain will remain disintegrated, disengaged and depressed.
• What's Included
  An informative session on how the daily rushes and challenges might be affecting our children, in what Sue Gerhardt terms the 'broken society'.

  A chance to think about the way children are brought up and to consider the impact families and communities have on a child's behaviour.
• Tutor Details
  Sue Gerhardt is a practising psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She co-founded the Oxford Parent Infant Project (OXPIP) which provides psychotherapy to around 50 families each week. She is the author of Why Love Matters (2004) and Selfish Society: How We All Forgot to Love Each Other and Made Money Instead (2010), and also has two children.
• More Information
  Maximum number of people: 25. First come, first serve basis.

  Light refreshments will be served

  Venue: The School of Life, 70 Marchmont Street London WC1N 1AB

  
  

  This course will be run by The School of Life, whose goal is to challenge, provoke and inspire you to think deeply about the issues that matter most, and to provide a space for you to share your thoughts, ideas and experiences with other curious, open-minded individuals.They don’t have all the answers, but they will direct you towards a variety of useful ideas – from philosophy to literature, psychology to the visual arts – that are guaranteed to stimulate, provoke, nourish and console. 

  www.theschooloflife.com

Texting overtakes talking!

The Communication Trust has reiterated the vital importance of good spoken communication skills and interaction, in light of Ofcom’s findings released last week that many  more people are sending text messages instead of having face-to-face conversations.  


Communication skills are fundamental in the 21st  century and are directly linked to learning and life  chances.  Previous Communication Trust research commissioned last year as part of the Hello campaign  (national year of communication) highlighted that an ‘urban myth’ exists that children will automatically pick up communication skills when in fact they have to be learned and nurtured.  Wendy Lee, Professional Director for the Trust, said: “We cannot underestimate the importance and value of face-to-face communication. Whilst technology plays a vital role in our lives, it is essential that children and young people develop good social interaction skills, express their thoughts and can make  themselves understood. 


“Children learn to communicate through face-to-face communication and interaction with adults and it  provides excellent opportunities to develop a wider vocabulary. They cannot pick this up through using technology when so much of this information is bite-sized and they miss out on the richness of  language.”  Lee continues: “Learning to speak and listen are some of the most complex skills we ever learn and in some socially deprived parts of the country upwards of 50% of children are starting school with language delay. Without good communication support, these children often don’t catch up with their peers. “Adults play a crucial role in ensuring children and young people develop these skills by engaging them in 
conversations. It is important they nurture good speaking skills and hold conversations so they model this approach, so it is concerning that the Ofcom study suggests we are relying more and more on texting and other forms of technology to communicate. 


“There are many positives about the way technology has developed. It has increased the number of people we can communicate with, which widens our experiences and can be enriching linguistically. 1 million children in the UK have some form of speech, language and communication need and for those  who use communication aids and alternative methods of communication, technology is their lifeline.  


 “If we consider teenagers, technology is very much part of their culture. We also have to ensure they are confident in face-to-face communication skills so they can succeed in the world of work. Employers have  highlighted that they are crying out for young people with good communication skills and that too many are starting work without them.” 


The Communication Trust has developed a number of resources to help adults and members of the children’s workforce to increase their awareness and confidence in supporting children’s language  development, being aware of the typical ‘ages and stages’ and knowing when a child is struggling and in need of support. These are available from www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/resources  The Trust has previously worked with BT (as part of Hello) to create top tips to make using technology a communication opportunity. This can be downloaded here www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/aboutthe-trust/what-do-we-do/latest-news.aspx