Looking for a quality activity for a Monday morning in Stafford? Come to Stories and Songs

We are delighted to announce  a new group suitable for all pre-school children: 'Stories and Songs' on Monday mornings 9.30-10.15 at Stafford Children's Centre from Monday 14th January 2013.. 

The programme is written by language experts and delivered by Nicky Johns, a Mum of 4 and experienced Smart Talkers professional.

The sessions are exactly what they say i.e Stories and Songs but with lots of language and communication aims: attention, listening, turn-talking, choice making and more.

You are never too young for stories and songs so bring your little one along. £2.50 per child (discounts for more than 1 child per adult).

No need to book just turn up, we'd love to see you!

When a child has a statement that is not being followed

We've got a case at the moment where we know that a  school is not keeping to the recommendations of the child's statement.Our difficulty is that the teacher and TA have confided in the parent but the head and the authority are adamant that the little girl is getting what she needs.  They are so adamant that they are refusing to let the NHS SLT in the classroom (although she is welcome after school) and I am not allowed in at all, at the moment. The Head Teacher cant see what we can add as 'we know what we're doing'.

The statement is for 1:1 support but the TA is required elsewhere for some of that time. The girl is reception and has ASD and is non-verbal. She also needs help with the toilet but school say that the the class teacher can  ask the secretary for help or ask the headteacher (imagine the practicalities of leaving your class of 30 4/5 year olds to go to find HT or secretary??)

I would appreciate any advice anyone can give us please to ensure that the programmes are being carried out but keep the school on board at the same time?  We feel we can't tell the authorities at this stage what we know, without losing the support of the classteacher and TA.

I read with interest this week about Bromley council which made serious failings with a teenager’s special education needs. In her report Dr Jane Martin, the ombudsmen, recommends the council pays a total of £7,000 to the boy, who is named as N, and his mother Miss Peters because of its failures. N has selective mutism and severe anxiety so has a statement documenting his special education needs (SEN). Dr Martin, however, found the council failed to put all the required elements of the statement in place. It failed to provide speech and language therapy for N for 12 months and failed to provide a key worker for him for 10 months. 

However, this £7,000 is nothing compared to the effect on the child. No amount of money can replace the lost opportunities or feeling of extreme anxiety and failure the child might have experienced.

Read more: http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/10033794.Bromley_Council_fails_special_education_needs_teenager__ombudsman_rules/

New Children Centre Groups

We have started some new groups in children's centres in an area which is considered to be in the lowest 20% according to socio-economic studies. The children are delightful but have language levels which are way below the average expected. I spoke to a reception classteacher who reported that the OFSTED Inspector last week had been shocked at how low the over-all profiles were. If speech, language and communication skills are delayed, it has a knock-on effect to all learning.

We are working with children who have been identified as  lagging behind even this level. Their attention, listening, short-term memory, understanding and expressive language skills are delayed and the incidence of speech sound difficulties is really high (especially those associated with dummies). The other thing they all shared was low confidence and self esteem issues.

Talking to their parents revealed a similar profile of low confidence, little self esteem and an inbuilt distrust, boardering on hostility, to any form of establishment or professional. They are mostly third generation of unemployed and have worries about finances, housing, relationships and more, which are forming a barrier to successful interaction with their children. They all want the best for their children but just don't realise what they need to do. It is interesting that they are spending far more than me on Christmas presents this year and the pressure to have the latest fashion for themselves and their children is much greater than mine will ever be i.e. they want the best with no compromises.

It used to be instinctive to talk to children to develop their communication skills and without interaction they won't these skills develop properly. However, this has been lost some time ago with many families so that they just don't know any different.

Studies show that how a parent feels about themselves has a huge bearing on their interaction with their children (Roulestone et al 2011). How can we change the behaviour without appearing to criticise and thereby further destroy any remaining confidence?

It's a difficult task to change what they are doing (or not doing). Our Smart Talkers groups use demonstration to show what works for us. It's hard to feel intimidated by a woman sitting on the floor with her hand up a puppet, singing so they tend to feel almost superior, to begin with, at least. The hope is that parents will see what works and copy this themselves as their trust in us develops. We do have really good feedback to show that this works.

We show that by positive encouragement the children will achieve more e.g. when we are working on listening, we describe the behaviour we want i.e. good sitting and good looking, then we praise those who are doing it so that the ones who aren't, want to please, so they do it too. We also show how confidence can be encouraged, for instance, yesterday was the first time I had had one group and they all had very low self esteem. This manifested itself in 5 not looking at me or making eye contact and looking very worried and one who talked all the time in the hope I wouldn't ask him anything he couldn't answer. By the end of the session, with stickers proudly emblazoned on their chests, all were looking at me, smiling and waiting for my next instruction!

We use simple games and stories which can easily be copied by parents. Afterwards, we discuss what we did in the session, why it worked and what they could try at home. All done in a  non-threatening, non-critical way.  

There are other agencies involved, who are all doing their bit too such as family support workers, parent support workers, Book Start, Home Start, Health Visitors and the NHS SLTs. I'm looking forwards to seeing the progress of the children over time. 

We are commissioned to running the groups until April. After that will depend on how well I've filled the tender documents in. Lets hope I didn't miss of a tick box!

Physical development: Tips for parents by parents

  

It is with a touch of sadness that we have come to the end of Chuckle Talkers 2. This has been a project with our Smart Talkers pre-School Communication groups in conjunction with Chuckle productions with the fantastic Sara Christie and some lovely families from Silkmore Children's Centre in Stafford. We started in June to look at communication and how to incorporate communication opportunities into everyday activities. The course since September  has looked at how to develop children's physical development and address other issues which the parents had requested. The parents report that have leaned so much which in turn has a knock on effect on their children. They feel that they have improved knowledge about how to help their  children’s communication and physical development which has given them more ideas to help at home. They also say it has made them feel more confident to talk to other professionals.

They have put together their own tips for other parents, which I can share with you:

1. Through play encourage all types of child development

2. Give your child opportunity

3. Encourage independence skills e.g. walking, dressing

4. Give children time to practice their skills

5. Encourage gross motor skills in conjunction with fine motor e.g. catching a ball before they write

6. Encourage co-ordination skills by dancing, swimming and other physical activities

7. Core stability must be strong (tums, bums, back and shoulders). Improve with games such as bridges, big arm movements with ribbons, mark making on easels, row row the boat and other action games

8. Encourage fine motor control by threading activities, drawing, sticking, cutting, ripping, different textures e.g. rice, pasta,play dough

9. Spatial and motor planning are important for development to encourage by jigsaws, inset puzzles, sticker work, throwing, catching balls, shape sorter

10. Be aware of the amount of fat, salt and sugar in foods especially ready meals and drinks!

It's been a privilege to work with them and a delight to see how far they've come. We'd love to do a third course but with all the cut-backs this is probably un-likely. They would love the outcome of the project to be  a book for other parents to share what they have learned.  

So keep your fingers crossed or find us a wealthy sponsor!

You can read more about Chuckle at http://chuckleproductions.com and Smart Talkers at www.smarttalkers.org.uk

Libby and Nicky

More than a third of five-year-olds are struggling to communicate

More than a third of five-year-olds are struggling to communicate – or understand the basics of reading and writing – because of key failures in early years care, it was revealed in OSTED's annual report earlier this week. Record numbers of young children – some 96 per cent – were currently in some form of pre-school education but it warned that “significant weaknesses” remain in terms of how well providers use the Government’s early years curriculum to “prepare children for school”.

In a damning conclusion, it was claimed that children from the poorest fifth of homes were on average 19 months behind wealthier classmates in their use of vocabulary by the age of five.

The gulf between rich and poor was wider than in most other major English-speaking nations, it was revealed.

From this it appears that the situation hasn't moved on despite the best efforts put in place since the Bercow report.

Our Smart Talkers pre-School Communication Groups  run in Children's Centres and also nurseries to help develop  language and communication skills to reduce the gap between these children. We have excellent results. We will be reporting on a project in the Lichfield area that we are currently doing, soon.

www.smarttalkers.org.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9706275/Ofsted-third-of-five-year-olds-not-ready-for-school.html

What are the causes of poverty and social break down?

A new study has been launched, which will explore the fundamental causes of poverty and social  breakdown. The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has identified these as:

• welfare dependency
• family breakdown
• educational failure
• drug and alcohol addiction
• serious personal debt. 

Communication Trust Professional Director Wendy Lee will be part of the working group on educational failure, which will feed into the overall report.  Wendy Lee said: “The research evidencing the poor language of children living in socially  disadvantaged areas is becoming stronger and stronger and we know the massive impact poor language has on educational success, attainment and on long term prospects for children and young people in socially disadvantaged areas. We also know how strong language skills can help children in these areas “buck the trend” and do well in school and beyond. “We are pleased to be able to feed in the issues for these children and some of the evidenced solutions and our optimistic about the impact the report could have on children’s life chances.”  

The CSJ also commissioned a YouGov poll to coincide with the launch of the study aimed at 
identifying the causes of the serious social problems facing Britain. About 55 per cent of people surveyed said at least one of their local communities features broken families, crime and poor schooling.

A busy few weeks........

I can't believe we are almost at the end of November, where did the time go? I have been too busy to regularly blog. What have we been doing in recent weeks?

Speech & ; Language Therapy

We have:

•  had lots of new therapy clients most of whom have complex communication needs 
• lots of lovely 'old' clients for therapy and review
• Two new members of the team: Natasha Hallam and Georgina Deakin
• Started to carry out a project in 8 schools in Lichfield to help narrow the gap between children with delayed speech, language and communication and their peers
• Almost finished Chuckle Talkers with Chuckle Productions at Silkmore Children's Centre Stafford
• Finished the tendering process for the county council (the worst job of all!)
• written an article on tendering for ITP magazine
• Written an article on verbal reasoning and behaviour for Nursery World

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk


The Book 

The book, 'How to get your child ready for school' is finished and is being formatted. This is a book to help parents know what to do to help before school. I have long moaned about them teaching the alphabet and counting by rote, so this is my answer.


Smart Talkers Pre-School Groups

These are a series of groups for pre-schoolers which focus on communication.

• A new team member Kirsty to help cope with 6 new  groups in Children's Centres in the Tamworth area
• Interviewing again on Friday
• Met with franchisees 
• Smart Talkers Surrey and Smart Talkers Essex have exciting plans
• Smart Talkers India are expanding to school aged children
• Smart talkers Cambridge is on hold due to illness but she will be back with avengance!
• We are planning an AGM training day for June next year

www.smarttalkers.org.uk



S &  L World; the global bulletin for SLT/P

This is an international quarterly publication for professionals in the speech therapy/pathology world. New issue out now www.slworldbulletin.com


Speech Therapy Activities website

This is a website we are developing with lots of information for parents. We will have free downloads with advice and help. We will also sell resources: so far we have  an auditory memory pack, an s -pack, a t-pack, a k-pack, an l-pack and a d-pack. These have all been tried and tested by clients. Meeting Andy at Devmac next week so will have more news then.


Training & Consultancy

We have a huge range of courses for parents and professionals. Ones this month include voice tips for teachers, which we ran throughout Staffordshire and An introduction to Signing. We are running the accredited under 5s Elklan training in January and have plans to run business development days across the UK from Spring see https://bookwhen.com/smalltalk or for the range of courses http://smalltalktraining.blogspot.co.uk/


Bits n bobs

We also help another training provider with their marketing and are producing the special edition of Independent talking Points for  ASLTIP. We have also made videos of signs and interviews about Baby Sign with Shelley from Little Signers Club.

Think that's about it.......  but the to-do list is still growing!!