Are you a teacher with a hoarse voice or sore throat today?

I've read so many FaceBook posts today from teachers who have a sore throat  or hoarse voice I thought I'd better post this:

Things TO DO if you have a sore throat or hoarse voice

·         DO use your voice quietly but NOT a whisper – whispering can be damaging to your voice because it puts the vocal cords under a great deal of stress.

·         DO cut down on talking but do not stop speaking all together. Unless you have been advised by a health care professional to totally rest your voice for a period of time, it’s necessary to keep the muscles involved in speaking fit and healthy by speaking regularly but quietly.

·         DO drink plenty of soft drinks to keep your throat/mouth moist: water is especially good (healthy adults should drink around two litres per day) but diluted pure fruit juices are also useful – it’s best to avoid fizzy drinks that contain caffeine and/or too much sugar.

·         DO eat plenty of fruit – fleshy, watery fruits such as peaches, pears and grapes are ideal.

·         DO relax and try not to worry about your voice. Put aside some time each day for relaxation – this will require a minimum of 20 minutes.

·         DO be aware of changes in your surrounding atmosphere, e.g. hot, cold, smoky. Try to keep your larynx and neck at an even temperature by wrapping up against the cold.

·         DO keep the air in rooms humid. In centrally heated rooms, keep a bowl of water on a table or on the windowsill above the radiator, or throw a wet towel on the radiator, so that the air is not too dry. Open a window to allow air to circulate. [CAUTION: DO NOT BLOCK AIR VENTS ON HEATING EQUIPMENT.]

·         DO watch your dietary habits. Avoid a lot of milk and starchy foods, as these can thicken the mucous in the mouth and throat.

·         DO try to understand what makes your voice good for you and what makes it poor. Be aware of your voice as often as you can.

·         DO regular physical exercise – this will especially help your breathing. IF YOU ARE IN ANY DOUBT ABOUT YOUR FITNESS LEVELS, ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE BEGINNING A NEW EXERCISE SCHEDULE.

·         DO inhale steam – this will help relax and lubricate your vocal cords. You can do this either (1) over a bowl of hot water with a towel over your head (BE CAREFUL NOT TO SCALD YOURSELF), (2) by using a ‘facial sauna’, or (3) by lying for 20 minutes in a hot bath, so that the room fills with steam. Breathe regularly and evenly through your mouth. Do this twice a day for 5 minutes each time – once in the morning and once before going to bed.

·         DO any voice exercises you may have been given when you have plenty of time, not when you are rushed. Concentrate when you are doing them. There are no short cuts to improving your voice – it’s one step at a time.

Things NOT to do

·         DON’T shout or try to raise your voice, and don’t force it in any way. No singing whilst the voice is poor.

·         DON’T continue speaking for long periods if you have laryngitis or a sore throat. You will need to rest your voice and give it time to recover.

·         DON’T drink too much coffee, strong tea or soft drinks with high caffeine content – the caffeine has a drying effect.

·         DON’T drink too much alcohol, especially spirits – the alcohol has a similar drying effect to caffeine and causes irritation.

·         DON’T keep coughing or clearing your throat. If throat clearing has become a habit you need to (1) become aware of when you are tempted to clear your throat, then (2) try taking a sip of water, (3) if this doesn’t work then try a ‘firm swallow’, (4) if this still hasn’t worked then carry out a ‘dry’ cough.

·         DON’T smoke. Smoking is generally bad for your health and it can severely impair your voice.

·         DON’T suck ‘acid drops’ or harsh sweets – if you are thirsty, drink instead.

·         DON’T drink liquids when they are too hot – let them cool a little. If you can manage it, drinking the occasional ice cold drink can be helpful...but not too many.

·         DON’T try to talk above a lot of background noise. Avoid noisy places. If your lifestyle is such that you cannot avoid noisy places then you need to develop strategies for dealing with this. For example, instead of shouting across a room to attract someone’s attention, go over to them before you speak; at home, don’t shout upstairs for people, go upstairs and talk to them there.

·         DON’T suck lozenges containing menthol or eucalyptus oil if you have a sore throat – these have a drying effect. If you are able, take a spoonful of runny honey instead. If your sore throat is painful and you do need to suck a medicated lozenge or use a spray (such as Strepsils, Ultra Chloroseptic), remember that they typically have an anaesthetic effect to reduce the pain. You will, therefore need to rest your voice for about an hour after use so that you do not unduly irritate your vocal cords. IF THE SYMPTOMS OF A SORE THROAT DO NOT GO AWAY AFTER A TWO WEEK PERIOD YOU SHOULD CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR.

·         DON’T let tensions build up. Follow a proper relaxation and exercise programme. Share your concerns by talking to others.

Early Words Together: can you help me please? I need volunteers for this great project.

We are looking for volunteers to help with this very worthwhile initiative. No experience necessary as all training given. You would only be required to pass a safeguarding check, as I'm sure you'd understand is essential for anyone working with children.

https://audioboo.fm/boos/1736197-early-words-together

Please ring Kerry on 01543 421830   or Becky 01922 415632

Or email info@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk or LibbyHill1@aol.com

Are you a parent in Staffordshire Moorlands?

We are delighted to announce that our Smart talkers Pre-School communication groups will be coming to Staffordshire Moorlands. We will be running 2 different groups, Small Talkers and Chatter Tots:

Small Talkers to help prepare children for school. We work on everything a child needs to become a confident successful communicator. This is really important as language skills are the best predictor of success at school. These are for children aged 3 and 4 years.

Cheddleton Children’s centre

Mondays 1.00 -1.45pm

Beresford Children’s centre

Wednesday 9.30 -10.15am

Cheadle Children’s centre

Wednesdays 1.00 -1.45pm

Chatter Tots which is a fun sessions using play, stories, songs and games to promote early communication skills. Ages 0-3 years

 Cheddleton Children’s centre

Mondays 2.00 -2.45pm

Beresford Children’s centre

Wednesday 10.30 -11.15am

Cheadle Children’s centre

Wednesdays 2.00 -2.45 pm

The groups will be run by Tasha Hallam, who is a qualified speech and language therapist. They will cost just £2.50 per child. Places are allocated on a first come-first served basis and can be booked here or ringing Tasha on 0780 7068951.

see website here

 

The power of snack time.

During some of our Smart Talker pre-school groups we like to include a snack time. During which, children are encouraged to sit around a table together to enjoy a drink and healthy snack. This isn’t just so we can have a rest and parents can have a good chat with their friends. It is actually a fantastic and powerful opportunity to encourage communication.

This situation provides children with the following opportunities:

·        having a good reason to communicate i.e. the motivation of food or drink

·        making a choice of snack and drink which is really important

·         Increasing their confidence

So what should we be doing?

·        Working on language and communication skills is most effective when done in real, everyday situations. We need to make sure we are giving a child a reason to communicate, an opportunity and a means. (The means can be pointing first, then answering a forced alternative e.g. ‘do you want water or juice?’, ‘... banana or raisins’ etc. Put the one you think he/she wants last to begin with so he can copy easily at first.  

·        When you are offering them a choice of snack or drink, get down on their level; make sure you have their attention by saying their name first, or tapping them on the arm.

·        Try and only give them a little bit at a time so they have to ask for more. The word ‘more’ is a good word to build from 1 to 2 words; e.g. ‘more juice’, ‘more banana’ etc. Be careful to look out for non-verbal cues as some children may not feel confident to ask for more, or have the language skills or vocabulary to do it. For example, a child may look in your direction holding out their cup, I would respond positively to this communicative attempt and model the language to the child i.e.       ‘ you would like more juice, X would like more juice’; repeating key words i.e. juice will really help your child  learn new vocabulary.

·        A further point, although it is lovely for us to hear children expressing their P’s and Q’s, this can be very confusing and hard for some children. If a child is saying single words it means that they are at an early stage of language acquisition. If, therefore, you ask them to say 'Please' or 'Ta' before you hand over the required toy, piece of food, drink or whatever, they will be very confused. If you want to encourage a child to put 2 words together, ‘more + biscuit' is more functional, they won't be able to say 'more+biscuit+please' until much later because this is actually 3 words together. (please read Libby Hill’s blog for more information on please and thank you, http://www.smarttalkersblog.com/2011/12/please-dont-teach-your-child-to-say.html)

·        Snack time provides an opportunity for children to request something in the best way they can, and push them to do a little more in a safe and motivating way. Therefore, working on their expressive language skills.

·        Children will also benefit from the social aspects of eating together, such as turn taking. If you take time to watch and listen, you will often see children sharing their snacks, or talking together.

One of the biggest causes of language delay today is that we don't expect enough of our children and we give them what they want without making them work for it. We take away the opportunities and reasons to communicate so their means of communicating doesn't need to progress.

 Take a step back and see every day activities as opportunities for communication...

So don't just provide food and drink, use snack or mealtime to help your child's language skills!

We can show you how if you come to one of our sessions www.smarttalkers.org.uk

Georgina White

Come and join us on the Early Words programme in Lichfield and South Staffs

The National Literacy trust is  working with 12 Local Authorities to trial a package of support that will help children’s centres to identify families in need of support around early home learning. Small Talk is delighted to be co-ordinating this is the Lichfield and South Staffordshire areas. The families we aim to work with do not currently attend or access children’s centre services beyond universal services such as health checks.

The identified families will be supported to improve their home learning by working with trained community volunteers. The families will also take part in a book choice session and will be able to choose up to 3 books. In focussing on improving and increasing early home learning we are supporting families to increase their child’s school readiness and future attainment.

By March 2015 we will have contributed to the development of a package that can be adopted by other Authorities and that will include:

• Training for staff from a variety of referral agencies (health visitors, housing officers etc) to embed a set of home learning indicators into data they already collect (but not creating new bureaucratic systems!)
• Stakeholder mapping support and new partners for children’s centres
• Training for children’s centre staff to use early home learning indicators (EHLIs) and referral information to successfully attract identified families to their services
• Training for children’s centre staff to coordinate our community volunteering
programme and run book choice / book gifting sessions
• Promotion of referrals from the beneficiary parents
The success of the identification framework is very much reliant on positive and
open local partnerships – between Local Authority frameworks and with the
families. What is effectively a process of identifying and supporting certain families
to provide quality home learning environments for their children obviously requires
a high level of sensitivity and should be a positive rather than negative experience
for the families.

The aim is that home visiting professionals and others understand more about the
home learning environment, why it is important to their own work and to wider local
outcomes and how they can talk and work with families in a positive way that leads 44
families to access appropriate and meaningful support. At the same time, we will
be providing children’s centres with skills and knowledge that will help them to attract new, relevant families to their services.


What Small Talk will be doing:
Recruiting and training volunteers, then matching them with the families and overseeing the 6 week support programme. We will also run the book choice /book gifting session (funded by Benoy Foundation). At the end of the 6 week programme the families will be supported to refer others into the programme and encourage them to attend the children’s centre.

What we need you to do:
Attend the training sessions
Support the families over the 6 week period

We'd love you to be  apart of this exciting project. Please email us for an application form on info@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk if you are interested

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...........

Using music with your child with ASD

When Franky and I worked at Longdon Hall, which was a residential special school for children ASD and complex communication difficulties, we worked very closely with music therapists. We saw how music could be used to calm, soothe and motivate but also as a powerful means of working on communication skills.

Georgina brought this article, by Ryan Judd, to my attention this week. It makes interesting reading for parents wanting to use music with their children http://expertbeacon.com/helping-kids-autism-spectrum-disorder-bond-over-music/#.UlqBFVDrxHb

Ryan Judd is a board certified music therapist with a master's degree in Music Therapy. He has been in private practice and specializing in children with special needs for more than 13 years. Ryan is known for his ability to connect with and motivate the most challenging of clients through music, humor and drama. Ryan is also the founder of The Rhythm Tree, which is dedicated to educating parents, therapists and teachers on how to use music to help children with special needs learn, grow and thrive. Ryan has an educational video blog atwww.TheRhythmTree.com and has developed an award winning DVD and Music Kit for Children with Special Needs. You can learn more at http://www.therhythmtree.com/store