PROMPT is an acronym for Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets. The technique is a tactile-kinesthetic approach that uses touch cues to a patient’s articulators (jaw, tongue, lips) to manually guide them through a targeted word, phrase or sentence. The technique develops motor control and the development of proper oral muscular movements, while eliminating unnecessary muscle movements, such as jaw sliding and inadequate lip rounding. See more at https://www.promptinstitute.com

Therapists begin by helping patients produce certain phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest increment of sound in speech. For example, the “d” sound in the word dog is one phoneme, the “o” is another and the “g” is yet another. Each phoneme requires different muscle contractions/retractions and placement/movement of the jaw, lips, tongue, neck and chest to produce. All of these things have to happen with the proper timing and sequence to produce one phoneme correctly.  The therapist attempts to “teach” the patient’s muscles to produce a phoneme correctly by stimulating all of these through touch. With the timing and movement of more than 100 muscles involved, you can see why the training needs to be very thorough.

PROMPT therapy is appropriate for a wide range of patients with communication disorders. The most common patients have motor speech disorders, articulation problems or are non-verbal children. Many patients with aphasia, apraxia/dyspraxia, dysarthria, pervasive development disorders, cerebral palsy, acquired brain injuries and autism spectrum disorders have benefitted from PROMPT therapy. An evaluation by a PROMPT-trained speech therapist is the only way to find out if a patient is appropriate for the therapy. 

We are delighted that Sophie Harding, speech and language therapist has completed her 3 day training. This means she  has been trained how to make the “touch cues” to the articulators to help patient’s produce a phoneme. She can also properly evaluate a patient (from a motor perspective) to identify if PROMPT therapy will be beneficial.

If you feel that our child needs an assessment please get in touch office@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk

  

Welcome Alison to the Small Talk team

We are delighted to have a new addition to our team: welcome Alison Phipps, speech and language therapist. She has recently qualified from Birmingham City University with a first class degree. However, we have known Alison for many years as she used to work part-time as a speech and language assistant for us running groups in the Tamworth area. She was actually a graphic designer but wanted a change!

Alison is working across the staffordshire area. She has a particular passion for working with children and families with ASD and has already been on the Attention Autism course and is confident with SCERTS, Intensive Interaction, PECS and using visual support. She helped to run Hanen's More Than Words and Elklan's verbal children with ASD.   

She will be contributing to the blog soon!

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk

Is it just delayed talking or is it more?

As speech and language therapists we need to look at a toddler who isn't talking to determine whether we think it is delayed or disordered language or whether we need to refer on for further assessment. Remember, it doesn't have to be ASD, as there are so many more children with speech, language and communication difficulties than children with ASD. 


What are the red flags we are concerned about?......

• Eye Contact and Eye Gaze – difficulty paying attention to faces and following your point after 12 months
• Responding to their Name – inconsistent responding to own name most of the time by 12 months
• Pointing to or Showing Objects of Interest – does not point or show objects to others by 15 months
• Pretend Play – does not demonstrate how familiar objects are used by 15 months and doesn’t show true “pretending” in play such as feeding a baby doll or using one object to represent another object by 24 months
• Imitation – does not watch other people to copy their actions and body movements such as waving; does not imitate sounds and words by 16 to 18 months
• Nonverbal Communication – does not understand and use a variety gestures by 16 months; displays “flat” affect or limited facial expressions or body language
• Language Development – exhibits delays and differences in both language comprehension and expression as compared to same age peers; may talk but not communicate with others. Expressive skills may be at a higher developmental level 
• than receptive skills in autism. 

If you are concerned about your child, please see a speech and language therapist, as early intervention is really important!

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk     To book an appointment at our clinic click here

THE 2019 SHINE A LIGHT AWARDS LAUNCH SOON

I had a lovely afternoon at this year's awards. If you'd like to nominate someone for next year's awards please read on.......

Pearson and The Communication Trust have once again joined forces to launch the seventh Shine a Light Awards. Entries for this year open in September with the awards ceremony taking place on Thursday 21^st March 2019. Britain’s Got Talent winner, Lee Ridley, also known as the Lost Voice Guy will be performing at the event alongside a soon-to-be-announced celebrity host. 

The awards not only celebrate the hard work and determination of children and young people with SLCN but also seek to recognise the incredible contributions of teams, schools, settings, young people and individuals across England who champion innovative work and excellence in supporting children and young people's communication development. 

The award categories available for teams, settings and individuals to enter will include:

·      The Katie Rough Memorial Award for innovative or excellent practice when working with children and young people affected by Selective Mutism 

·      Early Years Setting of the Year Award

·      Primary School of the Year Award

·      Secondary School or College of the Year Award

·      SEN School or Group of the Year Award 

·      Child / Young Person of the Year Award

·      Youth Justice of the Year Award

·      SLCN Innovation of the Year Award

·      Communication Champion of the Year Award

··      Outstanding Achievement Award

The Shine a Light Awards website will be open to receive applications soon. Bookmark the website at www.shinealightawards.co.uk or follow the hashtag #awards_SAL

Welcome Smart Talkers Botswana

We are delighted that Smart Talkers groups were introduced for the first time in Africa, in May 2018, Melanie Fricker and Farah Abdulla (Mother and Daughter team) have introduced them in Botswana! 

'We are extremely excited for the journey ahead and the benefits that SmartTalkers will bring to our beautiful country and continent,' reported Melanie.

Melanie and Farah are trained Preschool teachers running the family Nursery School in Botswana Africa. With its rich 41year legacy, Playmates Nursery School is owned and managed by three generations of passionate teachers. They are now honoured to call Botswana their home.

'Botswana is culturally diverse, with many nationalities living together in harmony. We are the jewel of Africa and we are politically stable. With English as our Official language, we are thrilled for the opportunity to launch SmartTalkers here'.

www.smarttalkers.org.uk

+267 77166013 to contact Melanie or Farah for more information

Communication Commitment Quality Mark Survey for schools

 
Over the next few months, The Communication Trust is looking in to whether there is an appetite for schools to achieve an accredited Communication Quality Mark.  This can build on work that schools have already done around the Communication Commitment (though schools are not required to have any previous knowledge or experience of the Commitment) and will provide a quality stamp which proves that your school is committed to and implementing a whole school approach to communication, and supporting pupils with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

Since the Communication Commitment was developed, they have had numerous requests from schools and settings about an accreditation or quality mark process, providing a more robust process to recognise the work they are doing.The Commitment Quality Mark would sit alongside the free Communication Commitment, and would not replace it.

The aim of the Quality Mark is to acknowledge the work done by schools, evidenced to support the speech, language and communication of their pupils. The aim is to capture best practice from a range of sources; for example, it may be local training and support with speech and language therapists or other specialists, national qualifications or excellent implementation of evidenced interventions, achieving positive outcomes for pupils.

The Quality Mark would involve two steps;
1, gathering evidence around a set of actions (based on actions from The Communication Commitment),
2, followed by a visit from a trained assessor, who will assess the evidence and allow you to achieve your award.   

Assessors will be recruited from the national network of Local Champions and Language Leaders, who will have received training in the Quality Mark assessment and hold a certificate of accreditation from The Communication Trust.

There will be three levels to the Quality Mark; bronze, silver and gold. Your school’s Quality Mark would be valid for three years, but if you achieve a bronze or a silver accreditation, you can be reassessed and are eligible to an upgrade to a further level of accreditation.  There must be a full renewal assessment at the end of each three year period of accreditation.
 
They would appreciate you taking the time to answer the following questions about the proposal for a Communication Quality Mark.

Please click here to complete our Quality Mark survey. We would appreciate any responses before Monday 2nd July. The survey should take around 5 minutes to complete.

Thank you for your help. If you have any further questions, please contact Jack Williams on jwilliams@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

Parental distraction is hindering child development

They do say, ' once a speech therapist always a speech therapist' so its difficult to 'switch off when I'm not working. It's very difficult to walk on by when see example of things going worng but I do force myself as I know they'd probably  ask me what business it is of mine. They're right of course but I know they'd want the best for their children, they just might not know what that is.

I was in the queue at Pets at Home the other day with my therapy dog. He dislikes any form of raised voice and actually gets upset even if they're not shouting at him. We heard a woman's voice loudly saying 'Sit', 'Sit down', 'Sit there now', 'I've told you SIT down'. Ralph was getting a bit anxious so I peeked around the corner expecting to see an unruly puppy........instead it was  3 year old who had come to see the animal petting!!

Yesterday, I went out for lunch and directly opposite me so I couldn't look away, there was a young mother with her parents and daughter aged approx 2.5 years. Not one of the adults engaged the delightful little girl, in fact, her mother was much more interested in her phone, taking calls and almost constantly texting. She even managed to pick up her daughter to take her to the toilet while texting at the same time (some feat!). The only time she interacted with her child was to wipe her nose (without mentioning what she was doing before the tissue was launched across the poor child's face) and when she wiped chocolate off her top. A dummy was firmly fixed in the girl's mouth.

I, as the parent whose children grew up in the blink of an eye, wanted  to tell her that she was missing so much joy, so much special time while the SLT in me wanted to explain what was going wrong and how easily it could be remedied. Instead, I was just glad when they finished before us and left.

But is not just me being old, miserable and doom mongering, read this:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20180325/parent-distraction-can-hinder-babies-language-skills