Go Talking Ways

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Connect over compliance… every… single… time!! 💪🏻 Great ted talk by Amy Autism Level UP 👌🏼

Compliance is Not the Goal: Letting Go of Control and Rethinking Support for Autistic Individuals Instead of trying to control the behaviors of individuals with autism to make them indistinguishable from the general public, Amy Laurent, PhD, OTR/L suggests a positive shift in focus that supports the development of their emotional skills. She is joined virtually by her colleagues Michael John Car...

Join me! Spaces going fast! 🎉

A poll regarding public voice and their thoughts, post pandemic, on their children returing to school. It’s an interesting read.

‘Bonds of trust’ broken between families and schools, says report The Centre for Social Justice has called for more sport in school to help tackle absences.

Did you know that bringing a little danger back to the playground can be a game-changer for your child's development? https://ilslearningcorner.com/2016-01-vestibular-system-bring-back-playground-equipment-with-a-little-danger/

Gaming is such a skill, why do we have such archaic views of it!

Tetris: Sky News presenter tells teenager to "go outside" Sky's Jayne Secker caused upset when she said 13-year-old Willis Gibson should "get some fresh air".

To teach these words is powerful, to use these words is safety

We're AMPED!
We have the best community EVER!

Our Communication is Safety cards are now available in Spanish, thanks to Cynthia!

From our original post!

Autism Acceptance.
Accept that compliance is NOT and should NEVER be the goal when supporting autistic people.

Accept that all communication is valid and should be responded to accordingly.

Accept that you need to teach the power of messages like NO and LEAVE and QUIET.

Accept that you are in a power position as an adult. DO NOT withhold access to vital communication. These words (no, leave, quiet, don't touch me, etc.) are far more important than "Hello," "Today is Tuesday," "Please," and "Thank You." And yet, they take a back seat or sometimes get no seat at all.

Teach these words. Teach their power. Teach that their use is SAFETY.

Image description - stylized graphics on communication cards to communicate - pause, need a break, need to switch activity, stop, no, don't touch me, give me space, give me time, and please leave.

We're working to get them posted to the website so stay tuned. We'll put the link to the English version in the comments.

Did you know The 4th January is World Braille Day!!

In 2019 The United Nations created World Braille Day to raise awareness of braille as a means of communication.

What is braille? Braille (named after its inventor Louis Braille) is a touch representation of alphabetic and numerical symbols using 6 dots to represent each letter, number, musical, mathematical or scientific symbol.

Braille is used by blind and partially slighted individuals to read and communicate.

It’s a pretty big deal!

Countdown Day 23… I’ll happily share todays top tip for communication… use your natural gesture… that way EVERYONE knows the message we’re trying to share !!

There’s a common misconception that if you use gesture or signing alongside language that it will hinder a child’s verbal language… WRONG!!

Gesture and speech go hand-in-hand. (Pardon the pun). By encouraging gestures, you promote your child’s overall communication development. Gestures provide a child with a way to express themselves before they are able to verbally. And when a child uses a gesture, their listeners respond by saying something about what they have communicated, providing language they can learn from.

How Can I Help My Child Use Gestures?
There are many ways you can promote your child’s use of gestures:
* Point to or hold up objects in your everyday interactions with your child.
* Use gestures that demonstrate the meaning of the word (“iconic” gestures) – The most helpful iconic gestures for learning words are those that show the shape or function of the object. For example, holding your hands in the shape of a ball while you say “ball” or doing a throwing action while you say “ball” are helpful gestures.
* Be sure to use the gesture and the word at the same time – This helps reinforce the meaning of the word for your child.�When your child uses a gesture, acknowledge it by copying it and saying the word that matches the gesture.
* Make gestures part of your everyday interactions with your child – There’s no special time or place needed to use gestures with your child. Using simple gestures while you talk with your child throughout the day will help build their communication skills.

*The joys of books* 📚

There’s a huge evidence base on how reading with your child is a proven method to enhance their language and communication skills. Read aloud or just let them look at the pictures and you comment alongside. Communication development is also about understanding that there can be lots of shared joy in being with another person and enjoying an interaction.

It is perfectly fine if your child prefers the same book repeatedly: it’s the ways they learn, understand and for neurotypical littlies it helps them develop a deeper comprehension of the characters, plot, and vocabulary.��Engage in conversations about the plot, characters, and the setting of the stories and help explain words or phrases to your child. ��For analytic language processors in the early years, using books with lots of colours, shapes, and objects will be an opportunity to foster 1-word key phrases.

For Gestalt Language Processors, follow your child’s lees and choose books that are around their special interests. Model natural language, reduce questions and comment with language natural to the context eg ‘let’s read’, ‘it’s so much fun’, ‘look at the pictures’, ‘turn the page’, ‘it’s finished now’.

Join me for a count down to Christmas with some Speech and Language insights for your kiddos. To kick it off we’re taking books…

There’s a huge evidence base on how reading with your child is a proven method to enhance their language and communication skills. Read aloud or just let them look at the pictures and you comment alongside. Communication development is also about understanding that there can be lots of shared joy in being with another person and enjoying an interaction.

It is perfectly fine if your child prefers the same book repeatedly: it’s the ways they learn, understand and for neurotypical littlies it helps them develop a deeper comprehension of the characters, plot, and vocabulary.��Engage in conversations about the plot, characters, and the setting of the stories and help explain words or phrases to your child. ��For analytic language processors in the early years, using books with lots of colours, shapes, and objects will be an opportunity to foster 1-word key phrases.

For Gestalt Language Processors, follow your child’s lees and choose books that are around their special interests. Model natural language, reduce questions and comment with language natural to the context eg ‘let’s read’, ‘it’s so much fun’, ‘look at the pictures’, ‘turn the page’, ‘it’s finished now’.

… and here’s the proof!!!
The Communication Cafe!!
An epic morning with epic cake!! 👍🏻💪🏻🎂🍰🧁🥮

Another fabulous morning at work with the super Cadmus Inclusive

Speech and Language Therapy Service | Cadmus Inclusive Cadmus Inclusive

This is a great read…

Alexithymia is a term used to describe when someone has difficulty identifying or expressing how they feel. While alexithymia is thought to be present in at least 10% of the population, rates are much higher among people that have experienced trauma, have a mental health concern like depression or anxiety; and/or are neurodivergent. Interoception is a deep why.
Read more on the blog: https://www.kelly-mahler.com/resources/blog/embracing-interoception-how-to-actually-nurture-self-understanding-in-alexithymia/
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Image Description: a pink tile with the quote from the caption typed over it, and a picture of a confused emoji

Just so you know…

Humongously proud of this!! Well done everyone at Cadmus Inclusive on this debut edit… 💪🏻

Cadmus Inclusive Magazine Volume 1 Check out this A4 designed by bhawes2.

Happy Diwali!!

Get our FREE Makaton vocabulary download for Diwali! 🪔✨

https://bit.ly/466NB2i

Love this visual to highlight the importance of true play in creating connection, engagement and participation aka child led play. If we’re using play to teach skills and abilities they may become ‘play’ but really it’s more about ‘us’. It may be ‘playful learning’ but it’s actually work. True play is freely chosen, internally motivated, self directed joyful and restorative.
‘Play is immersive. Play is fun!’

Play is the Way! (We have spoken 😂😂)

Din Djarin and Ahsoka Tano (also known as J and A) have generated a lot of inquiries around "what PLAY truly is" based on our chat with Meg Proctor, OTR/L in the Neurodiversity in the New Year: An OT & Autism Summit.

Here is the first "PLAY" support in a series we have been creating. This one is for us, the "play partners" to help us to consider what it is we are doing when we say we are "playing" or when we say "we have play goals for our learners or loved ones."

PLAY is a human right according to the United Nations - Committee on the Rights of the Child. In order to ensure we are facilitating PLAY and play opportunities, we had better know what PLAY is! PLAY is freely chosen, internally motivated, self-directed, joyful, and restorative. THAT is the core. It can be many other things, too (e.g., solitary, social, exploratory, constructive, representational, parallel, cooperative, etc) However, the core of PLAY is freely chosen, internally motivated, self-directed, joyful, and restorative. Those elements MUST be present to be true PLAY. The others are ALL optional 😉😉

Just because we are engaging someone in activities with toys or in a "playful manner" does not mean that we are facilitating PLAY. If the core components - freely chosen, internally motivated, self-directed, joyful, and restorative - are not present, it is not PLAY. It may be playful learning or it might actually be work. These are critical distinctions and we must be careful observers truly discern the nature of the activity. While one might argue there may be a place for all of these things in a child's day, they are quite different 🤓🤓 And, we must be protectors of and advocates for TRUE PLAY (the human right) whatever it is or looks like for a given individual.

To download a .pdf of this file click here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MxiwnKF3AAawVykDzkUVbK-e9dw4YHkF/view?usp=sharing

Image description: a graphic questioning whether you can have play goals for another person. Two trains of thought are presented - one following the path of supporting developmental skills using toys and playful routines and the other of facilitating engagement in restorative, joyful play. The final text box reads-

"Play is immersive. Play is exploration. Play is individualized. Play is restorative. Play is regulating. Play is fun. Play is functional.

Facilitating development and authentic play should not be confused when writing goals. We can have goals around development, but the only true “play goal” we can have for another person is really a goal for us, as their partners, to ensure the person’s access to opportunities and resources to engage in whatever activities they consider PLAY!"

Robust communication modes💪🏻

We’re getting really excited for DLD Awareness Day on Friday here at Go Talking Ways … stay tuned. Only two days to go. How are you marking the day? Comment below ⬇️ xx ❤️

Don’t forget to get your purple on folks!

DLD Around the world… 20/10/23 DLD AwarenessDay (the countdowns on)

People all over the world speak different dialects. Dialects add to the richness of language. Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) exists in every language and also every dialect.
To people who do not speak the same dialect it can sometimes be hard to work out what is dialect and what is DLD. But that is an important difference to make. Dr Janna Oetting has done lots of work in this area and summarized some key points on this poster.
The full poster can be downloaded from the 'DLD and Me' website https://dldandme.org/dld-poster/. You can also read more about Dr Oetting's work here: https://faculty.lsu.edu/oetting/
is fast approaching! Friday October 20th, 2023 'DLD around the world.' Go to radld.org and get involved