Speech Assessment App

I hear from so many parent’s looking for support for their child who received a response from some professionals, friends or family members of, “IT’S JUST SPEECH!” How can that be? That is so wrong and it belittles the struggle that the child has, daily, to speak and to communicate their needs. How would the adult who is saying, “it’s just speech,” feel if they suddenly lost the ability to speak? Not forgetting the fact that the inability to speak and communicate has a huge impact on all area’s of our life.

The following are four very worrying statistics which makes the comment, “it’s just speech,” as a response even more frustrating to hear.
Up to a third of children with untreated communication difficulties will develop subsequent mental health issues.
A study of young unemployed men found that over 88% were presenting with a language impairment.
More than 50% of children excluded from schools have an unidentified communication delay.
One study in a young offenders institute found 70% of the men had communication difficulties.

Sadly, speech, language and communication difficulties are NOT taken seriously enough in our society.

There are more children each year entering schools with speech, language and communication difficulties and teachers just don’t get enough training on how they impact on a child’s time in the classroom. It can affect their learning, the ability to build friendships, communicating their needs and their confidence. They can be left feeling isolated, lonely and have feeling of worthlessness which then affects their self esteem and mental health.

The lack of teacher training in this area is something that needs to change. Children are in school for such a long period of time and they deserve understanding and support from those around them.

People who struggle to speak CAN hear you and understand everything you say!

I get so many messages and comments about people saying hurtful things. The most recent only being yesterday, when someone in a supposedly caring profession talked down about a child in their care to the other children around them. Then had the audacity to tell the child’s parent at the end of the day like their was nothing wrong with what they had done. No, this is not ok!

This Friday is International Developmental Language Disorder Awareness Day and this week we will be posting information about this important cause to help raise awareness.

A little reminder as the children and young people return to school today ☺️

I just wanted to remind people that ‘after school restraint collapse’ is very real! It’s not your child just acting out.

I struggled with this. I would hold in all my built up frustrations in class, have to work 10x harder than all my peers just to write 1 sentence, work so hard to be just like all the other children in my class, feel anxious about my speech and do everything I could just to conform. It worked as well. At one review meeting my teacher was saying how hard I worked and that if you were to look through the window you would never pick me out because I did everything in my power to fit in.

As soon as I stepped through my front door after school, when I walked into my safe space, that would change. I would be hyper, loud and wind my brother and sister up. I wouldn’t be naughty as such, just high pitched, loud and run around crazily.

My mum’s solution? She’d open the back door, whatever the weather, and I would jump on my trampoline for about half an hour. My way of self regulating and it worked every time. After that I could concentrate on any homework, speech practise or play with my brother and sister calmly.

A couple of places still available!!

My next training for anyone interested in supporting pre-school children's speech, language and communication development is over two dates: Tuesday 4th May and Tuesday 11th May 3.30pm-5.30pm and costs £40 per person.

To book a spot on this training, contact me at [email protected]

The last group who attended this training said this:

"I thought you delivered it brilliantly, it flowed really well, you aimed it just right for our staff without using jargon or blinding them with science. The handouts are really useful, the building blocks posters are now displayed in both settings as good prompts and reminders. Your wealth of experience, interest and enthusiasm for SLC shone through."

🙌🏻 💙

It’s complicated!

Come along to our new Mindful Autism Support Groups with Jonny Drury running every Thursday until 1st April (excluding 11th February) and beginning on 28th January.

These are guided support and discussion groups for autistic individuals and families that use guided mindfulness meditation and group conversation as a basis for stress recovery and improving relaxation and wellbeing.

Each group will take place via Zoom and are free to join. The groups will be limited to a maximum of 20 places and are suitable for those 18 years+.

To find out exactly how these groups will work, visit our website: http://bit.ly/Mindful2801

❤️ 🪱 🦆

Worm Day!!!! 🪱💚

❤️

Familiar?

Meet Max. He's a y5 pupil in primary school.

This morning, Max had to come a different way to school because they were digging up the road.
Because the road was closed, by the time they'd gone round the diversion, Max was late for school.

Max hates being late. He hates to walk into class when all the other children are milling about. So he waits in the cloakroom until they've all gone in. Mrs White said it's ok for him to do that.

When Max steps into class, Mrs White isn't there.
There's a stranger standing at the front with the Head teacher. Mrs White has gone on a course today and they have a substitute teacher Mrs Grey. But Max doesn't know this because he came in late. He sits down when the Head teacher tells him to, and wonders when Mrs White will be in.

Mrs Grey announces that the class spelling test will be first. Max has been trying really hard with his spellings. He has practised them at home. Mrs Grey starts to read them out, but they're not in the right order. Max can feel a knot in his stomach and writes out the spelling test he has learnt in the right order. Two out of ten and told he will have to try harder. He didn't even get a smiley face and Max likes stickers.

At break time, Max goes out into the playground. He's got an apple for snack, but as he is eating it, a girl playing chase bumps into him and it drops on the floor. One of the boys shouts "football" and kicks it across the playground... It ends up in a puddle and Max goes to get it and gets his feet wet. He hates being wet, so he goes back into class and takes his shoes and socks off.

Mrs Grey almost trips over Max, who is sitting right in the doorway of the classroom. She tells Max to either put his wet things back on or to put his pumps on. He tells Mrs Grey that it is not P.E yet it's literacy next.

Mrs Grey glares at Max and suggests that perhaps Max would prefer to sit outside the Head's office. Max is quite relieved about this; it's nice and quiet in the corridor. He puts his pumps on but they don't feel right without socks, and all he can think about is how scratchy they are on his feet.

On the way out of the classroom, he sees the girl that bumped into him in the playground. He pushes her back and she tells the teacher that he pushed her for no reason. Mrs Grey walks over to Max. She's wearing really strong perfume and he wants to wretch. When she asks him why he is pulling faces, he says it's because she smells.

Mrs Grey marches Max down the corridor and tells the Head that Max is being naughty and very rude. Max tells her she is lying. The Head tells Max to sit there until he feels he can behave.

After half an hour outside the Head's office, Max is feeling much calmer so he decides to go back to his classroom. Still no Mrs White. He looks round to see what he is supposed to do and sees some boys spinning their pens so he goes and watches them cause it looks interesting.

When the bell goes for lunch, Max puts his hands over his ears and runs to the classroom door to be first. Mrs Grey tells him off for pushing and makes him wait at the end of the queue. When he goes to get his lunchbox he can't find it, it's not with his coat where he left it.

When the Mid-day Assistant manages to calm him down, she arranges for him to have a school dinner instead. He has to sit on a different table in the hall and the smell of other peoples dinners makes him feel ill. He looks down and notices that the beans are touching the potatoes so he can't eat that now. Dry food shouldn't touch wet foods. Everyone is talking and the noise of cutlery and scraping of chairs is overwhelming even the playground is better than this.

Max goes back to the cloak room and lies on the floor with his coat over his head. The floor is nice and cool and he starts to feel calmer. He makes the Mid-day Assistant jump when she walks past him, and she chastises him saying " you scared me to death Max!"

Max is really worried about this because he really likes her and doesn't want her to die, but she carries on walking as though she was ok. He follows her round the playground just to make sure.

After lunch Mrs Grey tells the class to get into pairs. Max sits on a table with two other children, and they've already paired up. He doesn't know what to do... Mrs Grey asks for anyone who's not sitting with someone to put up their hand. Max doesn't realise she's talking to him - he's sitting with two people, so he doesn't put his hand up... When Mrs Grey raises her voice and asks why he wasn't paying attention, it all becomes a bit of a blur...and Max has no idea why he is being told off again. He wonders if it is because he made the Mid-day Assistant die. He really can't remember what happens after that.....

The bell goes at the end of the day, and Max goes out to find his Mum.

" Did you have a good day at school Max?" asks his Mum.

*********
Max has spent all day masking and 'holding it all in'. Think of Max child as a bottle of pop. As he goes through the day the bottle gets shaken each time there is a trigger, with the pressure building up as their stress and anxiety increase.

Max managed to hold it all together whilst at school but when Mum picked him up, he had a meltdown - the pop was released from the bottle in one go.

Many parents will be familiar with the Pop Bottle effect - the delayed meltdown which follows a day of triggers and masking.

😳

🍁😅Oops 🍂🍃🍁

Anyone?!

Who can relate?

Although my mum was pretty good at understanding me, my sister was my best translator when I was younger. She understood everything I said.

👏👏👏

Just a reminder to all the parents out there. The parents feeling guilty, asking what they did wrong. Your child’s diagnosis IS NOT YOUR FAULT. 💙

👏👏👏

Remember what it feels like to be excluded, that it makes you include everybody. 💙

Always in our mind.

Therapy is more than one hour week...

The FREE Speech, Language & Communication Early Years Summit is now live!

Ooh look!!

www.earlyyearssummit.com Register now for FREE access to the Early Years Summit with strategies, insights and tips from 𝟮3 world-leading Early Years experts

Speech and Language training in Moffat, Scotland!

***Speech and Language Training for Childminders***
If you would like to learn about speech, language and communication development in a friendly and interactive environment where you will get to ask questions about how to support your little ones, then get in touch quickedy quick quick as spaces are filling up fast!
Feel free to share this post or tag a buddy in to share your 'bring a friend' offer!

Mikey's Wish - Verbal Dyspraxia Awareness

Fact 💙

Nurseries should teach children conversational skills, say parents

I’m not sure that parents would actually say this? Maybe they’d say it is the role of the nursery as well as the parent to support communication.

nurseryworld.co.uk One in seven parents think it is a nursery’s responsibility to help children learn to speak and hold conversations, according to a new survey.

Keira