Speech, language and communication needs can impact upon many areas of life. When these needs are identified early, interventions can be introduced and this support can help to aid their development.

How can you look for signs that may indicate speech, language and communication needs?
Make sure to pay special attention to these three areas:

1.Listening and understanding -
Do they struggle to pay attention and/or listen, often being the last to respond?
Do they understand simple questions and instructions?
2.Language
Are they limited in what they say and how they can communicate their needs and wants?
3.Interactions -
Do they struggle when interacting with others, or appear isolated?
Do they struggle with interpreting non-verbal communication or tend to avoid eye contact?
4.Speech -
Are they difficult to understand due to unclear or muddled speech?

For an outline of the typical language development stages and what to expect at particular ages:
https://ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/parents/ages-and-stages/
 
What can I do to develop my child’s language skills at home?

Ten top tips for supporting language development at home:

• Get their attention first – always make sure you have your child’s attention before giving them an instruction. They are more likely to understand and remember what has been asked of them if they are looking as well as listening.
• Chunk information - break instructions into small parts and wait for your child to follow the first part before giving the next part e.g. try saying “get your shoes on” and waiting before adding “put your coat on” rather than all at once.
• Visuals - use pictures, gestures/actions and real objects to help your child to understand the meaning of the words that you are using.
• Repetition is key – children need to hear words multiple times before they use it. Use new words many times a day and in different contexts.
• Follow your child’s lead - join in with your child’s play as they will already be engaged in something that they have chosen to do by themselves and will be the perfect audience for all of your lovely language modelling.
• Commenting rather than questioning – talk about what your child is doing/playing with using simple phrases e.g. “big cow”, “the car is driving”, “oh no! he fell down”. They will be more likely to respond to comments rather than being asked questions about what they are doing/playing with.
• Create opportunities – children are more likely to communicate when they have motivation to do so. Put objects just out of their reach or in a sealed bag/box that they cannot open as motivation for them to make requests or ask for help.
• Choices – provide lots of opportunities for your child to make choices throughout the day. This could be to help them to ask for things e.g. give them a choice of snacks by holding out 2 options and saying “do you want apple or cracker?”. Always say the choice your child has made if they don’t use words e.g. “apple”. If your child’s language skills are further developed, you can provide choices of answers to questions e.g. “I wonder who this is.....is it a cat or a dog?”
• Wait - give your child plenty of time to respond to comments or to tell you something. They may take longer to process what has been said and to plan what they want to say.
• Modelling - repeat back what your child has said by adding 1 or 2 words and correcting any errors (this may be errors with vocabulary, grammar or speech sounds) e.g. if your child says “tat”, you could say “big cat”.

Ways to use common play items to develop language at home:
Books

• comment on what you can see in the pictures and make up your own story (you don’t have to stick to the words that have been written!)
• act out scenes from books with toys
• ask your child to find items/actions in the pictures
• encourage your child to tell you what they can see by using the sentence starter “it’s a......”, “I can see a.....”
• for books with repetitive phrases start the phrase and see if your child can finish it!

Peg puzzles

• practice taking turns to put one piece in at a time
• offer your child 2 pieces and encourage them to choose 1 to put in – can they name the piece they want? Model it to them if not
• put puzzle pieces in a bag and take turns to pick one out and name it
• put the puzzle pieces out in front of your child and ask them to put a specific piece in - can they follow the instruction?
• put a few puzzle pieces out in front of your child, take one away and see if your child tell you which one is missing!

Small world toys/dolls

• act out sequences and comment on what is happening e.g. “up the stairs.....down the slide”
• have a tea party and ask your child to give 1 toy a specific piece of food - can they follow the instructions?
• have 2 toys and ask your child to wash different body parts or stick stickers on them - can they follow these instructions?
• sort the toys into categories e.g. animals vs transport
• hide the toys around the room and see who/what you find – can your child name them or tell you where they found them?

Building blocks

• practice taking turns to put one piece on top of another to make a tower
• put 2 blocks out and ask your child to give you the one you’ve asked for – can they follow the instructions?
• give your child choices of colours and sizes – can they tell you which one they’d like?
• once a tower is built, say “ready...steady....” and wait for your child to signal ‘go’ before you knock it down
• comment on the colour and size of the blocks e.g. “big blue block”
• sort the blocks into colours and sizes

Bubbles

• use the prompt “ready....steady....” and wait for your child to signal ‘go’ before you blow the bubbles
• comment on the bubbles e.g. “pop”, “flying”, “up high”
• put the lid on the bubbles so your child can’t open them - can they ask for more or for help?

BBC’s Tiny Happy People

• The BBC have created an amazing free resource for parents which has lots of ideas of games and activities that you can do with your child at home to develop their communication skills.
• These activities are sorted by children’s age and can be carried out with objects from around the house.
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people

 
If you are concerned about your child’s speech and language development, speak to the SENCO at your child’s nursery or school or contact your GP. They will be able to signpost you to local Speech and Language Therapy Services. 

This has changed remarkably over the course of this year, due to Covid. I never imagined I would spend all my working days at home during lockdown, busily producing therapy videos and Zoom sessions for children, to continue to meet their speech, language and communication needs.
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IT Skills
This last six months has been a steep learning process for me personally, being completely new to YouTube and having to adapt to providing therapy online. Trying to keep sessions interactive has been a challenge and my IT skills have been stretched to provide activities that are still engaging and motivating for the child.

Getting Creative
Having to work in this new way has allowed my more creative side to open up, which has been an unexpected benefit of lockdown, from creating Lego Therapy sessions that are rewarding and yet achievable, to Learning to Learn sessions, to facilitate the child’s own ability to learn.

Schools open
Now that schools are open again, I’m trying to get back to some degree of normality. Returning to school has brought its own challenges, with the need for social distancing, visors and antibacterial wipes in abundance. The schools I work in see me as an addition to their staff, so I need to follow their own policies and procedures for Covid, in addition to our own Company policies, just to ensure that to the best of our ability, everyone stays safe. As one teacher in a secondary mainstream put it; “It’s not just the children who have to adapt”. Children are now in bubbles which has meant massive timetabling rescheduling for teachers and also therapists.

Language Unit
I spend one day a week in a language unit attached to a mainstream secondary. These children spend a mixture of time in small classes run by the Language Unit teachers, and mainstream classes, depending on their needs. In the morning I usually catch up with staff – specialist teachers and teaching assistants, and update myself with school emails. Usually I’m photocopying resources in the library for my session before the day begins. I have a mixture of 1:1 and groups from a range of year groups. I find myself in the Science lab – not my usual room, but it’s the new Covid timetable, and lessons have different start and end times to add to the confusion. I see there’s a whiteboard – that will be good for providing extra visual resources; essential for language impaired children. One of the pupils kindly shows me how to switch on the projector (we don’t have one of these in the speech therapy room). Someone comments that they feel cold; I notice the windows are wide open and it is quite chilly, so I compromise by closing one of the windows (they need to be open if possible to allow adequate circulation and reduce risk of contracting Covid). It’s a case of having to wear many layers, especially as we approach the colder months. Usually it’s me who feels the cold, not the children.

Science lesson
I also support in a Science lesson; it’s hard for the language unit children to access the new topics, if they don’t have the key concepts broken down for them. Today it’s solids, liquids and gases; many new words including evaporation, condensation and sublimation (yes I manage to recall even that last one from my own school Science lessons – luckily for them!). It does help to have a good understanding of the topics being taught. I try to keep a safe distance and sit alongside children rather than facing them.

When school finishes I write up my clinical notes, check emails, file resources etc and write reports if needed. Sometimes I have to liaise with staff if there’s anything that needs following up. Then it’s wiping down tables, chairs and door handles etc, (as I’ve had to do between each session, again to reduce risk of pupils or therapist contracting Covid), before heading home.

Learning Journey
I feel that all I have learned is transferable, and I can continue to use these skills as we continue to work through this pandemic, supporting the children with their communication needs as they continue to access their education at this significant time in their life journey.

Written by Clare Chance, Established Speech & Language therapist at Love to Communicate

As students have made their return back to to schools for the 2020-21 academic year, speech and language therapists have decided to make a comeback of their own.This year however feels very different to me compared with the past. A truly bittersweet feeling; a mixture of relief at the return to face to face working but also the pang of uncertainty of the new ways in which I would have to work when I returned to work.
 
A Speech and Language Therapist will often go into a number of settings during the week, with a Mary Poppins bag filled to the brim with engaging activities for the children and young people we support.
I personally go into both Primary and Secondary schools and have found that each one is doing things differently (risk assessment) aside in how they are keeping everyone safe.
 
In secondary schools there is a clear 2 metre distance marked in all classrooms a box were the teacher or in our case the speech and language therapist will be and beyond that the students, it is a new way of working having a bigger distance from the students than I am used to as generally our sessions would be less formal than usual school lessons, also we used to be found in our therapy room and now I am collecting students, using one-way systems or working between year bubbles within different classrooms meaning the use of sprays and hand sanitiser  at every corner, entry point or classroom.
 
In Primary schools there is a lots of hand washing by students between activities but it is much more tricky to keep the children separated  by a 2 meter box at the front of the class, not only because many of the classes are generally not big enough to tape off an area, many of the younger students are curious to the new way of working and have asked why I sound muffled in my visor or why I’m using wipes on resources or don’t understand when you say we can’t use a favourite resource because it involves passing between the students therefore adapting sessions to make them as Covid friendly as before.
 
Schools that may have once been filled with exciting rooms bursting with resources now look rather different, I.e, fewer desks and a much different seating plan, new rules about how to move about the school and how the students line up, the removal of excess books, libraries closed and toys removed.
 
Here are my top tips for school based therapists:
 
Take Precautions: I wear face coverings in corridors and communal areas.  Face covering are generally not feasible in the intervention with students so for therapy I usually wear a visor but this can mean you sounds a little muffled and somehow also effects what you hear from the student while all the time trying to keep to the recommended social distancing.

• My Mary Poppins bag, once filled with games and fun has now had to make space for this season’s must haves- emergency supplies include: A visor, face mask, wipes, hand sanitiser and gloves

  
Prepare ahead of time: Think ahead – this is particularly relevant when working in secondary schools when they have set period or year bubbles which might mean you are no longer using a therapy room but travelling from room to room, so interventions/ resources need to be ready and in a folder (I have clear folders for each period with work that I might need)
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Before you start now includes cleaning any contact surfaces like desks and tables, cleaning resources or therapy equipment with antibacterial sprays and wipes
 
Getting back to working face to face with the children and young people is great.  Many of the students had not had any contact therapy for six months and I didn’t know how they had coped with all the uncertainties and disruption, I have found that some have been more resilient than others and an open discussion about Covid was vital in easing them back into sessions.

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 Each student seems to have experienced lockdown differently and the amount of access or on-line work they might have completed has also varied. I feel it’s imperative  to now move past the limitations, try and define what skills the students  are proficient in and figure out what concepts or skills may need revisiting or recapping,  so that we can support our students to move forward and keep working towards their goals.
 
This is my reality and just like each student has had a unique experience during Covid, I am sure each therapist will have too. I will however leave you with my final thoughts about this matter. Covid-19 has been a surreal and most peculiar time, the best piece of advice I can give is to remember to take care of yourself. This a stressful time impacting on our personal and professional lives.   This situation is unprecedented in every way which is why we are activating higher levels of unease due to the uncertainty of what lies ahead, with increased levels of sadness, anxiety, anger and for some real fear.
Therapists need to practice what we preach. Make sure you’re finding ways that help you to reset and find your zen at the end of your work day 
 
Emma McInerney, Speech and Language Therapist