Change is inevitable and we want to empower our kids to be able to take changes in their stride feeling empowered and supported. The "back to school spot the difference" encourages kids to take a proactive approach to something that can cause a lot of anxiety.
“My little girl has had many people fail to see her potential and it’s changed who I am as a parent and a therapist. I believe every child has unique interests, motivations, and strengths that need to be uncovered and recognised. What an honour and privilege it is to really see the greatness that lies in each child and to truly experience joy as each new (communication) skill is achieved."
This week I have been exploring using PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) to target some functional and relevant speech for an autistic young person. PROMPT is a very different technique to typical SLT approaches. It is "hands-on" with the therapist physically providing information to the articulators on how to move. It looks… Continue reading Showing and telling in speech therapy
So who knew! Moshi monsters are a great tool to explore social relationships, friendships and emotions. As I looked through my resource cupboard one day last week to find the right materials for some SLT sessions I came across some Moshi monsters that were destined for the charity shop To my surprise when I opened… Continue reading When friendships and feelings are painful – using toys to explore
What does Grow Communication have to do with travel you may ask? Indeed, aside from dashing round the country to see families, the journeys I am thinking of here are personal ones. This recent testimonial made me glow with pride to be still working with families who started with us when Grow first began. What… Continue reading There for the long haul
If you have followed part 1 and part 2 of this series on time concepts you will have had a look at some of my other ideas to teach those tricky time concepts. This week I was helping a young man who was struggling with before and after - he can follow "before" and "after"… Continue reading Creative ways to learn time concepts – part 3
It has always struck me that the way that we lay out calendars and diaries is really not that intuitive. Whilst it makes practical sense to use tables or a linear format - the circular (clock) way of organising these time sequences that keep on looping round feels much more intuitive. See Creative ways to… Continue reading Creative ways to learn time concepts – part 2
The past couple of weeks I have been having fun finding ways to teach the concept of time to kids with Developmental Language Disorder and also Autism. The language of time is commonplace but often abstract and can be challenging for working memory. Learning sequences of months and days along with songs is a good… Continue reading Creative ways to learn time concepts – part 1
One thing I love about our assessment work at Grow Communication is the opportunity that we have to get to know so many phenomenal individuals. And the chance to create an assessment space that is right for each one of those individuals. On this occasion it involved my very lovely puppy Paddy (I think he… Continue reading Puppies, PDA profiling and positives!
"I put the lid on and press it down till it clicks" This wasn't a description of closing a holiday suitcase or the lid on the biscuit tin - these were the words of an autistic young person describing how they held in their feelings of anxiety and stress and overwhelm at school. The phenomenon… Continue reading “I put the lid on and press it down till it clicks” – Masking and Autism
