I was contacted by an adult Learning Disability (LD) care home this summer. They contacted me due to having a large staff turn over and a desire to make their communication setting more communication friendly. They had never had a Speech and Language Therapist (SALT) visit them before and were unsure of what the next steps were.
Children who have English as an additional language (EAL) may struggle to acquire English, especially in busy classrooms. Guidance says that Children with EAL need two years of exposure to English before they are expected to be producing age appropriate English. Teachers and parents can be proactive with speech and language enhancing strategies. Here are some top tips for supporting language development. Pre-teach new vocabulary. Use symbol/photo and gestures to support language. Give children as many ‘real’ experiences so they can hook words onto objects/experiences that give meaning. Sit EAL child next to a more able child where possible. Repeat...
I often get asked ‘what can I do to help?’ support speech development. Here are some of my top tips that you can choose to do at home…and they don’t cost a penny. Model back the correct sounding word – Model back the correct sounding word. For example, your child may say ‘dain’ instead of ‘train’. The adult says back emphasising the word ‘I can see a train’. This provides the correct model of speech. Syllable clapping – Clap the syllables within words. You may want to do this in games such as; what’s in the bag? pairs, looking for...
This has been a term of focusing on giving time. Time for processing information. Teaching adults to step back and give time. Time for letting children process information. Time for increased independent communicators.
I often get asked ‘what can I do to help?’ support early language development. Here are some of my top tips that you can choose to do at home…and they don’t cost a penny. Commenting – Provide a running commentary on what your child is doing. This helps ‘hook meaning onto language’ in everyday life. For example, if your child is pushing a train the adult can say “pushing the train, choo choo”. If your child is building a tower the adult might say “picking up a brick”, “building a tower”, “wobbling tower”, “fall down” Etc… Extending – Add a...
It has been an exciting few months for Salt and Light the Speech Therapy Company. In the spring of 2018 we were made aware that a building had been purchased and was being refurbished in Sherwood Nottingham. This building would become a wellbeing centre.
