Tag Archives: book review

Speech and Language Therapy and Professional Identity

Cover of J Stokes book

In the conclusion to their book, Jane Stokes and Marian McCormick wrote that they hope it makes you think “Hmmm…” – it certainly does.

As Jane and Marion designed the curriculum for a new postgraduate course in speech and language therapy they collected stories, and then wrote this book to add to the conversation about issues that underlie the SLT profession. The book has 10 chapters, 5 written by Jane and Marian, and 5 contributed by other people. It raises challenging questions and explicitly invites the reader to examine their professional beliefs. Continue reading →

I’m Ready – How to Prepare Your Child for Reading Success

I'm ready photo

The folks at The Hanen Centre kindly sent me a copy of I’m Ready – How to Prepare Your Child for Reading Success and asked me what I thought. Here in the UK advice about how to support literacy skills seems to change frequently, so I was interested to see what Janice Greenberg and Elaine Weitzman suggest.

The book has 6 chapters: Early Literacy, Conversation, Vocabulary, Story Comprehension, Print Knowledge and Sound Awareness. It’s visually appealing; the text is broken up by photographs and drawings. I read it over several days and found it easy to pick up where I’d left off. There’s a comprehensive list of recommended children’s books, coded in terms of how they can be used to support literacy. I think the ‘Try it out!’ checklists and reflection questions look useful. Continue reading →

Teach Me With Pictures: pictures scripts for children on the Autism Spectrum

Teach Me With Pictures

A friend has published a practical resource for developing play and communication skills in children on the Autism Spectrum. Ruth Harris, along with two colleagues, has written Teach Me with Pictures. It’s a book of picture scripts that are ready to use – you can photocopy them or print them from a CD-ROM. Ruth has been working on the book for a while; she spoke about it at the initial Therapy Ideas Live event back in July 2011. Congratulations Ruth, Simone and Linda, it’s wonderful!

The book begins with an introductory chapter, explaining what picture scripts are, their benefits and how to use them. Continue reading →

Check out a new resource for running language groups

The book, with the hat used in the game!

The book, with the hat used in the game!

I recently got my hands on Communication & Language Activities – Running Groups for School-Aged Children, edited by Sarah Nash. Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher to review, I used to work in the Hackney Team and Sarah is a friend. That said, here’s what I think.

I loved the illustration on the cover, and was keen to see how the book had been structured. There’s a comprehensive and clearly written introduction, covering topics like planning the sessions, dealing with difficulties and supporting carry over to the classroom.

Continue reading →

Drawing a new map in speech and language therapy—thoughts from Seth Godin’s “Linchpin”

I’ve just finished reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin and his message resonated with me. Godin asks readers to make a choice and then share his ideas, so here goes!

Godin describes a linchpin as “an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create and make things happen… linchpins are geniuses, artists and givers of gifts.” He says that although we were trained to be cogs in a giant machine, we can choose to re-train ourselves to become indispensable.

Linchpins don’t wait for instructions, they make their own maps. They overcome the resistance (the lizard brain that tells us our ideas will never work and everyone will laugh at us) and get their ideas out into the world.

In a recent team meeting at work, it was easy to see the therapists whose lizard brains were in control; they suggested we stop trying new ways of working and go back to the old way! Fortunately my team also has a linchpin or two; they’re generous with their gifts and keen to make change. I’m trying to be a linchpin too; we’re starting to draw our own map, overcome the resistance, and ship our ideas.

I recommend checking out the Linchpin Manifesto (PDF link) and reading the book. We need more linchpins in the National Health Service! What do you think?