This week I tried out an idea that Deborah contributed; tube posting. I merrily spent an evening decorating a tube with sparkly paper and got some strange looks carrying it to work the next morning on the bus.

I took the tube along to my first session; I was working with a child who has severe attention and listening difficulties. He focussed on the tube for approximately 3 seconds, watched me post one ball and then got up to find another toy to play with. A disappointing first outing for my sparkly tube!

However, half an hour later, a very different child walked into my therapy room. He couldn’t get enough of the tube game! The tube (and I) held his attention for more than 15 minutes; it was a great informal assessment tool, allowing me to check the child’s key word understanding and how he was able to make choices. Thanks Deborah!

Since I started writing this blog, I have been having a nosey around the web for other SLT-related blogs. So far I haven’t found all that much out there… add a comment if you’ve found (or write) something!

I did find one interesting blog: Tower to Trenches, by Judy Stone-Goldman. I enjoyed Judy’s most recent post. I hadn’t really considered how having a favourite client puts that client under pressure. Judy suggests that we should try to be honest with ourselves about how we feel, that “we like some clients better than others.” She takes a quiet moment before sessions to think both about the child she is going to see and herself. Do you do something similar? I’m going to try this over the next couple of weeks, I’ll let you know how I get on!

Rhiannan