Category Archives: Uncategorized

Book Review: Play Games with S

imageLucy Sanctuary kindly sent me a copy of her book: Play Games With S, to review here. It’s a resource that contains 15 games to help children generalise the ’s’ sound from single words in therapy sessions, to their everyday conversations.

Lucy states in the introduction that “the resource is for children who have had speech therapy to say the speech sound ’s’ but are not yet using it in their everyday talking.” It was designed for children aged five to ten years old. It’s helpful that she is so clear about the intended audience. Continue reading →

Staying Motivated: progress, online CPD and books

simple_matters_boyle madetoplay_cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve found it challenging to get back into work mode after the winter break. It’s dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home.

Here are three things that have inspired me:

  • Observing the progress my clients are making. I’ve reminded myself to slow down and notice the changes in each client. One is now able to produce s clusters, another can make a choice between two options, and a third has started asking questions. Their exciting progress keeps me motivated.
  • Doing a little CPD at a time that suits me, sitting at my own desk. I watched this Hanen eSeminar: Choosing Initial Vocabulary Targets for Children Who Are Late Talkers, which deserves a blog post of it’s own. It made me think about which of my children Hanen would classify as Late Talkers and gave practical ideas about the types of words to choose for targets.
  • Reading beautiful books which aren’t about speech therapy. I received Erin Boyle’s book Simple Matters in the post this week. The gorgeous photography and inspiring ideas were just what I needed to get out of my winter funk. And I’m sure there are principles I can apply to therapy, for example I’ll definitely think twice about buying more plastic toys, or resources. I also had another look through Joel Henriques’ book Made to Play. Another book with gorgeous photographs and the craft projects range for simple to pretty complicated. I’m going to pick a couple and have a go.

What do you do to stay motivated through winter?

What influences progress in therapy?

Therapy setup

When I caught up with my former NHS colleagues recently, they asked me how my independent practice was going. I commented that I’d never seen children make as much progress. We started unpicking possible reasons for this rapid progress, was it that:

  • I see the children once a week on an ongoing basis? Or
  • The parents are particularly engaged because they’re paying for the service? Or
  • I’m able to tailor therapy to a child’s particular needs? Or
  • A combination of all three factors? Something else entirely? Continue reading →