A couple of weeks back, at the ASLTIP conference,  I led a session about how to start a speech and language therapy blog. I knew I didn’t want to stand and talk for an hour, so I included activities as we went along, which I hoped would leave attendees ready to write their first blog post when they got home.

We started by discussing why we were interested in blogging and who we wanted to read our posts. People were keen to explain what speech and language therapy is and how therapists work, share their expertise and resources, and use their blog as a place to reflect, so as professional development.

Next I showed the group how easy it is to start a blog with WordPress. I played them a video of me setting up a new blog and writing my first post in 5 minutes. I hope I reassured them that you don’t need lots of technical skills to start a blog.

We talked about titles and the importance of being clear, so that people know what you’re writing about and can find your posts. I talked about how using photographs can makes posts stand out, encourage people to read them and break up the text. I explained the purpose of linking to other websites (it helps your reader and respects your “sources”) and showed them how to do it. And I encouraged them to share their posts on social media.

We discussed finding our voice, and sounding like ourselves. Blogs aren’t reports or research papers, so don’t need to be written in a very formal style. I shared with the group a tip from Kate Kiefer Lee: try reading what you’ve written out loud (or to your dog!) Does it sound like something you’d say? If it doesn’t, go back and take out some of the words you wouldn’t use in conversation.

We discussed the responsibilities of being an SLT blogger. Then I finished up by sharing resources. I use Trello for keeping track of ideas I’d like to blog about, then when the mood to write strikes, I can just pick a topic from my list. I read other blogs (you can find SLT related ones by searching on google or using the #slpeeps hashtag on Twitter) and find the resources about blogging from Braid Creative useful.

The group got stuck in with the activities and asked some questions that made me think, thank you! If you were at the workshop and you’re now blogging, send me the link, I’d love to have a read.

Any questions about blogging as a Speech and Language Therapist? Let me know.

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.

The book is full of practical examples from real families, so it’s both straight forward to apply and realistic, in terms of what parents can fit into their lives. There are plenty of Hanen’s trademark memory aids, some familiar like OWLing (observe, wait, and listen) and some new (to me) like POP – point out print.

My favourite thing about the book is how clear the authors are about the importance of making reading fun by following the child’s lead. I often worry that parents go in too heavy with the flashcards approach, which can put kids off, so I was relieved that the book stresses reading needs to be fun.

The blurb on the back of the book states that the authors have taken the most current research and broken it down into fun strategies for promoting early literacy. The only thing that frustrated me is that although they’ve provided references for each chapter, these aren’t clearly identified in the text. It simply says: “studies have found….” – so it’s not clear which study they are referring to. I think some parents (and professionals) would like to read more detail from the original research paper, and the format of the book doesn’t support this.

If you’re looking for ideas about how to use books (and conversation!) to prepare a child for reading and writing I’m Ready is packed full of them. It’s easy to read, practical and fun.

If you’re in the UK, the book is currently only available directly from Hanen. Hanen hope their UK distributor will be stocking it soon.