Laura Tydd Speech and Language Therapy

06/09/2023

And just like that the summer holidays are over! Now a day of prepping and enjoying my lovely new coffee mug ready for going out and about this half term on my lovely visits 😊

21/06/2023

There is so much research out there supporting that signing (whether a formal signing system or informal gestures that you and/or your child have made up) supports spoken language - and until that happens gives them another way of communicating their wants and needs 😊

Myth #2: Makaton stops people from talking. Makaton is designed to support and encourage speech! By using signs and symbols, it helps individuals to communicate effectively, often leading to the development of speech. Want to learn more? Try our FREE 7 day membership trial bit.ly/3YmScdk

18/04/2023

Newborn babies brains grow to full size faster than any other part of the body, using about 50% of their energy intake 😲🧠 (an adult's brain uses 25% of their energy!)⁣
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Whilst their brains are growing in those first few months, the basic understanding of language is growing too 🥰⁣
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Babies have the ability to hear the sounds of different languages and tune into the ones they hear most 👏⁣
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So it's a no brainer (pardon the pun) that the more you talk to them, the more they begin to understand how language works 🙌⁣

16/03/2023

This week has seen me reassess a child who has made fantastic progress with only a few therapy sessions and is now ready for a break from therapy due to how well he's doing. He nicknamed me Mary Poppins due to the bag of toys and activities I carry around with me 😀.

After letting parents know how well he has done, they gave me the following lovely feedback;

"Thank you so much for sharing the assessments. It’s incredible to compare them side by side! The progress he made with you is amazing.

It has been such a pleasure working with you and we are so grateful for all of the effort you’ve put into working with him. K always looks forward to school when Mary Poppins will be in!"

07/02/2023

This weekend marked a full year of starting this new adventure, and so we celebrated in the best way - coffee, cake and a beach sunset!

(And I finally got around to ordering some business cards!).

13/12/2022

Last night I ran a twilight training session for TAs and school staff on speech sound difficulties. It was fantastic training up people to know how to assess, identify and treat speech sound difficulties in young children!

I'll be working with the group after Christmas so I can directly model how to help children with speech sound issues and to ensure school staff feel empowered and able to help students 😄. If you feel your school/setting would find this helpful and you'd like more information , please get in touch.

21/11/2022

I had the following lovely feedback from a family over the weekend after completing an assessment and just a few therapy sessions....

"Just emailing to say that everyone has noticed a big different in ******'s speech and overall talking confidence since doing sessions with you!"

This shows just how well early identification and intervention can work for children - sessions don't need to be weekly, they can be tailored to your child and family. Practice at home is always the most important thing and I ensure families know just how to help their child on their communication journey.

19/11/2022

I've recently completed my Level 2 Makaton training which has been absolutely amazing, and reinforced how useful signing is for all children. All the research supports that signing helps children to learn the spoken words, and helps to reduce frustration at not being able to communicate until they are using words.

The Makaton website is a great place to start looking for signs and information https://makaton.org

07/11/2022

Another lovely session with a school for a child today, and a chance to use my new jumping frogs game! This went down very well - the child practiced their new sound with the chance to jump a frog into the bucket after each word! By including a game within therapy tasks, you make it more fun and rewarding for children 😄.

08/10/2022

Children who have unclear speech very often miss out syllables (parts of the word), which can result in them being harder to understand. Some common examples is "nana" for banana, or "tato" for potato.
Adults around your child can help by showing their child how to clap out the number of syllables in a word - it doesn't matter if they use the correct sounds initially when you start doing this. You can hunt for words to clap out in the garden, family and friends names etc. Make it fun and remember to praise your child for having a go and clap out the syllables together if they find it tricky.

08/09/2022

The summer holidays have flown by and it was back to school this week! In my house this means back to the "take a piece of fruit for a day out to school because it reappears in the fruit bowl at the end of the day 🤔" tradition.

Hope all of the children I work with had some lovely first few days back 😄.

03/09/2022

Making any therapy tasks fun will mean that your child is more motivated to practice and at home and therefore make progress. Games like this to practice a specific sound are always good - or you can simply carry out a favourite game at the end of their home practice session.

Practice between direct therapy sessions is so important, and I will always provide clear guidance on what to work on at home, and provide games like the one below if relevant.

28/08/2022

This is a great little poster which clearly shows what is expected at each age and stage in terms of children's speech and language development (you'll need to zoom in!).

There are all sorts of activities and games which can help at each stage of your child's communication journey. My aim for every session when working with a child and family is to empower the parents to know exactly what to do to help at home, as parents are the ones who know their children best. Therapy sessions would only ever be recommended if I honestly felt they needed it, and can be every few weeks if necessary with me training parents in home activities between sessions to help their child.

13/08/2022

Parents often ask me for advice around speech sound development and don't know whether the errors their child is making is typical for their age. The following posters from Speech and Language Academy show clearly which sounds develop when, and the difference between a speech sound delay or disorder.

However, the most important thing to remember is that parents do not cause speech sound difficulties - some children just struggle to learn sounds. When you think about how complicated it is (getting enough breath, where to put your lips and tongue, whether it's a loud or quiet sound and a long or short sound) it amazes me most children develop their speech sounds without even thinking about it!

10/07/2022

Fab Saturday yesterday - worked with 3 of my lovely families in the morning and then joined in a huge water fight at my son's primary leaving do in the sunshine ☺️. Happy day in the sunshine!

04/07/2022

The ability to tell and sequence a story is so important at any age - it means we can tell people what we have been doing and can talk about what we want to do in the future. It means our children can tell us what they have done that day at nursery/school and what happened at break time. For me today, my 11 year old will be using his story telling skills to tell me about his first transition day at Secondary School!

Story telling dice are a great way to work on this skill at home. Roll the dice and make up a story with the pictures you've rolled - the sillier the better! If your child is finding this tricky, take it in turns or you show them how to make a story up.

24/06/2022

I saw this on a social media post last night which definitely resonated with me! Any trip to a shop is looking for new resources or toys for my clinic space, any new game begins a thought process of how it can be incorporated and modified for the children I work with, and I often find myself thinking and planning for sessions way in advance!

Being a Speech and Language Therapist is definitely a calling, rather than just a job ☺️.

20/06/2022

https://fb.watch/dM0OEM8cI5/

Developmental Language Disorder affects (on average) 2 children in every class, yet most people have not heard of it. Children with DLD find it hard to understand spoken language, use spoken language, learn words and grammatical rules. It's really important that children are supported with DLD at school for them to reach their full potential. The above video and page is a great introduction to DLD.