Fun With Talking

17/10/2024

Baking with the kids for DLD awareness day tomorrow!

05/08/2024

With the right support success in school is within reach for children with DLD. Find out more information at DLDandMe.org by reading the article by Rouzana Komesidou, Ph.D., and Tiffany P. Hogan, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. https://dldandme.org/school-achievement-and-developmental-language-disorder/

17/07/2024

We want to help you and your child get ready to start school together!

Talking to your child about self-care tasks, such as going to the toilet and getting dressed, will help them develop these skills. At the same time, they will be learning the words they need to know to be able to ask adults at school for help when they need it.

Boost your child’s confidence before they start school or nursery by making a book about all the things they can do.

Find out how here: https://wordsforlife.org.uk/i-can-do-book/

17/07/2024

20/05/2024

Does dummy usage affect children's speech development? 👶

There's a lot of confusing guidance online — our myth-busting article offers advice to families about ways that children can use dummies while prioritising the skills they need to face the future with confidence:
https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/about-us/news-and-blogs/myth-busting-dummies/

30/04/2024

Some lovely ideas here 🩵

20/04/2024

Well before they can say words, there are all sorts of ways your baby communicates with you. Learn why babies make an o shape with their mouth, what is rooting and lots more.

12/12/2023

We couldn't have said it better ourselves 💜

13/11/2023

Such a useful tool, especially if you’re not sure whether your child needs help.

Understanding your child’s development can help you know whether they're one of the 1.9 million children struggling with talking and understanding words.

Check out our free Ages and Stages Guide to understand typical communication milestones ☟
speechandlanguage.org.uk/talking-point/parents/ages-and-stages/

03/11/2023

Some lovely ideas here 🩵🎆

A collection of fun, simple to follow bonfire night activities to help boost your little one’s language skills.

30/10/2023

🎃 Pumpkin messy play! 🎃

Sometimes the process is more fun than the product. As adults we can become preoccupied with the end goal (be it a carved pumpkin, a completed train track circuit, a marble run that works, a dressed dolly etc), but for lots of children the process of getting there is the fun part, and they aren’t too bothered about the finished product. This was certainly the case for my youngest who spent about 30 minutes just playing with the innards of the pumpkin once we had scooped them out, while I finished off the carving!

You can also use the activity to target some key skills, as follows:

🎃 Activities like this that involve ‘doing’ are great for modelling verbs/action words, which often only last for a short time and are therefore harder to learn than nouns which have more permanence. We talked about scooping, squeezing, feeling, picking up, dropping, finding (e.g. seeds) and hiding.
🎃 Messy play activities are great for modelling adjectives in a fun and engaging way. We used slimy, messy, wet, sticky, stringy and orange.
🎃 Messy play is also great for exploring different textures if your child has sensory preferences or aversions. Don’t worry if they don’t get involved and just want to watch, or don’t show any interest at all. They might start to show more interest after a few exposures to the same activity, or might not be ready to explore just yet, and that’s fine.
🎃 We made a happy pumpkin and a sad one, so also talked about these basic emotions and how to show them on your face.

20/10/2023

It’s DLD awareness day!

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a life long difficulty with using words and sentences that affects 1 in 14 children. It starts in childhood and doesn't go away.

DLD is more common than Autism but still not enough people have heard of it, so lots of people go through life not knowing they have it. This means they don't get the support they need.

When a person learns that they have DLD and those around them learn about it too, it can be transformational.

Please watch the video below and share it to help raise awareness:

https://youtu.be/7wZ_OW9Jx0s?si=BOhOcj-4y-9nc1jg