Children's Speech & Language Therapy - Kingston

19/12/2025

🎄 Christmas-Themed Speech & Language Activities 🎄

⭐ 1. Christmas Category Sorting

Targets: Vocabulary, categorization, expressive language

How to play: Print or draw Christmas items (e.g., ornaments, cookies, reindeer, mittens) and sort them into categories like foods, decorations, clothing, animals, etc.

Why it helps: Builds word associations and strengthens vocabulary networks.

🎅 2. Santa’s Bag Mystery Game

Targets: Describing skills, adjectives, sentence structure

How to play: Fill a bag with Christmas objects (bells, candy cane, ornaments, pinecone, mistletoe) and have children reach in without looking and describe the item they feel.

Why it helps: Encourages descriptive language using attributes like size, shape, texture, and function.

🎶 3. Holiday Song Fill-Ins

Targets: Auditory memory, phonological awareness, vocabulary

How to play: Sing or recite songs but pause for the child to fill in the missing word (e.g., “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the ___”).

Why it helps: Supports memory, prediction, and sound awareness.

17/12/2025

Here are some deaf-friendly communication tips recommended by deaf people

1. Get the person’s attention first
-Gently wave your hand
-Tap their shoulder (lightly)

2. Make sure your face is visible
-Don’t cover your mouth
-Avoid talking while eating or chewing

3. Speak at a natural pace
-Not too fast, not exaggerated
-Clear articulation helps lip-readers
-Shouting doesn’t help, normal volume is best

4. Use gestures, facial expressions, and body language
-These visual cues support understanding and are a natural part of sign languages.

5. Don’t assume one communication method
-Ask “how do you prefer to communicate?”

6. Always be patient and respectful
-Communication may take a bit more time, but the goal is connection and not perfection

To find out more visit:
https://www.ndcs.org.uk/.../deaf-friendly-communication.../
and
https://nationaldeafcenter.org/resources/deaf-awareness/communicating-with-deaf-people/

12/12/2025

From classrooms to youth justice panels, speech and language therapy changes lives throughout our communities. Natasha, a speech and language therapist, shows us how a single day in her shoes has the ability to impact so many young people.

Find out more about Children's Speech & Language Therapy - Kingston at: https://yourhealthcare.org/our-services/childrens-speech-language-therapy/

10/12/2025

This is a great video, recommended by one of our team, that explains what an Aided Language Display (ALD) is and how you could use it with your child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=TPmCIyY4pIs

This video was originally made for the Orchard Special School, it introduces Aided Language Displays (ALDs), and has demonstrations for how to put ALDs into ...

09/12/2025

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and we’re proud to celebrate alongside our incredible team of therapists and those around the country, who make a real difference every day.

Our speech and language therapy teams support people of all ages with communication and swallowing needs.

For children, they help with speech sounds, understanding and using language and feeding skills. They work closely with families, schools and nurseries to give every child the best start in life.

For adults, they provide therapy for communication difficulties after stroke or neurological conditions, and support safe eating and drinking for those with swallowing problems. Care is delivered in homes, clinics, hospitals and care settings, tailored to each person’s needs.

05/12/2025

🎉 The launch of SPOT 🎉

In November, alongside Achieving for Children and Kingston SEND Parent Carer Forum , we held our first series of SPOT groups at Kingston Town Children's Centre.

SPOT is a group that has been created for parents/carers to help them support their child's sensory, communication, play and development. The group is led by experienced Speech and Language Therapists, Portage workers, Occupational Therapists. With the support of the Kingston Parent Carer Forum team.

During a SPOT session parents/carers will recieve education and coaching around simple strategies, a chance to practice these strategies with professional help, advice on local services and the chance to meet other parents/carers in a friendly environment.

This group is offered to children on our waiting list. If you would like to speak with one of our therapists you can call our advice line on 0208 339 8106 (Available Wednesdays 10am-12pm & Thursdays 2-4pm)

03/12/2025

📚 BOOK OF THE MONTH 📚

Ravi’s Roar by Tom Percival

Ravi's roar is a warm, engaging picture book that handles big emotions with gentle wisdom. The story follows Ravi, the smallest in his family, whose frustration builds until he turns into a roaring tiger. The message of this book is that feeling angry is okay, but how we express it matter. This message is delivered in a way young children can easily understand.

26/11/2025

✨Making feelings visual and specific ✨

Our wonderful SLT therapist, Natasha, has been using this free interactive tool with our young people. This tool helps to explore and name feelings more precisely, to improve emotional awareness and expression.

https://pudding.cool/2022/12/emotion-wheel/

Read below to find out the many ways this tool can help young people:

Better emotional vocabulary: Instead of simply “sad” or “fine”, being able to say “disappointed”, “overwhelmed”, “restless” etc helps you get closer to what you’re actually experiencing.

Body awareness & linking sensations: It encourages awareness of where you feel things in your body, how colour/patterns/shape might map to feelings. That can help in noticing and working with feelings rather than being carried by them unconsciously.

Decision making & clarity: The project points to the idea that when you can say “I feel X” you can ask “What does my body / my experience need right now?”

Opening up the conversation: When someone asks “How are you doing?” many people answer with “Okay” or “Busy”. This kind of tool helps you open up the question into something more meaningful.

A journey of emotional awareness, where we uncover the power of naming and visualizing your feelings.

19/11/2025

🧠 Helping children and young people label their emotions isn’t just about feelings — it’s about giving them the tools to understand themselves, build resilience, and communicate better with others.

💬Speech and language therapy plays a key role in this journey, supporting children to find the right words for what they feel, so they can express themselves clearly and confidently.

🏳️‍🌈For children and young people, a feelings wheel can be especially helpful in building emotional awareness and learning the language to express how they feel, and to support emotional development and communication skills.

You can download the feelings wheel here: https://blog.calm.com/blog/the-feelings-wheel

12/11/2025

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We'd really appreciate it if you could take a quick moment to let us know your answer to this question in the comments.

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Children Speech and Language Therapy Kingston

07/11/2025

📖BOOK OF THE MONTH📖

🙂Born Different by Amit Ghose

💙This children’s book is more than just a story- it’s a heartfelt message around visible difference, belonging and self-acceptance. The tone is simple, honest and uplifting. Perfect for children, but meaningful for any age.