Ruth Byrne, Rutland Speech and Language Therapy Service

01/09/2023

Love!!!

Learn With Chatterboxes

26/04/2023

Praise is a fantastic way of building self esteem. Here is our guide to making praise POWERFUL 😊💪🌈
Download this and all our resources from https://www.hacw.nhs.uk/childrens-speech-and-language-resources

11/03/2023

Quote of the Day

15/02/2023

Tune in to BBC Two at 9pm tonight to see Chris Packham’s new two-part series, Inside Our Autistic Minds. Chris joins autistic people from across the UK to help them create short films to reveal to their family and friends about their lived experience of autism.

Chris Packham helps other autistic people reveal what’s going on inside their minds.

05/02/2023

Symbol-supported books and activities to support children’s understanding of wellbeing and the importance of self-care

23/01/2023

This week’s core word of the week is one of my favs! HELP - it can be used for so many things (zip up my jacket, open this package, turn on the TV, this is too loud, I’m dirty, etc) - and is a really important skill for self advocacy that is used throughout one’s lifetime!

The key with this one is that we don’t want to frustrate kids - so I don’t recommend giving significant wait time to kids that get easily frustrated (sometimes wait time can be short and sometimes it can be long!).

I’ve also seen people “plan” by taking things out of a child’s hands to put it back into a container. Please don’t do this! Some things (like bubbles or wind up toys naturally set up lots of opportunities) but some things don’t work like that, and it’s okay. If it’s natural to have lots of repetitions, I’m all for it- but if it’s not, please don’t take the fun out of things by taking them away.

16/12/2022

03/12/2022

We’ve got our December calendar up! So many activities going on December, which can be both exciting and stressful 🤪.

Why bother with this?
🌟 Time can be a very abstract concept, but I love doing this to help it all make sense
🌟 Having a visual calendar is such a good way to help everyone in the house understand what is happening and when.
🌟 We all like to know what is happening in our diaries… prepping children for changes to their usual routine can be so helpful for them emotionally, and may help to reduce Christmas overwhelm
🌟 photos/ pictures are easy for most to understand, no matter the language level, so it can be used independently 💪🏼

How to use it:
🌟 Make it with your little ones, mine loved sticking the pictures on the right date!
🌟 Encourage your child to look at it everyday by inviting interest and commenting on it yourself e.g. ‘ooh I wonder what is happening this week/ today!’
🌟 Talk about an event before it happens… where will it be? Who might be there? What might happen?
🌟 Tick off the days/ activities as you go on the countdown to Christmas.

Christmas is a wonderful, but busy time, so do what you can to help your little (and big) ones understand it all 🌲

10/11/2022

What a role model, what a platform 👏🏼 💪🏼. Different not less 💥

20/10/2022

Get ready to celebrate with our Makaton download of symbols and signs 🕯🎉🎆

Available via The Makaton Library > Free Resources or via the link below: http://ow.ly/hBpi50Lfi8s

19/10/2022

Love this SaLT by the Sea … what if the goal was JOY 🤩 ??

We expect so much of our kids with communication needs. To focus and pay attention, sit still and do ‘one more’. We imagine that’s how they’ll learn and make progress. But truth is, kids learn best when they find a meaningful and joyful connection with the person they’re with.

Learning doesn’t have to look serious to be valuable.

Prioritising joy isn’t dodging the ‘important’ stuff of learning. It IS the important stuff.

Get playful, get goofy, allow for the things a child finds fun. I promise good things will grow from that.

14/10/2022