Chatalot Clinic-Children's Speech and Language Therapy

Chatalot Clinic-Children's Speech and Language Therapy Katie's therapy supports children's speech & language development, with fun activities and advice.

The activities shown don't involve lots of preparation and can be fitted in to the day, when the opportunity presents itself. Functional speech and language activities as part of the day are the most effective 'homework' and are hopefully the least stressful for already time-pressured parents, carers and staff. My two little helpers assist with demonstrating how the activities might work and the videos are 'real life' :-) I hope you find them useful....

In the school holidays there is usually a window to tidy my resource cupboards and have a sort out! I have hung on to a ...
01/06/2025

In the school holidays there is usually a window to tidy my resource cupboards and have a sort out! I have hung on to a few university notes from 1997 (for various reasons!) and while reading through notes from a lecture about autism it is wonderful how much more is known now.
There are certainly practices that have stood the test of time and reading what I had written about Nancy Kaufman and her focus on acceptance and interaction, focusing on developing spontaneity through non-directive means echoes a lot of what is in the media currently.

Certainly I cringe reflecting on some of the mistakes I have made since I qualified, but in the words of Maya Angelou…We do the best we can until we know better, then when we know better we do better.

Speech and language therapy is constantly evolving, as are we as professionals.

My handwriting however is not! Oh to have that neat writing these days!

As part of the Speech Den Gestalt Language Processor conference there was a remarkable presentation from an SLT, who has...
18/01/2025

As part of the Speech Den Gestalt Language Processor conference there was a remarkable presentation from an SLT, who has a grown up son who identifies as a GLP.
To hear him speak about his experiences has widened my eyes yet again👁️👁️
The wow moments🤩for me, included him recalling how he hadn’t realised that his words and language were all in his head, and that was why people weren’t responding to him. Other people couldn’t read what was in his head.

Furthermore, he gave a reminder to look past the actual words and see what concepts and experiences those words might be conveying.

And, to never underestimate children’s language skills.

These principles can apply to many small (and not so small) children who need reminders to tell us what is in their heads🤯 and need us to look a little further, beyond what they are saying or doing, for their deeper messages.

An example that comes to mind right away at home, is when near bedtime Lara gets quickly upset about a very small thing. Her pattern is she will then start wailing about missing her old heart dressing gown (in a photo on the landing!) Her message isn’t really about the dressing gown, it is saying she needs a cuddle, story and bed, and that I need to get a move on and facilitate that!🥱😴🛏️

At the start of this year in our house, at bedtime, we started a little routine of rose, bud and thorn.We ask each other...
17/12/2024

At the start of this year in our house, at bedtime, we started a little routine of rose, bud and thorn.
We ask each other what our rose was for the day. This can be something lovely, fun, happy, exciting, a positive thing! 🌹
We also ask what the thorn was? What was the stand out bad, sad, not fun thing that happened?🤯
Then there is also the bud, what did we learn?🪷
It has carried over into the day as well, describing events as roses or thorns!

I’ve found it’s a great way in to some chat! And that can only be a good thing👍🏻🎄

Photos: My roses yesterday and today🥰

There’s a great book called Supercommunicators. One of the themes is about connecting. This is fundamental when engaging...
12/11/2024

There’s a great book called Supercommunicators. One of the themes is about connecting.
This is fundamental when engaging with children, or trying to.
A neat strategy when responding to children (I’m thinking about my two school age ones here!) is to consider whether they want to be helped, hugged or heard.
When we leap in responding to what they have said in the wrong mode, we may hit a wall.
Sometimes they don’t want an answer, they just want us to affirm we have heard them.
Sometimes they are expressing strong feelings and simply need a hug or a non-literal hug, with some comforting affirming language.
And sometimes they do want us to offer help, but perhaps less than we assume🍁🍂

Oftentimes during the holidays or moments of fun and calm we get our wow moments💡🌟💡I hope to share something that might ...
30/10/2024

Oftentimes during the holidays or moments of fun and calm we get our wow moments💡🌟💡
I hope to share something that might give you a pause for thought.

The wonderful Siobhan Ray has been taking a group of us salts each Wednesday evening this month for a wonderful extension to Attention Autism and Intensive Interaction, The Curiousity Programme👀🧐
When we engage with children who are not learning language in a neurotypical way, using our often analytical and neurotypical communication methods such as asking questions or making eye contact, the interaction can fall flat very quickly.

Then, feeling disheartened we may assume the child doesn’t want to interact and the communication attempt ends.

But they may be interacting and we are missing it, as we are looking for the ways that WE might typically interact and misinterpreting their signals.

This can lead to fewer and fewer opportunities for social interaction.

Some children may be not yet using words to communicate,so coming in with words and questions is less likely to result in a positive interaction.

We need to meet them where they are and if they are at the stage of vocalising and loving tapping items, we can respectfully join them in this and build a playful interaction this way.

If it’s important to them it’s important to us too, and if we join them in their play they are set up to succeed. And that is positive for everyone💡🌟

Connecting with children is absolutely fundamental to building social interactions. Failed social interactions, for all ...
13/10/2024

Connecting with children is absolutely fundamental to building social interactions. Failed social interactions, for all of us, decrease the likelihood of us trying again. I know if I attempt to engage Mr G in chat and get a short reply I tend to park that idea quite quickly!🫣

Often neurotypical brains are looking for neurotypical signals when attempting to interact and can easily miss more subtle autistic children’s signals.
An example could be a well meaning teacher bending down to chat to a non verbal child and asking them how they are, did they have a nice lunch?
When there is not a neurotypical response the interaction can break down.
This can lead to fewer and fewer chances for social interaction.
Instead of asking a question, making a comment, based on an observation works so well, for both communication partners👭

Intensive Interaction (Dave Hewitt) and The Curiousity Programme (Gina Davies) are wonderful courses that explore this further🥰

29/09/2024

Coming across an OT is a rare thing indeed these days, and with so many children recognised as having sensory differences and needs we often have to turn to online resources. I love the Occuplaytional Therapist Kelsie Olds, she has a wonderful way with words and explaining things to those who are not trained as OTs.
The GLP Conference is on at the moment and I loved her description of our vestibular system, as being like a tea cup in our ear filled with water and it gets sloshed about. Some children love sloshing it about so will do anything to get that sensation (think tipping upside down, spinning, swinging) and others will avoid it (this made me think of myself holding my head in my hands after the waltzer!)
More research is pointing to the link between children engaging in vestibular input and spontaneous language emerging, in children with very little language.
So those trips to Gravity and Top Jump could be very fruitful, as could some enthusiastic row row row your boats :-)

As a Speech and Language therapist, it is possible to not see a true case of Childhood Apraxia of Speech for a long time...
15/09/2024

As a Speech and Language therapist, it is possible to not see a true case of Childhood Apraxia of Speech for a long time!
It is likely about 1 in a 1000 children have CAS.
An exciting time for me to have several children on my caseload this term, hence the buses picture😃

For these children getting their mouth parts in the right place at the right time is a real challenge, and attending to, focusing and watching what our mouth is doing is an important first step.

We can target important powerful words to start with, that during structured activities and play get an exciting result! It could be a ‘go’, posting ‘bye’, a cuddle with a toy and ‘hi’ or ‘more’ of something special.
To start with, we may say words together at the same time, with cues to get those tricky mouth parts in the right places.

Gradually, the cues are faded as the motor patterns and plans are laid down.

Children with CAS, in my experience, often have wonderful ways to support their verbal communication and we can support them further in developing their use of augmentative means of communication such as Makaton signing👌🏼👍🏻🤗

Week one of the school holidays and the first 3hour car trip with the minis to Broadstairs. I thought I’d share a few id...
27/07/2024

Week one of the school holidays and the first 3hour car trip with the minis to Broadstairs.

I thought I’d share a few ideas for talking games I throw into the mix when I sense the heat rising in the back!!

👀They both enjoy a spotting game: vehicles of colours, sizes, features or emergency ones. That can last ten minutes or so until one gets fed up.🚘🚙🚛

We can tell stories, someone starts with one sentence then pause for the next person to add a bit.
We did add in conjunctions this time, so finish your sentence with a conjunction e.g. The cat got stuck in the tree and….
This might last a few more minutes until it turns into a ´hilarious’ toilet related story🫣

Similes were added into the mix by the Dartford crossing. I start a sentence and they finish it e.g. As fast as a…..
This could buy me a few more minutes until the A2!

To win a Percy pig they usually have to do a think of 5 (for Lara) or 10 (for Seb)…it could be five things that you can 🧗‍♀️(thinking about the function of items), 10 fruit 🍇 or cricket 🏏 words (think of items in a category) or 10 adjectives to describe a banana etc!🍌

15/07/2024

When your youngest assistant has a little friend round to play and you overhear her say to her friend "is it pri eee or pri-tty?”
Daughters of speech therapists☺️😂

My last post related to a very low tech ageing resource, and this evening was all about understanding how AI can be used...
04/06/2024

My last post related to a very low tech ageing resource, and this evening was all about understanding how AI can be used in the field of speech and language therapy on a fantastic course by Rachel Barton.
Testing a little image designing out and I asked for a running speech and language therapist😃

So many applications for using AI in updating resources and making them so individualised and unique for children I work with, to really grab their interest. Exciting very changeable times ahead!!

This book is almost as old as me, and it’s been rather satisfying that Lara (5) has enjoyed it as much as I used to!Low ...
31/05/2024

This book is almost as old as me, and it’s been rather satisfying that Lara (5) has enjoyed it as much as I used to!
Low tech is still great!!
I find children of all ages still love fishing, posting, playing hands on games as much as ever!
Remember, you are the greatest, most interactive, responsive toy there is. An electrical device comes nowhere near!!!

Address

Olney

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+447771540310

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