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....

It can be a very difficult decision for families and educational staff to decide when to seek professional assessment. I...
11/04/2026

It can be a very difficult decision for families and educational staff to decide when to seek professional assessment. Is the child ‘just’ a late talker and going to get there by themselves?🤔

A recent study by Mettler et al has highlighted that as many as 50% or more late talkers go on to be diagnosed with a language/ literacy impairment. This is significantly higher than the previously cited 25% or below.

The importance of monitoring these late talkers as they move up into school and literacy is introduced is key, even if they pass a screening test and seem to have caught up🌟

I ticked off a big one on my Speech Therapy bucket list this week, being taught by Dr Edy Strand!Attending a course for ...
24/01/2026

I ticked off a big one on my Speech Therapy bucket list this week, being taught by Dr Edy Strand!
Attending a course for two days on Dynamic Tactile Temporal Cueing this week I came away having gained so much, in how I can treat children with CAS (Childhood Apraxia of Speech) or Dyspraxia as it is often known here in the UK.
CAS is a speech disorder, which involves an inefficiency in motor programming.
What is Motor Programming?
Well, we can think about is as the instructions that are sent from the brain to the speech musculature, including the tongue, lips, jaw, larynx and respiratory support.
Children with CAS may have difficulties with vowels, prosody (the rhythm and stress we use when speaking), using a broad range of consonants and initiating the movements we need for speaking.

I surprised myself on the first afternoon when I found myself volunteering to take part in an activity with Edy in front of 60 other therapists, my hand just seemed to creep up to nominate myself.

But that was down to her remarkable way with words and the reminder that whoever volunteered was going to learn more than anyone in the room, and I dare say she was right. A very memorable week!

20/09/2025

It is quite common, while chatting with parents, carers and staff sometimes for the L word to crop up!
Is a child being lazy? Or are they actually just lacking motivation because something seems too daunting? Or not worthwhile enough?

Children can become demotivated and I think this is when we might see some stubbornness or avoidance behaviours creep in.

This is when we need to consider scaffolding the task enough for the child to be successful!🧱🧱

We can also consider explaining further to the child why we are doing a task and sharing what the specific goal is. For example, we are practicing these short s words today, so that when we play this matching game, you can tell me when you have found the ssssame!

Giving children worthwhile and motivating reasons for doing the activity can really help, as well as showing them that they are capable of doing it❤️

It’s nearly the start of a new academic year and the end of the school holidays. Developmental Language Disorder is a br...
31/08/2025

It’s nearly the start of a new academic year and the end of the school holidays.

Developmental Language Disorder is a brain difference that affects around 10% of children in each class, but can often be missed.

These children can particularly struggle with grammar and using past tense and this may be an indicator for the need for further assessment amongst preschool children.

Struggles with learning vocabulary and remembering what has been said are also typical characteristics of DLD.

An SLT may take a language sample as part of their initial screening and use some therapy type activities to assess a child’s use of grammar and syntax.

Sentence repetition can also be a really insightful tool, which is when the therapist may ask a child to repeat a sentence word for word (sentences may range in the number of words, the vocabulary and complexity).

Good luck to all going back to school or embarking on their very first day🙂

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👌🏼👍🏻🤗

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99 Dinglederry
Olney
MK465EU

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

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+447771540310

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