Speech Teacher

25/09/2025

Knowing Rachel Harvey Neurodiverse Tutoring’s work, this will be an amazing resource 🤩

21/09/2025

Episode 8 is here, and I am so excited to share this with you. I speak to Polly from .teacher. I absolutely LOVED this episode as Polly shares so many nuggets of information to supplement your learning that I know parents, other SLTs, and teachers alike will draw knowledge from.

Polly Newton is a speech-language therapist and founder of Speech Teacher. We unpack what SLTs actually do, why early speech support matters for literacy, and how motor learning, high-rep practice, and fun routines help tamariki build clear speech and strong language. Polly also shares practical tips for parents, ECE and primary teachers, plus specials for our listeners.

The highlights for me were finding out what “speech sound disorders” really are and why differential diagnosis matters, how speech, language, and literacy interlock (and why early support helps reading & writing). Some simple, repeatable strategies for whānau and classrooms along with neurodiversity, advocacy, and inclusive practice.

Polly also generously shares a discount code in this episode and has a plethora of resources available for you to access.

Listen now in the comments! 👇👇👇👇👇

17/09/2025

😍 LOVE LOVE LOVE everything about Downlights

Gorgeous candles, amazing fragrances and super cool social enterprise that supports young people with Down Syndrome and learning disabilities, with employment opportunities 🤩

They also make such a great gift - Christmas is coming….

I’m intending to use mine when I supervise other Speech Language Therapists, Teachers and Allied Health Professionals, so I can light a candle for their continuing learning and development 🕯️

17/09/2025

This is the best. And entirely community funded. Shame our Govt chooses not to do similar.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/enliven-disabilitys-38m-apartments-open-in-napier-giving-younger-disabled-people-a-home-away-from-rest-homes/

'With appropriate housing, disabled people can live with independence and dignity.'

17/09/2025

Turn a book into an outdoor adventure!

StoryWalks are a movement and literacy initiative, that display pages of a book on stands, in public spaces in your community.

StoryWalks were created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.

My region is lucky enough to have TWO StoryWalks in council run public parks - one in Martinborough and one in Carterton, maintained by Wairarapa Library Service.

I’ve asked Sylvia Arnold, the Librarian who was integral to getting them installed, to share with us how exactly she did it, so you can get one in your region.

And she’s agreed to give us a FREE hour’s workshop on how she did it, how you can too, and how to use them to improve children’s speech, language, literacy and love of books 📚🚶🏽‍♀️

Sylvia has also discovered a secret hack for schools, so you can have one on your school grounds, while respecting copyright, which she’ll share with us too.

If you’d love to have a StoryWalk in your region, school or early childhood centre, or would love some tips on how to use them to increase the fun and children’s learning, comment “StoryWalk” and I’ll send you the link to register for the free workshop.

15/09/2025

I find these helpful to draw on in supervision, and I thought you might too.

In amongst supervision techniques, listening, reflective questioning feedback and feedforward, I draw on these models when I’m supervising a Speech Language Therapist, Teacher or Allied Health Professional colleague:

✅ Whare Tapa Wha - checking in on well-being through te taha wairuatanga (spiritual health) te taha whanau (family health) te taha tinana (physical health) te taha hinengaro (psychological health)

✅ WHOA to go model - What’s happening now, How would you like it to be different, Options, Actions

SCARF model - The five domains of human social experience: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness that activate the primary reward and the primary threat circuitry of the brain

Herons six categories of intervention - to select a category of helping intervention, with varying degrees of authoritative and facilitative styles: supportive, catalytic, cathartic, prescriptive, confronting, informative

Did you know about these models? Have you used them? Have you had them used with you in your supervision? Let’s discuss it in the comments.

And let me know if you’re interested in hearing about my supervision membership - launching soon.

04/09/2025

This is going to be epic ✨

I’ve just finished a micro-credential on supervision skills and realised how wrong I’ve been doing it.

I feel stink, unskilled, unworthy and scared, but despite this/because of this, I’m still working to put together the best darn supervision package I can. And I’m committed to keep on learning, growing and practicing.

The supervision package I’m creating, is a year’s commitment, so that we can really develop our relationship and trust. It’s going to include:

👌 Regular 1:1 supervision, that you can book when you need it, at times that suit you. And you won’t need to check if you can afford it, or ask for permission, because it will be already covered.

👌 Peer supervision that you can bring case-studies, technical questions, work issues etc to. Peer supervision can be so powerful and there is huge benefit from hearing what others have to say and learning from their experience.

👌 Monthly group calls, with a topical focus, so you can get your technical questions answered in that area.

👌 Fortnightly bite-sized trainings, with a different communication-based topic each month. 2026 will be a focus on speech sound disorder interventions - great if you want to have a more in-depth knowledge of which intervention is used for which speech sound disorder.

👌 Monthly workshops from a guest-expert

I’m limiting spaces to 10 people, so I can make sure I’m giving everyone quality attention and booking times are easy to find.

I’m currently taking expressions of interest, and those who have indicated their interest, and/or are already in one of my memberships, will get the information first and will get the first option to reserve their space.

I’ve already had six expressions of interest, and I’m now calling for more.

If you are interested in hearing more, and don’t want to miss out, get in touch and I’ll put you on the list of people to tell, who will have the option to secure their space, before everyone else.