LET'S TALK. Gill Pote's Speech and Language Therapy Room

21/11/2025

16/11/2025

My sentiments exactly. Eloquently expressed. Thank you 🩵

Recently, a professional wrote that presuming competence is dangerous because it leads us to overlook vulnerability. That by presuming competence, we fail to protect, fail to offer help, fail to teach and assume people already know skills they have not yet learned. The professional’s stance confuses competence with current performance and support with correction or training.

This is not presuming competence. This is neglect.

Presuming competence is not an instructional strategy nor a belief about skill level. Presuming competence doesn’t mean assuming the person already has every skill but not demanding of someone to prove their right to access before we are willing to help them learn.

To presume competence is to recognise that a person’s understanding, agency, emotional depth and capacity for meaning-making exist regardless of whether they can demonstrate those things in neuronormative ways.
We do not treat a person as less intelligent because they communicate, learn or express differently.
We should assume cognitive presence, even when expression is delayed, non-linear or happens through non-speech communication.
We must provide access, support, scaffolding and alternative communication methods without requiring someone to prove they deserve them.

Presuming competence is an ethical stance that does not reduce someone to what is observable, nor treat one's humanity as being contingent on performance.

Moreso, vulnerability and competence are not opposites... A person can be deeply vulnerable and competent at the same time. Presuming competence allows us to support that vulnerability with dignity, instead of controlling it through fear of what might happen if we get it wrong.

Bottom line is that we don’t presume finished ability. We presume capacity, presence and potential and we support the person in accessing and expressing it.

16/11/2025

There truly is an epidemic of reading failure that DEMANDS acknowledgement and teaching action!

There is too, an epidemic of language skills failure that DEMANDS acknowledgement and action.

How are our learners ever going to master crucial language/literacy skills that a successful life demands?

As a profession of Language Therapists, we cannot address this fall out alone.

15/11/2025

Did we need evidence?
Well here it is.

If you ever needed (more) evidence about the enormous advantages bestowed by reading to your kids…

14/11/2025

I couldn't agree more!!

" Learning only happens when a child feels safe enough to stay"

If we supported safety like we chase attendance, fewer kids would break. 💔

Because attendance isn’t the measure of success — safety is. When a child is scared, burnt out, or emotionally flooded, forcing them back into school doesn’t rebuild trust. It reinforces trauma.

So many families are living this reality right now — navigating threats of fines, letters, and pressure — while their children are silently falling apart.

If we want attendance to improve, we need to start with safety. And that means understanding why a child can’t attend, not punishing them for it.

Safety first. Always.

Because learning only happens when a child feels safe enough to stay.

If you're currently in this position there is help available.

Drop the word RESOURCE below for my free EBSA & school avoidance guides — with information to help you advocate for your child’s needs and next steps, as well as what to do if you're being threatened with fines.

14/11/2025

HAPPY SPEECH THERAPIST DAY MY DEAR COLLEAGUES🙏🩵

13/11/2025

Heart Work 🩵

As the year draws to a close, I find myself pausing — not just to look back, but to feel.

To feel gratitude for every family who has trusted me with their child’s voice, their hopes, their worries.
For parents who show up, who ask, who challenge, who learn, who keep going — even when it’s hard.

For the children who have sat across from me — some for a short season, others for years.
Many now grown, still messaging, still sharing milestones, still reminding me that what happens in those 45 minutes reaches far beyond therapy walls.

To my colleagues, mentors, and friends — the ones who listen when the doubts creep in, who research late into the night, who remind me that tiredness and questioning mean we care deeply.

Therapy is not a job.
It’s heart work.
It’s the quiet victories, the laughter, the tears, the moments we can’t explain but feel in our bones.

It’s being part of lives — sometimes for a moment, sometimes for a lifetime.
It’s celebrating a word spoken, a story written, a goal scored, a dance performed.

And even when I’m weary, I know — I am a Speechie to my core.
I will keep giving voice, advocating, standing up — even when it’s uncomfortable.

Because one child matters.
One voice matters.
That’s where change begins.
That’s where hope lives.

From My Room

My Heart⚘️

12/11/2025

Great initiative!

Real experiences make real change!
That’s why we’re forming a ‘Lived Experience Group’ and we’d love for you to be part of it. Apply to share your ideas and experiences to help shape our new strategy.

What’s involved:

⏺ Attend three online meetings in Dec 2025, Jan, and Feb 2026
⏺ Share your perspectives and experiences.
⏺ Review materials between meetings to help guide decisions

You don’t need to be a professional, just someone with lived experience and a passion for making change. We are looking for adults from a wide range of backgrounds to make sure we represent our whole community.

Interested? Find out more and apply here: https://loom.ly/XBCiDtE

12/11/2025

Read.
Reread.
Repeat.
YES YES YES!