Speechmag

Off We Go! with Signed Stories

ITV's Signed Stories have signed up Avril Webster, author of the Off We Go! series. You can see 'Going to Buy Clothes' being signed here.

Avril's inspiration for the series came from her son Stephen's love of books. Stephen has intellectual disabilities and found everyday experiences overwhelming. Looking at her books about going to the hairdresser, supermarket, a restaurant, the doctor, the dentist and the swimming pool helped him deal with these situations.

Since I interviewed Avril in 2007, she has introduced more stories: Going to Buy Shoes, Going to Buy Clothes, Going to a Birthday Party, Going to the Optician, Going on a Plane and Going to the Cinema. These were reviewed very positively in the Summer 10 issue by Helen Burnford who said, "They are a useful resource to be used as part of preparation for daily living or by therapists in narrative therapy groups or as part of topic based literacy or language groups in schools."

As well as the website, Off We Go! is also on facebook.

Circle time opportunities for speech and language therapists

My sons' primary school had Circle Time guru Jenny Mosley running their in-service today. When volunteers were sought from the primary sixes and sevens I persuaded my older son to go in, albeit reluctantly. (He looked a bit skeptical when I said, "You know, she's really famous!") I was lucky enough to get to observe the circle time demonstration.

Jenny has developed the Quality Circle Time model over the past twenty five years. It is "a whole-school approach to enhancing self-esteem and building positive relationships". This afternoon she demonstrated how to encourage and give feedback on good thinking, good listening, good looking and good concentrating. The children were also given the opportunity to ask for help with aspects of behaviour, and to appreciate the suggestions and support of their peers. Active learning using games and a parachute was included, and Jenny also showed how puppets can facilitate discussions around difficult issues without anyone having to feel under the spotlight.

Speech and language therapists writing for Speech & Language Therapy in Practice often mention circle time as one of the opportunities for working with teachers to raise awareness of support strategies for children with speech, language and communication needs. In one short demonstration Jenny could not hope to begin to cover all the nuances of the approach. However, I did find myself wondering how the children that we see would cope with the speed of speaking and level of language comprehension and expressive vocabulary required without significant modification.

The book 'Language Development - Circle Time Sessions to Improve Communication Skills' was written in 2003, and one of the co-authors is speech and language therapist Jackie Lowe. Having looked over Jenny's website, I don't see specific Quality Circle Time resources beyond this, yet there are questions on the discussion forum about including children with severe learning disabilities and autism, as well as those who are bilingual. Perhaps there is an opportunity here for enterprising speech and language therapists?

Spring 10 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice out now

The courier has just been to take the authors' copies of the Spring 10 issue which means mailing is now complete. Spring 10 includes the first of a new ethics series considering everyday events which need to be on our ethical radar screen. In 'Brought to (Face)book', Jois Stansfield and Frances McAleer think through some of the implications of social networking for speech and language therapists.

As well as reviews, reader offers and Editor's Choice, other content includes:

• adductor spasmodic dysphonia - the case for speech and language therapy (not Botox)
• using the East Kent Outcome System in community stroke teams
• Talking Mats facilitate an accurate mental state assessment
• Clifford Hughes' personal story of rediscovering his voice after a laryngectomy
• a debate on the value of cognitive therapy in dementia
• resources from the 'Every Child a Talker' programme
• training early years practitioners to teach attention and listening skills
• suitable books for working with small groups of children in education settings
• Here's one I made earlier with a dating theme
• in brief (choice of words; accessible information; direct therapy).

Hopefully all UK readers will receive their copies by the end of this week, with the air mail ones not taking much longer, and you can get reading! 

North Wales speech and language therapy event and article

I am heading off to Wales tomorrow for an Afasic Cymru event 'Communication Counts' on Friday. I will have a stand in the exhibition hall, but the main reason for going is that I am doing one to one sessions with speech and language therapists on writing for publication.

All the therapists in North Wales will be attending, and this reminded me of my promise to put an article by Dawn Leoni from our Spring 09 issue on the speechmag website. When Dawn accepted a job in North West Wales, she also took on the challenge of learning Welsh by immersion. The article, View from a Welsh mountain, is a reflection on what this has taught her about the experiences and learning support needs of people with communication difficulties.

Elwyn Hughes, who organises Welsh Courses for Adults at Bangor University, asked if I could make the article more widely available, as he feels that "many of her findings and comments would be extremely useful for Welsh language tutors throughout Wales." What could I say, other than "Wrth gwrs!" (I hope that really does mean "Of course!")

Pride & Prejudice and the essentials of editing

I had a very enjoyable trip to the theatre last night to see Theatre Royal Bath's version of Pride & Prejudice. There was clever use of minimal props, and the text was by and large Jane Austen's words.

I know the book so well that I was fascinated to observe how Simon Reade had edited it down to just 2 hours 10 minutes on stage yet - as Jane Austen almost said - "In essentials, I believe it was very much what it ever was." Some useful tips there for this editor!

If you are an Austen fan thinking about writing for publication, have a look at Prime & Predigest, my edit of the book from the Spring 03 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice.

Video on writing for publication from the British Medical Journal

I was interested to watch this video about writing for the British Medical Journal. Although it focuses on the BMJ's preference for the randomised controlled trial, it includes a lot of useful and sensible advice for anyone in the healthcare field who wonders whether they should write for publication or get involved in research.

We all watch and interpret things through our own lenses, and things I have taken from it include:

• we are by and large funded by the public, so new knowledge should be publically available
• negative findings are as useful as positive
• important research can result from a clinician noticing something in their everyday practice
• healthcare publications actually have a role in creating the fairer society we want to see.

The British Medical Journal has developed impressive online resources using video and audio, something that I hope will increasingly feature alongside Speech & Language Therapy in Practice articles.

Speech and language therapy using Skype - research update

Reader Rebecca Matthews has sent me her annual newsletter, which includes a report on progress with her PhD research into delivering therapy to children over the internet via Skype.

Rebecca was motivated to investigate service delivery by videoconferencing to save fuel and make the most of clinical time and says so far opinions are "positive and encouraging". Now in the third year of her research at UCL, she is looking to identify what makes the provision of speech and language therapy via Skype acceptable to people. She is collecting the views of children and parents as well as analysing the activity in both face-to-face and Skype sessions.

Importantly, Rebecca is also looking at video recordings of both types of sessions to see what differences there may be in speaking and working. She has already noted that, as children have to give her instructions via Skype rather than pointing as they can do in a face-to-face session, they are automatically encouraged to do more talking.

Rebecca's review of the TinyEye videoconferencing system for Speech & Language Therapy in Practice is in our Autumn 08 issue (p.28). In a different field of the profession, Susan Howell has reported positively on a feasibility study into the use of the internet, a webcam and broadband to deliver Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) to people with Parkinson's disease.

Listen to Stuttering Stan as he Takes a Stand

Artie Knapp tells me that his children's book 'Stuttering Stan Takes a Stand' is now available as a free audio book.

The book was reviewed positively in the Winter 09 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice by Sandra Unsworth, with the help of two teenage clients and a class of primary children. Sandra said, "The issues arising from the story are: learning to share, not to tease / bully, to stand up for yourself without being a bully yourself, being kind to others and accepting that others have difficulties with different things."

Readers may also be interested in Artie's 'Getting to Know Ronnie: A Story About Autism' , which was published in the magazine California Kids (September issue, p.22).

Accessing the literature

SAGE is offering free access to 14 language and linguistics titles until 30th September. This free trial includes Child Language Teaching & Therapy and the International Journal of Bilingualism.

Many speech and language therapists say they don't read journals because they don't have time, and the articles are too obscure and 'researchy' to be of use in real-life practice.

I have had personal subscriptions to Child Language Teaching & Therapy and Aphasiology but, as a generalist therapist with limited time for reading, the cost began to outweigh the benefits. I have also purchased individual articles online; this is expensive, especially if the article doesn't live up to the promise of the abstract.

A combination of publishers' e-mail journal alerts services with the UCL Language and Speech Science library photocopying service has proved an ideal, cost-effective solution. I now read far more journal articles on a wider range of topics, and have started 'Editor's Choice' in Speech & Language Therapy in Practice to report on my favourites. 

If you take advantage of the SAGE offer and find an article that gives you food for thought, do let me know.