Small Talk Therapist & Smart Talkers creator, Libby Hill featured in the local Uttoxeter news
Uttoxeter Advertiser | Business | Speech therapist in the frame for national award
www.uttoxeteradvertiser.co.uk
Libby is delighted to have been nominated for the award. 'I love what I do so is even better to be recognised for it!' she commented.
BIG IN THE NEWS TODAY: Daily Mail 4/1/2010
Nearly a quarter of boys - and one in seven girls - is struggling to learn to talk because thousands of households keep their TV sets on constantly making it difficult for them to understand the speech of adults around them.
A survey revealed how 22 per cent of boys and 13 per cent of girls have trouble developing speech and understanding others.
Three per cent suffer 'significant' problems, according to a poll published by Jean Gross, the Government's communications adviser.
Middle-class children were just as likely to experience difficulty'. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
'This is a real problem and exactly what the Small Talkers Groups in the Smart Talker Range are designed to address', commented Libby Hill Small Talk Speech & Langugae Therapist and Small Talk Director
Watch out for Communication Traps!
Parent Information
The key to getting children to talk is to listen. You might think that you are being a good listener when you are not. It may help to check that you are not doing something else instead:
- Advising - “Tom wouldn’t let me play with him today.”
“I’d take no notice if I were you, go and play with Peter tomorrow instead”.
- Criticising - “Joe took my book and lied and said it was his and my teacher believed him!”
“Well I told you not to take it to school”.
- Dismissing - “Emily broke my bracelet.”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter. We can just get another one when we go shopping”
- Correcting - “It wasn’t fair at tea time, you are always nicer to Sally than you are to me!”
“You mean Breakfast time.”
- Ignoring - “I need mummy to take me to Claire’s house after school.”
“Come and help me to do the dishes”
- Distracting - “I’ve not been picked to be on the netball team and all my friends have.”
“Come and look at what I brought at the shops today and try not to think about it.”
- Reassuring - “I’m scared of the monsters under my bed.”
“There’s nothing to be scared of.”
- Praising - “I hate it when she comes into my room.”
“I’m sure you don’t mind because you are such a good big sister.”
Everyone falls into one of these traps from time to time, but none of them will get the same results as real listening. Sometimes parents use these communication traps because they have ran out of patience or time and they can be very effective at stopping a child from talking.
Listening has the opposite aim - it encourages your child to talk. Encouraging your child to talk will help them to become a confident and effective
communicator, a skill that will help them for their whole life. Use active listening skills (see Parent Information - Active Listening)
Source: Parker, J., & Stimpson, J. (1999). Raising Happy Children. Hodder & Stoughton. London.
Exploring the link between language and behaviour
A summary of the link between language problems and emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) reported on by the Centre for Integrated Healthcare Research, has shown:
- Approximately three quarters of children with identified emotional and behavioural difficulties have significant language deficits.
- Approximately half of those with language disorders have identifiable emotional and behavioural difficulties.
- The prevalence of language deficits in children who exhibit anti-social behaviours is ten times higher than in the general population.
- Pure language deficits, especially those associated with comprehension difficulties, are at greatest risk.
- Thus EBD children with unsuspected receptive disorders were rated the most delinquent, the most depressed (by parents) and aggressive (by teachers) and had more severe challenging behaviour.
- Children with expressive language disorders were rated as more socially withdrawn and anxious.
- The strength of the association between language difficulties and antisocial behaviour increases with age.
- Difficulties in initiating and maintaining interpersonal relationships is a key mediating variable between language disorders and antisocial behaviours.
- "Language disorders appear to have a devastating effect on interpersonal relationships (ie peer, family, companion) throughout the lifespan." (Benner, 2002)
Libby Hill, Small Talk Speech & Language Therapy Director, carried out a study in 2005 which showed a definite link between auditory memory difficulties and behaviour problems. "Its not just a case of not understanding, a language problem affects all aspects of a child's life," comments Libby.
Moving up........
Small Talk Speech & Language Therapy are delighted to announce that the office is moving to: Epsom Suite 4, Centrix@Keys, Keys Business Village, Hednesford, Cannock, Staffordshire WS12 2HA from January 4th 2010. The new phone number is 0844 7045 888.
Merry Christmas & a Happy & Prosperous New Year!
from Libby & the team
Use it or lose it....
Research now has proved that it is vital to talk to and interact with your baby from birth or they will not fully develop the area of the brain which is responsible for speech, language and communication development. Libby Hill, Speech & Langugae Therapist & Small Talk Director recommends http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/conferencereport2009.pdf or Sue Gerhart's book 'Why love matters', for more information.
Peace at a price?
Dummies may hinder a toddler's development reprted in the Mail on- line
and the Daily Mail
Toddlers who use dummies are three times more likely to suffer from
speech impediments as they grow up, research suggests.
Scientists have found preschool children who have used a pacifier for
at least three years are more likely to have difficulties talking than
children who don't use them.
Youngsters who suck their thumbs are also at greater risk of delayed
speech development, the study found.
Although the findings are preliminary, they add to the growing evidence
that parents who give their toddlers dummies could be 'buying
themselves' peace and quiet at the expense of their child's development.
The American and Chilean researchers looked at the history of thumb and
finger sucking, breast feeding and use of dummies in 128 children aged
three to five.
They also used a linguistic test to see whether the children's speech
was normal for their age - or whether they had an unusually low
'talking age' when it came to pronouncing sounds and words.
The team, led by Dr Clarita Barbosa of the University of Washington,
found children who sucked their fingers or thumbs, or who used a dummy
for at least three years, were three times more likely to have a
problem with their speech.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health
Libby Hill from SmallTalk speech & language therapy has been invited
onto BBC Radio Derby to comment! She's always been a fervent hater of
dummies!! Let's see what she say!
Cut viewing TV times!
A recent report in the Times 13th OCTOBER 2009 hows very alarmingconclusions......Children should be banned from watching television until they are 2 years old because it can stunt their language development and shorten their attention span, according to new Australian recommendations.
The guidelines warn of the damage done by sitting inactive for hours and advise that reading, drawing or solving puzzles should also be kept to a minimum.
For children aged between 2 and 5, time in front of the TV screen should be limited to an hour a day, according to health experts, in the first official guidelines on children’s viewing habits.
Too much television can affect young children’s ability for social interaction and damage their concentration, they say. The guidelines — drawn up by the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and to be published by the Government next week — are part of a national anti-obesity drive. Belying Australia’s image as a fit, healthy and sports-obsessed nation, a quarter of its children are seriously overweight — a figure that is expected to rise to a third by 2020.
The report, although intended mainly for childcare centres, also advises parents to make a plan for reducing screen time at home.
The Get Up and Grow report says: “Based on recent research it is recommended that children younger than 2 years of age should not spend any time watching television or using other electronic media (DVDs, computer and other electronic games).
“Screen time . . . may reduce the amount of time they have for active play, social contact with others and chances for language development. [It may] affect the development of a full range of eye movement [and] reduce the length of time they can stay focused.”
Research by the hospital indicates that very young children in Australia spend more time watching television than in any other activity. Four-month-old children watch an average of 44 minutes of television daily, while children under 4 years with pay TV at home spend at least three hours a day in front of the screen.
Nearly a third of children live in households that have a television switched on all the time, the policy brief says, with television used as a “babysitter” from earliest infancy. “Face-to-face interactions and responsive, engaged relationships provide the foundation for all child development,” the report says. It advises that children aged 2 to 5 should not be inactive — defined as time spent watching TV, reading, drawing or solving puzzles — for more than an hour at a time during waking hours. From the age of 1, children should be active for at least three hours a day.
The guidelines have been welcomed by Australian childcare experts. Lee Burton, a commentator on childcare, was in favour of a complete ban on television for toddlers in childcare centres. “I think this is aimed at helping people to understand the effects of television-watching on very young children and to advise them this is not a good thing,” he said. Barbara Biggins, the chief executive of the Australian Council on Children and the Media, said: “There are ways of entertaining young children that don’t involve plonking them in a passive viewing situation — even if it’s playing in the mud or watching insects crawling.”
SmallTalk director and specialist speech & language therapist has been converned about this isue for many years now, following some research she did back in the 1990s. "This was before CBeebies, etc and showed that too much TV watching can be a factor in language delay. There are also other issues involved such as the parents of the children who are watching TV may be too busy to interact with their chidren or dont know how".
Small Talk are going to be working with an independent phsiotherapist who specialises in children. Her name is Linda Mawle
Tel: 07957 644764
E.mail: info@activedreams.co.uk
Website: www.activedreams.co.uk
Why chatter matters
by the charity, I CAN
Problems with speech and language are the most common developmental difficulty that children encounter. Studies indicate that as many as one in ten children in the UK have speech and language difficulties and these are particularly prevalent in the early years. Language is central to learning and a study by the Basic Skills Agency (2002) reported that, in the opinion of teachers, 50% of children start school lacking skills that are vital for an effective start to education.
You are now more and more likely to come across a child with difficulty in one or more of the following areas:
Understanding spoken language
Children may have difficulty with understanding the meaning of words and concepts. They may have problems following instructions, understanding games and tasks and making sense of what is being said to them. Often children with these difficulties may appear to understand, as they may be getting clues from following other children or guessing from the context. However, they may also come across as 'difficult' simply because they are not fully understanding what is being said.
Spoken language
Children may have problems with using language. They may have difficulty with words or sentence structure. They may struggle to express themselves in play and activities, or to tell people how they feel.
Speech sound production
Children may have problems with the intelligibility of their speech, they may have a reduced number of sounds available to them and difficulty making particular sounds in simple or longer words. They may not be easy to understand when they speak or reluctant to speak for fear of not being understood.
Attention and listening
Many children who have speech and language difficulties have problems with listening to spoken language (often when their hearing is OK). They have difficulty concentrating on a task and listening to adult instructions.
Social skills
Children's development of social skills, their sense of self and others and their ability to form relationships and learn can all be affected by speech and language problems.
Difficulties in one or more of these areas can have a profound impact on a child's experience of their early education. How each child is affected will depend on the degree of their difficulty and personal factors.
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Children may have difficulty following stories and remembering information
Owing to these problems, children with speech and language difficulties may struggle to follow and learn daily routines. For example, if they find it hard to understand spoken language children may struggle to follow instructions, especially negatives such as the difference between "do" something and "don't" do something.
They may also find sentences with more than one element difficult. For example, "get some paper and pencils and go and sit in the drawing corner". The child may be able to follow the individual elements of the sentence but when they are combined into one, they can't process everything at once. Keeping sentences short and supporting information with gesture will help.
Children who find it hard to make themselves understood by adults or other children will find their ability to join in activities and tell people things, ask questions, relate stories, and form friendships is inhibited. They may be unable to join in songs or nursery rhymes and have difficulty following stories and remembering information. In this situation, offering a choice with words to go with that choice may help e.g. "do you want to play with the cars or paint?"
Difficulties in attention and listening can make it hard for children to get the most out of free-play sessions, their ability to take turns may be affected and they may find it hard to listen to and retain instructions. Poor awareness of time and the sequence of routine events can lead to children becoming insecure, especially if the routine they have learned is changed for a special event, such as the photographer's visit or the Christmas party. Sticking to a set routine and having pictures that relate to that routine in order upon on the wall may help.
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Children may either vent their frustration and anger or become very quiet and withdrawn
The feelings of frustration and confusion that can arise from speech and language difficulties can result in behaviour problems. Children may either vent their frustration and anger in very obvious ways or become very quiet and withdrawn when they feel the act of communication is too difficult to keep on trying.
In addition to these more general difficulties, children with speech and language problems can encounter specific difficulties in accessing the early years curriculum. Many, if not all of the Early Learning Goals rely directly or indirectly on a child being a competent listener and communicator and children with difficulties in any of the areas discussed here will need support to get the most out of their early years' experience.
Difficulties in one or more of these areas can have a profound impact on a child's experience of their early education. How each child is affected will depend on the degree of their difficulty and personal factors.
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Children may have difficulty following stories and remembering information
Owing to these problems, children with speech and language difficulties may struggle to follow and learn daily routines. For example, if they find it hard to understand spoken language children may struggle to follow instructions, especially negatives such as the difference between "do" something and "don't" do something. They may also find sentences with more than one element difficult. For example, "get some paper and pencils and go and sit in the drawing corner". The child may be able to follow the individual elements of the sentence but when they are combined into one, they can't process everything at once. Keeping sentences short and supporting information with gesture will help.
Children who find it hard to make themselves understood by adults or other children will find their ability to join in activities and tell people things, ask questions, relate stories, and form friendships is inhibited. They may be unable to join in songs or nursery rhymes and have difficulty following stories and remembering information. In this situation, offering a choice with words to go with that choice may help e.g. "do you want to play with the cars or paint?"
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Difficulties in attention and listening can make it hard for children to get the most out of free-play sessions, their ability to take turns may be affected and they may find it hard to listen to and retain instructions. Poor awareness of time and the sequence of routine events can lead to children becoming insecure, especially if the routine they have learned is changed for a special event, such as the photographer's visit or the Christmas party. Sticking to a set routine and having pictures that relate to that routine in order upon on the wall may help.
Children may either vent their frustration and anger or become very quiet and withdrawn
The feelings of frustration and confusion that can arise from speech and language difficulties can result in behaviour problems. Children may either vent their frustration and anger in very obvious ways or become very quiet and withdrawn when they feel the act of communication is too difficult to keep on trying.
In addition to these more general difficulties, children with speech and language problems can encounter specific difficulties in accessing the early years curriculum. Many, if not all of the Early Learning Goals rely directly or indirectly on a child being a competent listener and communicator and children with difficulties in any of the areas discussed here will need support to get the most out of their early years' experience.
Difficulties in one or more of these areas can have a profound impact on a child's experience of their early education. How each child is affected will depend on the degree of their difficulty and personal factors.
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Children may have difficulty following stories and remembering information
Owing to these problems, children with speech and language difficulties may struggle to follow and learn daily routines. For example, if they find it hard to understand spoken language children may struggle to follow instructions, especially negatives such as the difference between "do" something and "don't" do something. They may also find sentences with more than one element difficult. For example, "get some paper and pencils and go and sit in the drawing corner". The child may be able to follow the individual elements of the sentence but when they are combined into one, they can't process everything at once. Keeping sentences short and supporting information with gesture will help.
Children who find it hard to make themselves understood by adults or other children will find their ability to join in activities and tell people things, ask questions, relate stories, and form friendships is inhibited. They may be unable to join in songs or nursery rhymes and have difficulty following stories and remembering information. In this situation, offering a choice with words to go with that choice may help e.g. "do you want to play with the cars or paint?"
Difficulties in attention and listening can make it hard for children to get the most out of free-play sessions, their ability to take turns may be affected and they may find it hard to listen to and retain instructions. Poor awareness of time and the sequence of routine events can lead to children becoming insecure, especially if the routine they have learned is changed for a special event, such as the photographer's visit or the Christmas party. Sticking to a set routine and having pictures that relate to that routine in order upon on the wall may help.
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Children may either vent their frustration and anger or become very quiet and withdrawn
The feelings of frustration and confusion that can arise from speech and language difficulties can result in behaviour problems. Children may either vent their frustration and anger in very obvious ways or become very quiet and withdrawn when they feel the act of communication is too difficult to keep on trying.
In addition to these more general difficulties, children with speech and language problems can encounter specific difficulties in accessing the early years curriculum. Many, if not all of the Early Learning Goals rely directly or indirectly on a child being a competent listener and communicator and children with difficulties in any of the areas discussed here will need support to get the most out of their early years' experience.
Twin Language - Talking the Same Talk from Twins Uk August 2009
'Idioglossia. cryptophasia or more commonly known as "twin language" or "twin talk" has been the focus of many research studies and has interested the public for years. It was once believed that twins could develop their own language unrecognisable by others.
Today. research indicates that twin language is actually one twin modeling the immature or disordered speech pattern of their co-twin. which results in the incorrect use of speech sounds and grammar by both twins. If you've ever heard two children talking with delayed speech and language. you too may think they're talking in a foreign language'.
Why do twins have trouble developing sounds and words? Well. research has suggested that twins are at greater risk for speech and language delays because of higher incidence of prematurity. low birth weight or limited individual communication with their parents.
Small Talk have a number of twins on their books and are happy to give advice & support to aanyone with concern.
Too much TV?
Television reduces verbal interaction between parents and infants, which could delay children's language development, says a U.S. study that challenges claims that certain infant-targeted DVDs actually benefit youngsters.
The researchers studied 329 children, aged 2 months to 48 months, and found that for each additional hour of television exposure, there was a decrease of 770 words (7 percent) heard from an adult by the children. The study also found that the more hours spent watching television, the fewer vocalizations infants made when adults talked to them.
"Some of these reductions are likely due to children being left alone in front of the television screen, but others likely reflect situations in which adults, though present, are distracted by the screen and not interacting with their infant in a discernable manner," wrote Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, of Seattle Children's Hospital, and colleagues.
"At first blush, these findings may seem entirely intuitive. However, these findings must be interpreted in light of the fact that purveyors of infant DVDs claim that their products are designed to give parents and children a chance to interact with one another, an assertion that lacks empirical evidence," they noted.
The researchers added that their results may help explain previous findings of a link between television viewing and delayed language development.
"Given the critical role that adult caregivers play in children's linguistic development, whether they talk to their child while the screen is on may be critical and explain the effects that are attributed to content or even amount of television watched," the team wrote. "That is, whether parents talk less (or not at all) during some types of programs or at some times of the day may be as important in this age group as what is being watched."
The study appears in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
SOURCE: JAMA/Archives journals, news release, June 1, 2009
Six-year-old TV addicts prefer blank screen to a human face
By OLIVER COLEMAN Daily mail
Children are now so addicted to television that they would prefer to look at a blank screen than a smiling human face, a new study has found.
The results, described by scientists as deeply worrying, appear to show that youngsters are distancing themselves from interaction with real people because of their constant diet of television.
Researchers found that they reacted as enthusiastically to the image of a television as alcoholics do to pictures of drink.
Previous studies indicated that from birth, people will choose to look at human faces in favour of an object.
But the latest year-long project by academics found that when children were confronted with images of a friendly face and a blank TV set, they were more drawn to the screen.
The first experiment involved 34 five-year-olds, 25 eight-year-olds and 34 adults, who were shown a series of picture cards.
Scientists paired images of smiling human faces with those of a toy boat, a toy train, a doll's house, a tap, a teapot and a wall clock. Without exception, the subjects all responded best to the face.
But in a second test where 22 adults and 145 children aged between five and eight were shown cards pairing a face and a television set, the youngsters looked at the TV first.
Dr Markus Bindemann, of Glasgow University, which carried out the research with Stirling University, said: "It is perhaps not surprising that it is televisions which compete with faces for children's attention. But this is a worrying trend.
"We learn social interaction - how to deal with people and how to read them - from looking at their faces.
"If you just stare at a box, you don't get any genuine interactions. In the long-run that's got to have pretty dire consequences."
Dr Martin Doherty, a psychology lecturer at Stirling University, added: "In all previous research children showed a preference for faces so we tried to come with other stimulus that people would find as interesting.
"For instance, if you were an obsessive trainspotter, you might look to a picture of a locomotive more than the face.
"Or if you were an alcoholic you might look first at a picture of beer.
"This study shows in very simple terms that for children of a certain age there is more interest in television than in people."
Other recent studies have linked a growth in autism with the number of hours children spend watching the box.
And the notion that children learn by watching TV was recently dispelled by research that showed learning skills, such as language, were best accomplished by interaction with adults.
Dr Bindemann said: "Certainly some disorders are caused by impaired social interactions.
"And looking at TV rather than faces is a type of social impairment because you are becoming less interested in what should be more important to you.
"Being able to interact with people is a prerequisite for success at a personal and professional level."
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