Holiday disruptions & New Year routines: How to support your child’s feeding, communication and regulation over the festive season

ByLondon Speech and Feeding December 22, 2025December 17, 2025

The festive season is a wonderful time for many families, but for children with feeding challenges, sensory differences, or autism traits, December can feel overwhelming. Changes in routine, busier environments, travel, new foods, disrupted sleep, and well-meaning relatives giving ‘advice’ can all affect a child’s feeding, communication and overall regulation.

As a speech and language therapist specialising in Early Years, I see the same pattern each year: children often make progress during the term, only to struggle in late December when everything becomes unpredictable. The good news? With a bit of preparation, children can not only cope better, but they can actually make significant developmental gains during the holidays.

This blog will help you feel confident, supported and prepared for the transition from ‘festive mode’ to a smoother, regulated start in January.

1. Why routines matter so much. Especially now

Young children thrive on predictability. For neurodivergent children or those with sensory, feeding or communication needs, routine isn’t just helpful: it’s the backbone of emotional regulation.

In December, typical patterns change:

Mealtimes shift or become irregular
Bedtime slides
New foods appear
Loud social gatherings overwhelm
Travel disrupts naps and comfort routines
Therapies pause
Childcare closes

Any one of these can lead to feeding refusals, more meltdowns, increased stimming, reduced communication attempts or regression in speech sounds.

It’s simply the nervous system responding to too much change.

2. Protecting feeding progress during holiday mealtimes

My last blog and insta post have a nice social story on festive meals. They are often the trickiest part of the season for families I support. Children with sensory-based feeding challenges, or ARFID traits may find holiday foods completely unfamiliar and challenging.

What helps:

Offer one ‘safe food’ at every meal
Keep portion sizes tiny
Use the ‘buffet rule’
Rehearse tricky moments

3. Supporting communication when routines are disrupted

Holiday time actually offers more opportunities for communication, just in different ways.

Strategies:

Slow down and follow your child’s lead
Use everyday routines as language opportunities
Keep AAC going even if casually

4. Understanding holiday ‘regressions’ and know they’re temporary

This is almost always due to nervous system overload. Children don’t truly ‘lose’ skills; they temporarily prioritise regulation over learning.

5. A gentle January reset: How to start the New Year smoothly

Re-establish predictability early
Return to preferred foods
Book early support if needed
Focus on regulation first

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists Member

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

Reference:

Bronson, M. (2000). Self-regulation in early childhood. Guilford Press.

Neurodiversity · Speech and Language Therapy

Principles of motor learning in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
ByLondon Speech and Feeding July 5, 2024February 4, 2026
We use powerful motor learning principles to help children with CAS (Childhood Apraxia of Speech) learn how to produce better, clearer speech sounds in words, phrases and sentences.

What are these principles?

Principle 1: MASSED PRACTICE

This is where you see a child for lots of sessions in a shorter period of time, so for instance six weeks of three times weekly for 30 minutes.

This leads to motor performance or automaticity.

Principle 2. DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE

This is what I use, as most of my clients are not able to come and see me that often on a weekly basis. It is hard to travel in London and life is hectic. So I favour one session a week over say a term or two terms and a session is usually 45 minutes long.

This leads to improved Motor Learning and good generalisation.

During either Massed or Distributed Practice, we choose between 4 variables:

Principle 3: Constant vs Variable

Principle 4: Blocked vs Random

To explain:

Constant Practice is where we repeat the practice of a small handful of target words.

We practise the same target sound in the same word position, e.g. at the beginning of a word: ‘bee’, ‘bye’, ‘bow’, ‘baa’ or ‘key’, ‘car’, ‘cow’, ‘Kaye’ etc.

We keep the rate, pitch and intonation constant.

Variable Practice is where we vary the rate, volume, pitch and intonation of the targets

We use a larger number of sounds, and words that are motivating to say for the child.

For example, if a child loves Peppa Pig then I might choose the words: ‘Peppa’, ‘Daddy Pig’, ‘George’, ‘Mummy Pig’ and a couple of other favourite characters. My child might struggle with a number of sound sequences there but we will target them one by one.

We can also select simpler words like ‘cape’ and ‘cake’ or ‘tick’ and ‘tip’.

Blocked Practice is where we practise one target word for say five minutes then we move to another target word for the next five minutes and then we revert back to the first target word again and so on, so blocks of practice.

Random Practice means we practise several target words at the same time.

How do I decide on what to use?

Good question!

I always opt for distributed practice (weekly for up to 45 minutes).

Within that, I tend to find it most successful to start out with constant practice when a child is finding a certain sound sequence really hard and we need to just ‘nail it’. Bearing in mind I only pick sounds that my student can actually make in isolation, so we are not working on articulation! (where we focus on trying to elicit single sounds correctly – or even at all sometimes) Here in CAS work, we are working with sounds the student can make but is having trouble to add together, into a sequence that is needed to make a word sound right.

As soon as I feel we have some traction I will go to variable practice, i.e. I pick words that are either funny or interesting for the child and it can be a slightly larger number.

I tend to use blocked practice in the beginning or when working on vowels. That’s because it is more important we get our vowels right. They carry a word and are very important for overall speech intelligibility. Once we are on a roll, I tend to go more for random practice.

Example

Here in the video clip, we try and work the /e/ vowel in short words likes ‘bell’, ’fell’, ‘dell’, ‘sell’, ‘smell’ and I am using an AAC device to give a child’s voice as auditory feedback as well as using the PROMPT approach to help my student shape his vowels.

So this is:
1. Distributed (1 x week for 45 minutes)
2. Constant – we are practising the /e/ vowel in the same position in six different words
3. Blocked – we did this: several repetitions of each word and after the sixth we moved to another sound, and then later we came back to this.
Please feel free to contact me if your child has speech sound difficulties. It is my passion. I love supporting children with apraxia.

Sonja McGeachie

Early Intervention Speech and Language Therapist

Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice

The London Speech and Feeding Practice

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

1
READ MORE Principles of motor learning in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Autism Therapy · Neurodiversity · Speech and Language Therapy · Top tips

The purpose and nature of a speech and language therapy assessment
ByLondon Speech and Feeding May 27, 2025May 19, 2025
If you have ever wondered what happens when you bring your child to a speech and language therapy assessment, then this blog will shed light on the ins and outs of it for you.

At its heart, a speech and language therapy assessment is a systematic and thorough evaluation of your child’s communication or eating/swallowing abilities. It’s more than just asking a few questions. It is a carefully constructed process designed to identify strengths, pinpoint challenges, and ultimately pave the way for effective intervention.

Establishing a detailed profile – a few bullet points:
- Identification of communication and swallowing difficulties: I aim to determine if a communication or swallowing disorder exists. I will establish if the difficulty is a delay or a more complex disorder.
- Diagnosis of the specific disorder/autism: The assessment delves deeper to pinpoint the specific type and nature of the difficulty. For instance, is your child’s language delay due to a specific learning disability, a developmental delay, or another underlying condition?
- Knowing the aetiology or what is causing a difficulty is crucial for targeted intervention. And whilst we are on the topic let’s talk about an autism assessment: I am trained and experienced in assessing and diagnosing autism. However, when it comes to the diagnosis of autism I provide a preliminary ‘working hypothesis’ rather than giving a definite final diagnosis. The reason for this is that it is considered the ‘gold standard’ and ‘best practice’ to diagnose autism in a multi-disciplinary setting and context. Since I work on my own, I always refer to highly recommended multi-disciplinary clinics for the ultimate diagnostic assessment.
- Determination of severity: Understanding the severity of the difficulty is essential for prioritising intervention and measuring progress. Is your child’s difficulty mild, moderate, or severe? This helps me choose a particular approach and then tailor it to suit each individual child.
- Identification of underlying strengths and weaknesses: An assessment doesn’t just focus on what’s wrong. It also highlights your child’s strengths and areas of relative ease. This information is invaluable for building upon existing skills during therapy. Understanding weaknesses provides specific targets for intervention.
- Guiding intervention planning: The assessment provides the crucial information I need to develop an individualised intervention plan. The findings directly inform the selection of therapy goals, strategies, and techniques. Without a thorough assessment, therapy would be a shot in the dark.
A multi-faceted approach

A speech and language therapy assessment is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ procedure. The specific tools and techniques used will vary depending on a child’s age, the nature of the suspected difficulty, and other relevant factors. However, most comprehensive assessments incorporate several key components:
- Case history: This involves gathering information about your child’s developmental, medical, social, and educational background. We will go through all the relevant milestones and throughout the process I will make notes which will help bring all the puzzle pieces together.
- Observation: I will observe how parent and child play together and we also look at how the child plays by themselves. Additionally of interest is how a child plays with me, the therapist. Through discussion I will also endeavour to find out how your child plays with other children, be it at the nursery or within the family.
- Standardised assessments: These are commercially available tests with specific administration and scoring procedures. They provide norm-referenced data, allowing to compare the individual child’s performance to that of his or her peers. Examples include articulation tests, language comprehension and production tests, and fluency assessments. I tend not to use these assessments a lot.
- Instead, I use non-standardised assessments: These are more flexible and allow to probe specific areas of concern in more detail. This might include language samples (analysing spontaneous speech), dynamic assessment (testing and teaching to identify learning potential), and informal observation of play or interaction.
- Immediate feedback and report writing: During and thenfollowing the assessment, I will bring all the gathered information together and I will discuss with the parents what my findings are and what my recommendations in the short term are. Parents always go home with a good handful of useful strategies that they can implement at home right away. In addition, I provide a comprehensive report outlining the findings, diagnosis (if applicable), severity, strengths and weaknesses, and recommendations for intervention.
In conclusion, a speech and language therapy assessment is a dynamic and essential process. It is a journey of discovery, aiming to understand a child and the child’s family and his or her unique communication or feeding profile. The assessment is usually the start of our wonderful learning journey together.

Below is a short video clip of an assessment where you see me in action explaining a particular therapy approach to a set of parents. It perhaps shows a tiny bit of how relaxed we are in our sessions and that assessment is not at all daunting, but a hugely informative event overall which will leave you feeling empowered and hopeful.

What happens after an assessment?

Please feel free to get in touch with me via my contact form if you wish to have an assessment for your child’s communication difficulties or feeding difficulties.

An assessment is always a stand-alone event and does not mean you need to automatically book follow up sessions at all. It will give a lot of information and based on this you can decide if you would like more therapy or follow up for you and your child. Many times ongoing therapy is not needed! I only recommend a course of therapy if it is really needed and where it would be immediately beneficial for your child.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

1
READ MORE The purpose and nature of a speech and language therapy assessment
Autism Therapy · Speech and Language Therapy

How to model AAC with our minimally speaking students?
ByLondon Speech and Feeding December 4, 2023December 4, 2023
How should we start? Should we use prompts? What kind of prompts? hand-over-hand or just pointing? Should we wait, and, if so, how long? Introducing an alternative communication system (AAC) to our child is for many of us a confusing and sometimes scary prospect, but it needn’t be! Let me reassure you and share some tricks of my practice in this area.

Once we have decided to try for a picture based communication system, I usually start with a paper-based single page with between 48–88 core-words. I choose the number of words depending on where the child is developmentally and also verbally.

If a child does have a small handful of words already, I might start with the 88-cell board below. If, on the other hand, my student is completely non-speaking and still quite little then I might go for the 48-cell below here or I might have even less cells to start with. Again, sometimes I start with an electronic device in my clinic just to trial and introduce the idea and to see if, or how, a student responds.

Below are some samples: a 49-cell board which I made for a child in a nursery setting

Below a Saltillo WordPower board that can be downloaded from the Saltillo website:

Example of a slightly more advanced board, again from the Saltillo Website

And here below one example of a board I made for a specific activity for a child who loves water and sand play:

It is perfectly possible to be very flexible and create a suitable board for any student, starting with as few as 2–5 cells and working up to over a 100 (very small ones) on a sheet of A4 or A3 paper.

So once we have a good board for our child, what now? How do we start introducing this into our daily life?

We can start by showing/pointing to the word GO within a play activity. For example:
- a car run,
- or a marble run,
- or a spinner activity,
- a wind-up toy,
- anything that can be stopped and started easily.
How to start?

I will talk us through each of the steps using the example for the word ‘GO’.

First phase

The first phase is a TEACHING/ LEARNING PHASE. In this phase we do not expect our student to do anything, to copy us or to point to the board. If they do that it is of course a huge bonus and we will celebrate it.

Our job is to simply MODEL/SHOW/GIVE EXAMPLES of how we can use the board, by steadily and regularly pointing to the chosen word or words. We do so across the day and across settings:
- play
- meal time
- getting dressed/undressed
- bath time
- going to the car/shops
- etc
Once we can be sure that our student has been submerged and SOAKED in seeing the coreboard being used, say after some 3–4 weeks of using it consistently…

Second phase

We can begin to move into the second phase which is the PRACTICE PHASE. By now the student has seen the boards and he or she has seen the word GO (as a example) modelled many times.

Now we can start to see if we can tempt our student into trying this out for themselves.

What sort of TEMPTING are we talking about? Take a look at the Prompt Hierarchy below, which shows us what to do to get our student to be independently communicating as soon as possible.

The PROMPT HIERARCHY: what sort of prompting should we do, should we expect something from our student or how should we view this stage?
1. TEMPT AND PAUSE
I have the AAC near to the toy and each time the child starts another round of the activity I say clearly ‘GO’ and I point to the picture as do so. I then pause and wait to see what happens. NOTHING? Then…
1. USE SIGNS AND BODY LANGUAGE
Next time the child starts another round I might be very animated and do a Makaton sign for GO as I say ‘GO’ and I make a very over point to the picture again. Then I wait. STILL NOTHING? OK then…
1. OPEN-ENDED QUESTION
Now I might say ‘GO’ and follow with: ‘OOH I WONDER IF THERE IS A PICTURE TO POINT TO…’

‘OH LOOK HERE IS GO!’ I then point to GO.

STILL NO RESPONSE?
1. ASK FOR A RESPONSE
I might say ‘GO’ followed by ‘LOOK! LET’S POINT TO GO HERE ON THE PICTURE.’

STILL NO RESPONSE?
1. PHYSICAL TOUCH
Next time I say ‘GO’ I will try and take the student’s hand, help isolate their finger and help him or her to point to the actual picture.

REMEMBER: Prompting serves a very important function in scaffolding learning for students BUT if we are constantly prompting kids, then we are teaching them to only communicate when someone tells them to. We want our student to become as independent in speaking and using words as possible.

So once I have done Physical Prompting I will try and phase back down to number 1 where all I need to do is point to the picture or look at the board with the aim that the student will then point to the picture.

Take away points:
- Keep the learning phase pressure-free and model without expecting our student to jump in. In other words, let’s model first without expectation. Later we can have a little bit of expectation.
- After they’ve been exposed to and have been ‘soaked’ in plenty of AAC input, then, YES, we can create an opportunity to help them say or point to the word on their own.
- We can model BOTH with and without expectation.
- Only after LOTS of exposure, use the least to most prompting hierarchy and start creating opportunities for a student to become an independent communicator.
Do get in touch if you have any questions or comments or if you would like some practical help.

I am always pleased to hear from you.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

0
READ MORE How to model AAC with our minimally speaking students?
Games · Speech and Language Therapy · Top tips

Ten games to support communication in primary school aged children
ByLondon Speech and Feeding August 16, 2023August 4, 2023
When parents visit me with their child, their stress is palpable. Often parents don’t relish or even expect to be asked to practise strategies at home with their child between sessions. Let alone to practise whilst on holiday. I understand that you don’t necessarily want anything extra added to your daily ‘to do’ lists. This is why we try our best to incorporate all speech and language therapy practice into children’s daily activities.

For example:
1. during bath time;
2. mealtimes;
3. getting ready for bedtime;
4. story time
5. yes, playtime!
These are activities that all parents will engage with anyway, so it seems to make sense to incorporate both. This is to avoid adding extra pressure on parents’ already stressful and time-poor daily lives. I am hoping my blog will come in handy, especially for the summer holidays.

On holiday you are unlikely to have your usual games and toys with you – so here is a nice little list of things you can use instead of traditional games and toys:

If you can think of any other alternatives on holiday and would like to tell me about them, I would love to see your comments below. We can never have too many holiday games!!

If you are at home over the summer and you do have some games in the cupboard you might want to dust these ones down or buy one or two new ones (if you want to).

Most games have multiple uses, and it’s always best to adapt a game to match your child’s interests and what motivates them.

So let’s start…
1. Pop up pirate: pop a sword into the barrel and watch the pirate pop up randomly. Practise social skills, speech sounds, expressive language (e.g., put a sword on a picture, say the word/sentence then pick up the sword and push it into the barrel).
2. Word games such as ‘ISpy’, ‘I went to the shop and I bought…’, ‘describe a person and guess who they are’: perfect for when you’re on the move, whether travelling or walking. You can play this anywhere and still support speech, language and communication. You could play ISpy using your child’s special sound, or ‘I went to the shop and bought all things beginning with [insert special sound here]’.
3. Shopping list: Orchard game is a game to practise categorising. We explain the analogy of the brain being like a filing cabinet. If information is all in the correct place, it’s easier to find, retrieve and use. You can also practise specific speech sounds in this activity. You could also put the words in a sentence to add more of an expressive language element.
4. Wiggly worms: this Orchard game is all about phonological (awareness of sounds) awareness. Matching a letter with the word. You can also practise the sounds in the words (e.g, g-o-l-d = gold; m-a-ke = make). Talk about the elements, e.g., ‘g-o-l-d’ has 4 sounds, 1 syllable; ‘m-a-ke has 3 sounds, one syllable. You can talk about what words rhyme with the different words and what makes a rhyming word (i.e., the middle and end sounds remain the same).
5. Sound detectives: this Orchard game allows children to identify sounds. It also has an app (if your child prefers a tech-way of learning). Children identify the sound then they can add the picture card to their path and become closer to being a successful detective. This game can also support memory skills.
6. Conversation cubes: throw the dice and start building a story. You can also create and use ‘colourful semantics’ sentence strips to support expressive (spoken) language as support to build the narrative.
7. Think words: ‘name it, press it, pass it’. A great game to expand word knowledge. You can talk about the words at the end of each round exploring semantic (meanings) and phonemic (sounds) links. Your child can also develop social skills (such as attention, listening and turn-taking).
8. Poo bingo: this is perfectly disgusting but equally fun for kids of about 3.5 years plus – if your child’s target is to practise /p/ sound this is the one for you. You can also learn all about the different animal’s poo, which I am sure you have always wanted to do!! The more we know about a word, the easier it is to store, retrieve and use. Yes, even talking about poo can help!! Also, it’s great for our visual learners.
9. Simon says: a game that can be played indoors or outdoors. Parents can take turns being “Simon” and give various commands that your child must follow. This means that your child can practise their receptive (understanding of) language as well as their expressive language, speech sounds and social skills (such as turn-taking and initiating).
10. Ker-plunk: this is perfect for practising your child’s special sound. Repetition is very important, but also can be monotonous, so finding a game that they enjoy is vital. Take turns to pull out a stick. Next, your child can either say their special sound or word (depending on what stage they are at) or hear a good model from other players.
Do you still have questions? Contact Sonja for support.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

0
READ MORE Ten games to support communication in primary school aged children
Autism Therapy · Neurodiversity · Speech and Language Therapy · Top tips

Unlocking communication: My daily life with the Saltillo 88 Core Board
ByLondon Speech and Feeding June 25, 2025January 29, 2026
Introduction

As an AAC speech and language therapist who uses the Saltillo 88 Core board every day, I can tell you it’s more than just a communication tool. It’s a doorway to independence, connection, and expressing my students’ unique voice.

What is the Saltillo 88 and why do I use this one?

In this blog post, I want to share practical, real-world examples of how I integrate the Saltillo 88 into various daily activities, empowering my students and parents to learn to communicate.

There are literally hundreds of core boards out there and I have tried many different ones over the years. Which one should I use with this particular client? Should I make up my own? (I have made up tons!) or should I use a ready-made one like the one below which is what this blog is about.

For me the best ones are boards with a good number of core words (at least 60) so that the board is versatile and can be used across a range of activities. The board needs to have a range of pronouns, verbs, descriptors, prepositions and question words to be useful and to stimulate not just requesting but commenting and asking questions. Another consideration is: can the board easily be transferred to a more robust AAC system. Once my student is used to the symbols and where they are could we move to an electronic talker/device. And if this answer is ’yes’ then we have a great board to get started with.

Below is a picture of the Saltillo 88.

Saltillo 88 Core Board

It has 88 words and I find it really does suit most activities. The same board and design is also then found on the TOUCHCHAT AAC device which can be a seamless transition for our learner.

Let me dive into how core words/board or AAC can be used daily:

1. Getting dressed

Whilst choosing clothes for your little one and getting them ready for the day you can use the following words: want, like, get, finish. Always pack the words into little phrases you can speak naturally when using a board. I have tried to show you phrases that you could use below.

The words in bold are the core words on the board and the other words are just words you say whilst pointing to the core word.
- Goal: Express choices, needs, and preferences about clothing.
- Ideas:
  
  ‘I want this one [specific item of clothing: ‘shirt’, ‘pants’]’
  
  ‘I like that one [colour/type of clothing]’
  
  ‘Help me [put/get it on/take off]’
  
  ‘let’s get your socks now’
  
  ‘finished let’s go’ (when dressed)
2. Having a shower/bath
- Goal: Bath time tends to happen daily and so it lends itself to using the same useful phrases and words to chat about temperature preferences, to ask for toys or for washing routines.
- Ideas:
  
  ‘let’s go have a bath/shower’
  
  ‘let’s turn on the tap/water’
  
  ‘now turn it off’
  
  ‘let’s get/have more toys/water/bubbles/tickles’
  
  ‘all gone, what’s next?’
  
  ‘how about washing your hands/feet’
  
  ‘let’s do that again’
  
  ‘need some help?’
  
  ‘Stop it now, let’s do something different’
3. Mealtimes
- Goal: Mealtimes can be (or should be) enjoyable and motivating to ask for specific things we like, and commenting about our eating experiences.
- Ideas:
  
  ‘I want/give me [food item: ‘apple’, ‘bread’]/[drink item: ‘water’, ‘juice’]’
  
  ‘More foods/drinks/snacks’
  
  ‘All done’
  
  ‘that’s messy we like that (not)’
  
  ‘Like’/‘Don’t like’
  
  ‘Big’/‘Little’
  
  ‘this is so nice!’
4. Playing
- Goal: This is where it’s at for children of course and we can use our core words to chat and engage with our little learners.
- Ideas:
  
  ‘I want play’
  
  ‘Go’/‘Stop’
  
  ‘More/again’
  
  ‘not it’s my My turn’/’it’s Your turn’
  
  ‘that’s a Big one!’/‘let’s do Little bubbles’ (describing toys)
  
  ‘let me Open it for you’ (for boxes, doors in play)
  
  ‘I See it’ (to draw attention)
  
  ‘Help me’ (with a tricky toy)
5. Opening boxes/doors/etc
- Goal: Most kids love opening boxes, doors and cabinets to see what there is to play with. Help your child to ask for what they want.
- Ideas:
  
  ‘let’s Open that box/bag/zip/door’
  
  ‘get me a (toy) out of here’
  
  ‘Let’s Take it out and see what it is?’
  
  ‘finished’ (when finished with the task)
  
  ‘I want [what’s inside]’
  
  ‘What’s next? Let’s see’
Tips for using AAC effectively
- Consistency is key: Emphasise using it regularly, even for small things.
- Modelling: this is crucial, the adults need to use the board for all situations first and foremost before we can expect our child to be interested.
- Patience: Communication takes time and practice.
- Celebrate successes: Acknowledge every communicative attempt.
- Make it accessible: Keep the board within easy reach at all times.
Conclusion

If you’re considering the Saltillo 88, or TouchChat, or are already using it, I hope these examples inspire you. It’s a journey of discovery, and every word communicated is a step towards a more connected and independent life. What are your favourite ways to use the Saltillo 88 or which core board do you love using? I would love to hear your comments and stories.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

2
READ MORE Unlocking communication: My daily life with the Saltillo 88 Core Board
Top tips

Six ways to prepare your child for the Christmas festivities
ByLondon Speech and Feeding December 14, 2022January 31, 2023

It feels like the Christmas festivities start earlier and earlier every year. This makes it harder for your child with communication difficulties to process what is happening. Whilst you can’t do anything about the events that happen around your child, you can start to put into practice strategies which may support them and allow them to regulate their emotions.

Six ways to prepare your child for the Christmas festivities

Explore six ideas here:

1. Print off or buy a blank calendar to use at home

You can start to write in activities out of the usual routine and add a picture to allow your child to understand what it’s about. You can also use it as a countdown to Christmas Day to try to prevent ‘how long’ questions.

2. Make use of visual timetables

These are useful in everyday settings and activities but also when change occurs.

3. Be aware of any non-uniform days

Days like ‘Christmas Jumper Day’ can make your child feel uncomfortable and may affect their behaviour. By giving yourself time, you can have conversations with your child’s teacher to find a more suitable alternative. For example, they can wear a Christmas t-shirt that they find more comfortable.

4. Think about what will benefit your child

Do they like being surrounded by people or do they prefer a quiet space on a 1:1 basis? Christmas activities often involve lots of group work in school (e.g., rehearsing for carol concerts or plays). They might prefer to pre-record their part in the Christmas play or create pieces of art which can be used. At home, they may prefer one guest visiting at a time, rather than all at once.

5. Explore how your child is feeling

It’s important to find out how your young person is feeling and how these impact on the activities of that day. It might be that your child doesn’t like surprises and the intensity of opening gifts is too much for them. They may prefer gifts to be left unwrapped and given throughout the day, rather than all at once.

6. Consider sensory needs

Ensure your young person has everything they need to meet their sensory needs. This can be e.g. noise cancelling headphones, fidget toys, or comforting items. These will particularly be helpful with routines changing, often with little notice. If at home, you may wish to not put lights on the Christmas tree if visual stimuli become too much.

Remember clear communication between home, school and other family members is vital during this time. By having clear communication and expectations, your young person will feel more secure. And you can have a Christmas that is right for you and your family.

Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.

READ MORE Six ways to prepare your child for the Christmas festivities