The quiet power: Why silence and responsiveness boost communication in children with delays

ByLondon Speech and Feeding
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The quiet power: Why silence and responsiveness boost communication in children with delays
Supplied by Sonja McGeachie, Practice Owner

As parents and caregivers, our natural instinct when interacting with a child, especially one who struggles with communication, is often to fill every silence. We might ask lots of questions, offer constant commentary, or try to prompt him or her to speak. Our hearts are in the right place. We want to help him or her communicate! However, for children with language delays or those on the autism spectrum, this well-intentioned approach can sometimes inadvertently create more pressure and fewer opportunities for them to truly initiate and develop their own communication skills.

What if I told you that one of the most powerful tools in your communication toolkit is often silence? And that responding to your child, rather than always initiating, can unlock incredible potential?

Let’s explore why these seemingly simple strategies are so profoundly beneficial.

The unspoken benefits of silence

In our fast-paced world, silence can feel awkward, but for a child who is processing language differently, it’s a gift:

  1. Time to process: Children with language delays often need more time to process what they hear and to formulate their own thoughts or responses. When we bombard them with words, we don’t give their brains the crucial milliseconds they need to catch up. A pause of 5–10 seconds can make all the difference.
  2. Reduces pressure: Constant questioning or prompting can feel like a test. Silence removes this pressure, creating a more relaxed environment where the child feels safe to communicate without fear of being ‘wrong’ or rushed.
  3. Creates opportunity to initiate: If you’re always talking, when does your child get a turn to start the conversation? Silence opens up a space for him or her to initiate, whether it’s through a sound, a gesture, eye contact, or a word. This is vital for developing spontaneous communication.
  4. Encourages independent thinking: When a child is given space, he or she is more likely to try to figure things out himself or herself. This fosters problem-solving skills and reduces reliance on adult prompts.
  5. Prevents overwhelm (especially for ASD): Many children on the autism spectrum can be sensitive to auditory input. A constant stream of language can be overwhelming, leading to withdrawal or challenging behaviours. Strategic pauses can help them regulate and engage more effectively.

The power of responding (not just initiating)

Think of a tennis match: if only one person serves, it’s not a game. Communication is a rally, a back-and-forth exchange. When you primarily respond to your child’s communication attempts, you’re teaching him or her the rhythm of conversation:

  1. Follow the child’s lead: This is a cornerstone of effective language intervention, famously championed by programs like Hanen’s ‘It Takes Two to Talk’. When you respond to what your child is already interested in or doing, the interaction becomes immediately relevant and motivating for him or her.
  2. Validates his or her attempts: Every sound, gesture, glance, or partial word your child offers is a communication attempt. By responding to it, you’re telling him or her, ‘I see you. I hear you. Your communication matters.’ This builds immense confidence and encourages him or her to try again.
  3. Builds confidence and motivation: When a child feels understood and successful in his or her communication, he or she are more likely to communicate more often. It’s a positive feedback loop.
  4. Teaches turn-taking naturally: By taking your turn after his or hers, you model the natural flow of conversation. He or she learns that communication is a shared activity, not a one-sided lecture.
  5. Makes interactions meaningful: When you respond to his or her interests, you’re talking about things that are inherently motivating to him or her. This makes the language you use more easily understood and remembered.

Practical strategies for parents: Observe, Wait, Listen (OWL)

The Hanen Centre’s ‘Observe, Wait, Listen’ (OWL) strategy perfectly encapsulates these principles:

  • Observe: Watch your child closely. What is he or she looking at? What is he or she doing? What sounds is he or she making? What gestures is he or she using?
  • Wait: After you’ve observed, wait. Give him or her time. Resist the urge to jump in with a question or comment immediately. Count to five (or even ten) in your head. This silence is an invitation for him or her to communicate.
  • Listen: When he or she does communicate (in any way!), listen intently. Try to understand his or her message or intent.

Beyond OWL – More tips:

  • Reduce questions, increase comments: Instead of ‘What’s that?’ try ‘Oh, a big red ball!’ or ‘The car is going fast!’ Comments provide language models without demanding a verbal response.
  • Expand, don’t just prompt: If your child says ‘Car’, you could respond with ‘Yes, That’s a big car!’ or ‘It’s really fast!’ You’re building on his or her communication with a slightly richer language model.
  • Create opportunities for communication: Place desired items slightly out of reach. This creates a natural reason for your child to communicate his or her wants (e.g., reaching, pointing, vocalising).
  • Respond to all communication: Don’t just wait for words. If your child points, look where he or she is pointing and comment. If he or she makes a sound, imitate it or respond with a related word.

In summary

Embracing silence and prioritising responsiveness might feel counterintuitive at first, especially when you’re eager for your child to talk. However, these powerful strategies create a nurturing, low-pressure environment that encourages spontaneous communication, builds confidence, and truly meets your child where he or she is. By giving your child the space and the meaningful responses he or she needs, you’re laying a strong foundation for his or her communication journey.

Try incorporating these ‘quiet powers’ into your daily interactions and watch your child’s communication blossom.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

Health Professions Council registered
Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists Member
Member of ASLTIP

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.

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    Unlocking language and thinking skills: The power of sequencing

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
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    As speech and language therapists, we often use a variety of techniques to help children develop their communication and cognitive skills. One incredibly valuable tool in our toolkit is the use of sequencing activities. But what exactly is sequencing, and why is it so beneficial?

    What is sequencing?

    Sequencing, at its core, involves arranging items, events, or actions in a specific order. This could involve putting pictures in the correct order to tell a story, following the steps in a recipe, or understanding the order of daily routines like brushing teeth or getting dressed.

    The link between sequencing and language

    Sequencing is fundamental to language development and is quintessential to executive functioning skills in several ways:

    • Narrative skills: Storytelling, whether oral or written, relies heavily on sequencing. A child needs to understand the order of events (beginning, middle, end) to construct a coherent narrative.
    • Explanations and instructions: Providing clear explanations or instructions requires the ability to sequence information logically. For example, explaining how to play a game or how to get from one place to another. In the video clip below we are working on ‘how do make a sandwich’.
    • Vocabulary development: Sequencing helps children understand temporal words and phrases like ‘first,’ ‘then,’ ‘next,’ ‘before,’ and ‘after’.
    • Sentence structure: Constructing grammatically correct sentences often involves sequencing words in a specific order (e.g., subject-verb-object).

    Beyond language, sequencing plays a crucial role in developing executive functioning skills. These are higher-level cognitive skills that help us plan, organise, and manage our time and actions.

    Sequencing activities can help children improve in the following areas:

    • Planning and organisation: Sequencing tasks require children to think ahead, plan the steps involved, and organise them in a logical order.
    • Problem-solving: When they are faced with a problem, sequencing helps children break it down into smaller, more manageable steps.
    • Working memory: Holding information in mind and manipulating it, such as remembering the steps in a multi-step direction, is supported by sequencing skills.
    • Cognitive flexibility: Being able to adjust to changes in a sequence or think of alternative sequences promotes cognitive flexibility.

    Examples of sequencing activities

    Here are some practical examples of sequencing activities you can do with your child:

    • Picture sequencing: Use a set of picture cards to tell a short story or illustrate a process (e.g., making a sandwich, going to the park). Ask your child to arrange the cards in the correct order.
    • Story retelling: After reading a story, have your child retell it, focusing on the order of events.
    • Following instructions: Give your child multi-step instructions to follow (e.g., ‘First, get your shoes. Then, put on your coat. Next, go to the door.’).
    • Sequencing during play: Integrate sequencing into everyday play. For example, while building with blocks, talk about the steps: ‘First, we put this block here. Next, we add this one…’
    • Daily routines: Create visual schedules for daily routines, like getting ready for school or bedtime, to help children understand the sequence of events.
    • In the video clip below I am using an on-line language activity which is often fun for children as they can use their finger to swipe the pictures effortlessly into the right place and, if we realise at the end of the story that we have made a little error, we can then easily re-jig the pictures into their correct place.

    In conclusion

    Sequencing activities offer a powerful way to support children’s language development and enhance their executive functioning skills. By helping children understand and create order, we equip them with essential tools for communicating, learning, and navigating the world around them.

    Do get in touch via my contact form if you are concerned about your child’s development.

    Sonja McGeachie

    Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

    Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

    Health Professions Council registered
    Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists Member
    Member of ASLTIP

    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.

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    Why Imitation is so Important

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
    Target Activities and Games For Kids

    Why imitation is so important and how can speech and language therapy help children who struggle to imitate?

    Imitation or copying starts in early infancy. When we observe a young baby and his parent or familiar adult we can see clearly and frequently that the baby will be intently looking at adult’s face and try to copy their facial expressions, smiles and all those funny baby sounds we often make with young babies.

    These sounds are called “motherese” and are the beginnings of a little conversation between the parent and the baby. The “conversation can go back and forth for a long time and include sounds, as well as facial expressions.

    A little later on, once the baby can crawl and sit up unaided the copying then goes on to include toys and objects. Mum or Dad will show their toddler how to use a drum or how to put a little train on the wooden tracks and the toddler will try and copy this. They may not succeed and be a little clumsy perhaps but the act of copying anything and everything their favourite adult does is typically seen throughout the day.

    We all know and have laughed at mums or dads saying; ssshhh don’t say that in front of the baby he/she will copy you, watch your mouth! (as dad is swearing at the broken radiator….)

    This imitation goes on for years and includes eventually of course little words, more words, putting words together and then creating sentences, all the while our toddler is listening to how their adults speak, not only what they say but how they say it. This is how dialects and accents can be transmitted easily from parent /family to child.

    Copying in Children with Autism

    We know that children with autism often struggle to imitate. We see children on the spectrum typically having great difficulty to copy adults or children; this can be seen in very reduced play with their peers in nursery for example.

    Children with autism tend to have reduced joint attention and engagement with others and need to develop the ability and awareness to copy others in order to then engage more jointly with others.

    Speech and Language Therapy can help with Parent Child Interaction work and Coaching, here is how:

    During my coaching work with parents I teach step by step how to help a child who struggles to imitate:

    We look at all the researched skills and actions that adults can take to help their little one to copy, starting with close observation of their child’s interests, then following and including their child’s play and copying/imitating their child in how they play. I teach steps in a graduated way so that it is easy to see the progress and joyful to have the results at the end.

    The results are clear to see over time: our children on the spectrum learn to imitate actions, with objects and gestures, then sounds and words. Alongside this increased imitation skill the child can then develop more joint attention and engagement.

    I would always recommend Parent Child Interaction Training as a first port of call as we learn so many great techniques which are well researched by the Hanen Programme, www.hanen.org. Do drop me a line if you would like to find out more.

    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.

  • ·

    The role of spinning and swinging in speech and language therapy

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
    Sonja with a child on a swinging with a stuffed monkey

    Spinning and swinging are often observed behaviours in autistic children. While these actions might seem repetitive or unusual to some, they serve crucial functions for these children. Understanding the underlying reasons for spinning and swinging can provide valuable insights into how to support autistic children and incorporate these activities into therapeutic settings.

    Why do children spin?

    Spinning is a common sensory-seeking activity in autistic children. Sensory seeking means that the child actively looks for sensory input to regulate their nervous system. Here’s why spinning can be beneficial:

    • Vestibular input: Spinning stimulates the vestibular system, which is located in the inner ear and is responsible for balance and spatial orientation. For children with sensory processing difficulties, spinning can provide essential sensory input.
    • Calming effect: For some children, spinning can be a self-regulating strategy. The rhythmic motion can help to calm the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
    • Sensory exploration: Spinning allows children to explore their sensory experiences. It can help them understand their bodies and how they move in space.

    The allure of swinging

    The rhythmic back-and-forth motion of a swing offers several benefits:

    • Vestibular input: Like spinning, swinging stimulates the vestibular system, helping to improve balance and coordination.
    • Proprioceptive input: Swinging provides proprioceptive input, which is the sense of where your body is in space. This information is crucial for motor planning and coordination.
    • Calming and organising: The rhythmic motion of swinging can have a calming effect on the nervous system, helping to regulate emotions and improve focus.
    • Social interaction: Swinging can be a shared experience, fostering social interaction and communication.
    • Facilitating communication: While swinging, children are so much more relaxed and open to communication. The rhythmic motion can also help facilitate singing, humming, listening to my singing, non-verbal communication for sure but also more verbal and mouth words can be heard from children on my swing. If nothing else, it is so fun and helps build trust and rapport between my child and me.

    Therapeutic Activities Combining Spinning, Swinging, and Speech and Language Therapy

    Here are some therapeutic techniques that I use at London Speech and Feeding to combine movement with speech and language development:

    • Swinging with verbal prompts: While the child is swinging, I provide simple verbal prompts such as ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘fast’, and ‘slow.’ This helps to develop receptive language skills and improve auditory processing.
    • Sensory-motor play: I like to combine swinging with tactile activities like playing with textured balls or bean bags. This can facilitate language development through descriptive language, words and scripts like: ‘that’s so soft’, ‘oooh tickle tickle tickle!’
    • Storytelling on the swing: Often I manage to create a story while the child is swinging. This can improve narrative skills, vocabulary, and imagination. Recently I did the ‘Tiger who came to tea’ story and each time the swing stopped the tiger came and ‘ate some more cakes’ and ‘tickled their tummy’ whilst eating. It may make not much sense but my child loved it and we had ‘more tiger eat more’.
    • Song and rhyme time: Often I sing the ‘rumble in the jungle’ song while swinging my child to enhance phonological awareness, rhythm, and timing.
    • Visual supports always help: I use LAMP Words for Life AAC support during swinging and show core words such as: ‘go’ / ‘stop’/ ‘more’ / ‘tickle tickle’ etc. #lampwordsforlife #aac
    • Movement-based activities: We can incorporate activities that require sequencing, such as imitating animal movements or following simple commands while swinging. This can improve motor planning and language comprehension.

    For more information follow me on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.

    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.

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  • What is Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) and what does a Speech Therapist do?

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
    Kids Speech Therapist London
    What is Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) and what does a Speech Therapist do?

    Speech and language therapists provide treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking and swallowing. We help children and adults who have problems speaking and communicating.

    How to find the perfect therapist for my child/client:

    There are a huge number of speech and language difficulties, or feeding and swallowing problems that we can help with and the first thing to think about is what age group the person is you are seeking help for. Most SLT’s specialise in a range of disorders and treatments and they often treat specific age ranges. This could be, for instance, very young children up to 3 years, or school aged children, adolescents or just adults. Once you have narrowed it down to age and general area of difficulty you can then go and seek your perfect SLT match.

    Generally it is my view that SLT’s with a narrow area of specialist interest are most likely to help you better if the problem you or your child/adult is having is significant and/or profound. For example, if your child has a very severe stutter/stammer but is otherwise developing fine and has good skills all round, then I would recommend to look for an SLT who only specialises in stammering/stuttering, or has only a small range of other specialist areas related to stammering , such as speech and language delay.

    The reason is that it is a tall order for any professional to stay up to date with latest research, latest clinical developments and training for more than, say, five distinct areas of interest.

    However, a more generalist Speech therapist who has lots of experience in many different areas could be a very good option for your child or adult who has more general speech and language delay in a number of areas, perhaps a global delay or a syndrome which means that their learning is delayed in general. It also means that your child might benefit from a Generalist SLT because they have many more tools in their SLT bag and your child might need a variety of approaches for several areas.

    A good place to start is www.asltip.com which is the Association for Independent Speech and Language Therapists in the UK. Any SLT registered with ASLTIP will also be registered with the HCPC (Health Care Professionals Council), as well as RCSLT (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists). These two important UK professional regulatory bodies ensure all its members are fully qualified, and are fully up to date with latest developments within their areas of work.

    Here you can enter your post code and look for a therapist near you and you can look for specific problems such as stammering for example and narrow down your search. Most therapists have a website which you can then access too. I would recommend you speak to a few therapists on your list and then go with the person you had the best rapport with. You and the therapist will be spending a lot of time together and you will need to feel that you trust them and that you can relax into the process.

    How I can help you:

    I have 3 main areas of specialism:

    Parent Child Interaction Coaching

    Parent Child Interaction Coaching

    This is an amazing way to help children with the following difficulties:

    • Social Communication Difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Disorders and
    • Speech and Language Delay – for children under the age of 4 years old, this is my preferred way of working because it is so very effective and proven to work. If your child is not developing words or not interacting, has reduced attention and listening and you feel is not progressing or, in fact even regressing, then this way of working is the best. For anyone wanting to read a bit more about the efficacy of this method, below are some research articles. You may also like to check out www.hanen.org which is the mainstay of my work and method when it comes to Parent-Interaction Coaching. You can also look at my latest blog, entitled: Tele-therapy, does it work?

    In brief, what’s so great about Parent Coaching is that it empowers you the parent to help your child in daily life! This is where speech, language and social communication develop typically, in a naturalistic way and environment. Simple steps and strategies are discussed and demonstrated every week and you are encouraged to use these strategies with your child in daily routines: getting dressed, having breakfast, on the school run, whilst out in the park or shopping or simply playing at home or having dinner or bath time. Whatever your family routine happens to be, every strategy I teach you will help create a responsive communication environment; generally, if your child is able to develop speech then they will do so in direct response to your changed interaction style.

    Speech Sound Disorders, Verbal Dyspraxia, Phonology and Articulation

    Speech Sound Disorders, Verbal Dyspraxia, Phonology and Articulation

    I love working with children of all ages on developing their speech sounds. Whether your child has a lisp, or a couple of tricky sounds they simply cannot produce quite right, or perhaps your child is really unintelligible because he/she is having lots of different sound errors, making it really hard to understand them. I typically work on getting “most bang for your buck” , meaning I address the sounds that cause the most problems and, therefore, when they are fixed your child/person’s speech becomes that much clearer fairly quickly.

    Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties

    Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties

    Having worked for over 20 years in NHS Child Development Clinics and Special Needs Schools I trained and worked with feeding and swallowing difficulties early on in my SLT career. I later trained as a Lactation Consultant and so I am well placed helping and support all types of Infant feeding, both breast or bottle, as well as toddler weaning. I aim to ensure that your little one swallows the right kind of foods and drinks for their abilities. I am experienced in managing and supporting children with physical needs and mobility problems, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome or any other type of syndrome or presentation.

    What does a speech therapy session look like?

    All sessions differ slightly depending on the age of the child and the nature of the difficulties.

    However, mostly our sessions look like FUN! After arrival and washing hands we tend to start off with the tricky work straight away whilst our child still has energy and the will to engage. So, for speech work we will focus on the target sounds first: this could be sitting at a table doing work sheets together, playing games using the target sound and really any type of activity that gives us around 70-100 repeats of the target pattern. For example, a child who is working towards saying a ‘K’ at the end of the word I will try and get around 100 productions of words like: pack/sack/lick/ pick/bike/lake and so on.

    Then we often play a fun game where I might try for a ‘rhyming’ activity or other sound awareness type activities, for perhaps 10 minutes and within that time I aim to trial the next sound pattern we need to improve on; I will test which sound your child can do with help from me. During he last 10 minutes we might look at a book, again listening to and producing whatever sound we are working on. If I did not get 100 sounds earlier on in the session I will try and practice them now as part of the story. In total I aim to have about 40-45 minutes of activities, all aimed at the target sound we are working on.

    What does a Coaching session look like?

    During a Parent Coaching Session we meet online for about an hour and we discuss how the week has been for you trying out the strategies. Typically parents start off recalling what went well, what progress was made and what had been more tricky. We work through it all, and then follow on to the next strategies: I will show you examples and demonstrations of each strategy and I will get you to think about how you can use this with your child and in what situation you might use it. I will explain what we are doing and what the purpose is. You might want to write down what you are going to work on for the week. Over the course of about sessions we can cover all the major strategies that are proven to help kickstart spoken language and/or help your child to connect more with you. Through that connection spoken words most often develop.

    Research Papers on the Efficacy of Parent Child Interaction Coaching

    Research Papers on the Efficacy of Parent Child Interaction Coaching

    • The It Takes Two to Talk Program has been shown to be effective in changing how parents interact with their children, and that children’s communication and language skills improve as a result.
    • Baumwell, L.B., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S. & Bornstein, M.H. (1997). Maternal verbal sensitivity and child language comprehension. Infant Behavior and Development, 20(2), 247-258.
    • Beckwith, L. & Cohen, S.E. (1989). Maternal responsiveness with preterm infants and later competency. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed.). Maternal responsiveness: Characteristics and consequences: New directions for child development (pp. 75-87). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
    • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Is early intervention effective? (Publication No. (CDH) 74-25). Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Child Development.
    • Girolametto, L. (1988). Improving the social-conversational skills of developmentally delayed children: An intervention study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 53, 156-167.

    Sonja has been a real help for my 5 year old daughter. Due to her support, my daughter is now able to clearly and correctly enunciate ‘th’ ‘f’ and ’s’. She was also helpful in making positional changes to her seating to help her concentrate better and kept her engaged throughout all the lessons which is a feat in itself on zoom!

    Helen, Mother of Catherine Age 5.

    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.

  • · ·

    The power of containment: A therapeutic approach for autistic children

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
    Photo by lemonlenz

    The practice of wrapping or swaddling children, often referred to as ‘containment,’ has been used for centuries to soothe and comfort infants. I use this therapeutic approach with autistic children at the London Speech and Feeding Practice. While it might seem counterintuitive, the act of being tightly wrapped can provide significant benefits for children who struggle with sensory processing, emotional regulation, and communication.

    Understanding sensory processing and autism

    Autistic persons often experience challenges with sensory processing, which is their brain’s ability to interpret and respond to sensory information. This can lead to sensory overload or under-responsivity. Containment can be a valuable tool in helping children regulate their sensory input.

    Photo by lemonlenz

    To summarise, here are some of the benefits of containment:

    • Sensory Regulation:
      • Provides deep pressure input: The tight, enveloping sensation of being wrapped can provide deep pressure input, which is calming and organising for many children.
      • Reduces sensory overload: By creating a controlled sensory environment, containment can help to reduce overstimulation and promote a sense of safety.
    • Emotional Regulation:
      • Containment creates a sense of security: Being wrapped tightly can mimic the feeling of being in the womb, providing a sense of security and comfort.
      • Facilitates calming: The deep pressure input can help to calm the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
    • Improved Body Awareness:
      • Enhances proprioception: Containment can improve the child’s awareness of their body in space, which is essential for motor development and sensory integration. I often provide extra pressure on a child’s arms and legs sticking out of the yoga mat; this helps my child understand where their limbs are in space: I can feel my legs and I can feel my arms and I can feel where they are right now, i.e. they are under Sonja’s hand, I can feel them.
    • Facilitates Communication – and this is obviously where I come in as a Speech and Language Therapist:
      • Swaddling creates a safe space: When a child feels calm and secure, they are more likely to engage in communication.
      • Enhances joint attention: The shared experience of being wrapped can foster joint attention, which is essential for language development. You can see this one in my highlights where I swaddle my student in the yoga mat (picture above). She absolutely loves it, and what is more she is calm and steady when usually this child likes to be on the move constantly. Here we have a wonderful moment of joint engagement. She looks at me, she can listen to what I say or sing, and she can tell me in her own way to carry on rolling her or to carry on singing or providing calming pressure to her legs and arms or to stop.

    A few pointers for when you try this at home: How to practise containment safely and effectively

    • Create a safe environment: Ensure the wrapping material is soft, breathable, and free from any hazards.
    • Observe your child’s cues: Pay attention to your child’s body language and verbal cues to determine their comfort level.
    • Respect your child’s boundaries: If your child shows signs of distress, stop the containment immediately – this might seem obvious but sometimes we adults get so carried away with some ‘great idea’ that we have seen work elsewhere. And so we can be a little too ‘determined’ sometimes to ‘make it happen’… perhaps this rings a bell with some of my readers.
    • MAKE IT FUN: Start carefully and take it step by step. See if the student is having a nice time. It is all about trust and therefore it might not work the very first time you do it.

    It’s important to remember that containment is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Some children may respond better to other sensory-based interventions. However, for many autistic children containment can be a valuable tool in their journey towards improved communication and emotional regulation.

    For more information follow me on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.

    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

  • Why imitation is a powerful strategy to support social communication

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding

    Before reading this blog, it’s important to understand what we mean by ‘social communication’ and ‘imitation’. Social communication is more complex than it first appears. It refers to many aspects of communication such as body language, voice, conversational skills, social ‘rules’ (such as being polite and using manners), interpersonal skills (such as developing friendships), and emotional literacy (such as appropriacy and developing self-awareness). Imitation refers to the simple act of copying.

    You may have noticed that your child has difficulties in some of the areas mentioned above. They might be less responsive to you and appear to be quite happy in their own world. Whilst we do not want to change their unique characteristics, we do need to prepare them for future experiences, and what is socially acceptable.

    How will copying my child develop their social communication?

    1. If your child is already engaged with a certain activity, they are already interested and motivated. You’re not competing for their attention.
    2. Both yours and your child’s attention is on the same activity which makes imitating for you (as the parent) easier.
    3. Studies have demonstrated that when a parent imitates a child, they are more likely to look at the adult.
    4. Imitation not only supports eye contact but supports facial expressions (such as smiling), may increase vocalisations, and encourages your child to sit closer to you.
    5. Children learn through trial and error. They may start to try to perform new actions to gain their parents attention. Let your child lead the play!!

    How do I start imitating my child?

    1. Start with observing them. Take the time just to watch. You don’t need to make notes. Sit back and observe their actions, movements, and sounds they make.
    2. Wait for your child’s reaction when they realise you are copying their actions. Remember they may not notice, you don’t need to remind them, simply copy them again.
    3. Having the same set up as your child allows them to feel in control. So, you may have two sets of the same activity rather than copying using their set of toys.

    This may sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Start with a ten-minute time frame where you choose to copy your child. This is where you can practise your imitation strategy. Ten minutes a day is far more effective than an hour every two weeks. You may feel self-conscious but trust the process. Build your confidence, whilst exposing your child’s to increased language and communication, enabling them to develop vital social communication skills.

    Look at the video above to watch the strategy in action!

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    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.

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