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?
If your child is already engaged with a certain activity, they are already interested and motivated. You’re not competing for their attention.
Both yours and your child’s attention is on the same activity which makes imitating for you (as the parent) easier.
Studies have demonstrated that when a parent imitates a child, they are more likely to look at the adult.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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!
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.
If your child’s speech is difficult to understand, it can feel tempting to focus straight away on individual sounds: those tricky /S/, /K/, or /SH/ sounds that just won’t come out clearly.
But in therapy, we don’t always start there.
When a child is very difficult to understand, and I have ruled out that the underlying cause is motor-based, I often opt for the Cycles Phonological Approach. This is helpful for those kids where we can feel like we don’t know where to start! The Cycles Approach helps to generate a broad overall increase in speech clarity by sequentially targeting a variety of speech patterns over the course of 8–10 weeks.
So rather than working on one sound until it’s ‘fixed,’ we:
Work on patterns (not just individual sounds)
Target each pattern for a short period of time
Then cycle to the next one
And come back around again later
This mirrors how speech development naturally happens: gradually, with increasing accuracy over time.
Why don’t we start by fixing erroneous sounds straight away?
To use a metaphor, if a child doesn’t have a strong syllable structure, working on individual sounds is like decorating a house that doesn’t have solid walls yet.
Many children with speech sound difficulties:
Drop syllables (e.g. ‘banana’ → ‘nana’)
Simplify longer words
Struggle to maintain rhythm and stress patterns
So, before we refine speech sounds, we need to build the framework of speech.
Why syllables come first in every cycle
In the Cycles Approach, we always begin with 2- and 3-syllable words, even if that’s not the main concern.
Why?
Because syllable awareness supports:
Speech clarity (intelligibility)
Word structure and sequencing
Prosody (rhythm and stress)
Motor planning for longer words
Without this, even perfectly produced sounds can still be hard to understand in real speech.
What do ‘2 and 3 beats’ mean?
When we talk about ‘beats’ we mean syllables you can clap.
Try it:
‘Table’ → ta-ble (2 beats 👏👏)
‘Banana’ → ba-na-na (3 beats 👏👏👏)
In therapy, we help children:
Hear the beats
Feel the rhythm
Produce the full word (without dropping parts)
What this looks like in therapy
In my sessions, this part of the cycle is active, visual, and repetitive.
You might see me using:
👏 Clapping or tapping out syllables
🧩 Using visual supports or blocks for each beat
🎲 Play-based repetition of target words
🎯 High-frequency practice (lots of turns!)
I also keep the focus on success and flow, rather than correction.
If you’re watching the video clip I’ve shared here, you’ll notice:
I’m not over-correcting every sound
I’m prioritising getting the whole word out
I’m building rhythm, confidence, and consistency
Why this stage is so powerful
It can look simple, but it’s doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Working on syllables helps children:
Say longer words more clearly
Reduce ‘mumbling’ or collapsing of words
Improve overall intelligibility quickly
Prepare for more precise sound work later
Often, parents notice early wins like:
✨ ‘They’re easier to understand already’
✨ ‘They’re saying longer words!’
✨ ‘They’re more confident speaking’
And that’s before we’ve even fully targeted specific sounds.
But will my child still learn their sounds?
Yes. Absolutely.
The Cycles Approach is structured so that after syllables, we move into:
Early developing sounds
Then more complex patterns (like fronting or clusters)
And importantly, we come back around again.
Nothing is missed. It’s just sequenced in a way that supports success.
A different way of thinking about progress
One of the biggest mindset shifts with the Cycles Approach is this:
👉 We’re not aiming for perfection straight away
👉 We’re aiming for gradual system-wide change
That means:
Your child doesn’t need to ‘master’ something before moving on
Progress builds across cycles
Speech becomes clearer over time, not overnight
So, to sum up
Starting with syllables might seem unexpected but it’s one of the most powerful foundations we can give a child whose speech is hard to understand.
By building rhythm, structure, and confidence first, we make everything that comes next more effective.
If your child is starting speech therapy and you notice we’re clapping words like ‘banana’ or ‘elephant’, there’s a very good reason for it.
We’re not going backwards.
We’re building from the ground up.
We’re making later sound work more effective and more likely to generalise into everyday talking.
Next steps:
If you’re concerned about your child’s speech clarity or wondering whether they might benefit from a structured approach like this, feel free to get in touch. I offer individualised assessments and therapy plans tailored to each child’s speech profile whether that’s early sound development, phonology, or motor speech difficulties.
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.
Parent FAQ section
Why is my child practising words like ‘banana’ instead of sounds like /K/ or /S/?
Because your child first needs to be able to hold and produce the full shape of a word. If they’re dropping syllables (e.g. ‘banana’ → ‘nana’), working on individual sounds won’t carry over into real speech. We build the structure first, then refine the sounds.
What if my child can already say some long words?
That’s great. But we’re looking for consistency and clarity across many words, not just a few familiar ones. This stage helps stabilise that skill so it becomes reliable in everyday talking.
How long will we stay on syllables?
Usually, this is a short but important phase within each cycle. We revisit it regularly, but we also move on to other patterns (like specific sounds or sound processes) within the same therapy block.
Will this delay my child learning their sounds?
No. In fact, it often speeds things up overall. Once the syllable structure is in place, children are much more able to use correct sounds in longer words and sentences.
What can I do at home?
Keep it simple and playful:
Clap out words together (e.g. ‘el-e-phant’)
Emphasise full words naturally in conversation
Repeat back what your child says with the full structure (without pressure)
Consistency and exposure matter more than correction.
My child gets frustrated. Will this help?
Yes. Many children become frustrated when they’re not understood. Improving syllable structure often leads to quick wins in clarity, which can boost confidence and reduce that frustration.
Building clearer speech: Why we practise syllables first
What are syllables?
Syllables are the ‘beats’ in words.
‘Table’ = 2 beats (ta-ble)
‘Banana’ = 3 beats (ba-na-na)
Why is my child working on this?
If your child:
Drops parts of words (‘banana’ → ‘nana’)
Mumbles longer words
Is hard to understand
…then we need to build the structure of words first.
This helps your child:
✔ Say longer words clearly
✔ Be easier to understand
✔ Feel more confident speaking
What does this look like in therapy?
We practise:
Clapping or tapping out beats 👏
Saying full words with rhythm
Repeating target words through play
Using visuals or actions to support learning
How you can help at home
Keep it light and playful, little and often!
Try this:
Clap words together أثناء play (e.g. toys, food, animals)
Model full words naturally (‘Yes, ba-na-na!’)
Repeat and expand what your child says
Example:
Child: ‘nana’
You: ‘Yes! Ba-na-na‘
Important to know
This is a key first step in speech therapy
We will move on to sounds—but this helps them stick
Small changes here can make a big difference in clarity
During the pandemic I wrote a blog on what my working day looked like. Now a good year has passed since coming back to some sort of normality and I thought I would update this ‘day in the life of an SLT’ as my working life has changed of course to reflect the ‘new normal’.
I have become truly busy, perhaps busier than I have ever been to be honest. It’s probably mostly due to the fact that I do most of the aspects of my work myself — though I want to mention two invaluable people here without whom I could not function as well as I do: the excellent Nathalie Mahieu (nathalie@nmediting.nemediting.co.uk) helps me with my SEO, Insta posts and blog uploading and the wonderful Sue Bainbridge (sueybee@btinternet.btinternet.com) makes sure that my accounts don’t get into trouble with His Majesty’s tax office.
Attached to our role as Speech and Language Therapists is an arguably enormous amount of administration/paperwork and preparation required for each and every client. This needs to be factored in when deciding how many families I can realistically see each working day. For me it works out as typically 3–5 clients a day, Monday to Friday.
So how does my day typically look? Each day varies a lot depending on what type of client I have, but on average it looks a bit like this:
First thing in the morning — after having a coffee and a quick check-in with my besties on WhatsApp — I do my Buddhist chanting for about an hour. My Buddhist prayers are the base of all I do and get me connected to my higher purpose and how to create value with each activity and each person I see that day. It sets me up for the day, I keep in mind who is going to come and see me and how I can best help them.
Next up, I do the daily ‘spring-clean’ of my therapy room (on all fours! no joke ???? those kids see every speck!), vacuum the floors, wipe down the toys with flash-wipes and tidy up all my boxes, making sure that the battery toys are working, and everything else is in place. On to the guest toilet, the hallway needs to be rid of all the men’s shoes and trainers and coats… It’s endless what needs tidying when you are living with three men… This takes about 45 minutes.
An articulation activity – packaging practice into a little game
Then I prep for all my clients that day. I have now got so much quicker about selecting therapy materials. For one thing I have purchased so many toys and materials over the past five years that I can literally now open a shop and need to consider building an extension! ???? The upside is that it is now very easy for me to select a good handful of toys or games for any one child, even at a minute’s notice. Though, on average, I spend about 30 minutes per child preparing activities.
Hurrah, it’s 11 am and my first client of the day arrives and the fun begins.
When they leave around an hour later, the cleaning and wiping down starts again, this time less extensively. I write up my notes and send homework whilst enjoying a cuppa.
The next client comes at 12.30 pm and once they have left, floor cleaned, toys wiped, notes written it is time for a quick lunch. No more than half an hour usually.
Afternoon clients tend to be one more little one (nursery age) at 2.15 pm and thereafter I see mostly older school children for a variety of reasons (mainly speech production but also some language-based activities). I tend to say farewell to my last client of the day around 6 pm. I spend another hour, sometimes more, on writing up notes, answering new enquiries, blogging and phone calls to keep my service fresh, inspirational and exciting.
And then dinner and the rest of the day rushes by. I tend to finish my day with some more Buddhist chanting, not a lot, perhaps 10–20 minutes to reflect on what has gone well and what could have been better — re-determine to improve or make better as needed.
Tele therapy activity using online materials plus a coreboard
In terms of where I provide a service, I still do a good mix of online clients (tele-therapy) and in-person clients in my clinic, which I love. Occasionally, I visit children in their nursery or at home but this service is now only available for long-standing clients.
Each client is hand-picked to make sure that we are a good fit: no one client gets the same treatment as another; each client is unique, we get to know one another well over the time we work together and they are always highly valued. That takes time and, in reality, each client gets about two hours of my time. That is the actual session plus all the preparation and aftercare, i.e., bespoke hand holding, tweaks, problem solving and reassurance in between sessions.
I absolutely love this way of working and would not ever want to do anything else. Nearly three decades of working both in the NHS and in private practice, countless courses (continual professional development) have enabled me to flourish as a therapist and I know that I offer something special and very valuable to my clients.
My unique way of working affords all my lovely clients the help they need to support their children to make progress; and it gives me the right balance of job satisfaction and work life balance for now. My lovely reviews and testimonials tell me that my clients appreciate my service and this at the end of the day is the most important.
If you are interested in exploring Buddhism/buddhist chanting then check out this link (https://sgi-uk.org/), and feel free to contact me about that specifically, regardless of whether you want speech therapy. I am always happy to chat about Buddhism, it has been so enriching for the last 43 years of my life.
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.
Communication is the essence of human interaction, allowing us to express thoughts, feelings, wants and needs. For non-speaking children and their families finding an avenue to communicate effectively can be a really challenging journey.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) offers a solution: with AAC Core Boards as a powerful ally and tool to empower and express more than requests: ideas, comments, surprise and delight, as well as saying no to something! Very important!
“AAC is a set of tools and strategies that an individual uses to solve every day communicative challenges. Communication can take many forms such as: speech, a shared glance, text, gestures, facial expressions, touch, sign language, symbols, pictures, and speech-generating devices” (RCSLT, 2023) to name just some.
AAC Core Boards are a powerful tool to empower non-speakers to express ideas. In this blog, we’ll explore the significance of AAC Core Boards and how they can unlock the world of communication for non-speaking children.
Let’s discover and understand AAC Core Boards
Firstly, let’s look at what a Core Board looks like…
AAC Core Boards are a specific type of AAC system that employs a grid-style board. This grid contains a set of core vocabulary words or symbols, which serve as a foundation for all communicative functions (e.g., initiating, greeting, requesting, negating, commenting, asking a question, and expressing surprise).
These boards incorporate high-frequency (most used) and versatile words. They enable us to construct sentences, express emotions, and take part in conversations, fostering a sense of independence and autonomy. By enabling communication, we also remove some of the frustration (from not being able to communicate) which contributes/or often leads to behavioural difficulties.
Building literacy skills
AAC Core Boards are not only tools for immediate communication. They also play a pivotal role in language and literacy development. By using these boards, non-verbal children engage with words and symbols. It reinforces their understanding of language structure and grammar.
As they consistently play with and then use their boards, they naturally absorb language patterns, laying the foundation for improved literacy skills. This immersive learning experience paves the way for future language acquisition and communication growth.
Customisation for individual needs
Every child is unique, and their communication needs can vary significantly. AAC Core Boards are designed with this diversity in mind, allowing for customisation to suit individual preferences and abilities. The boards can be adapted to include specific vocabulary relevant to a child’s daily life, interests, and activities. This personalisation ensures that the AAC Core Board is a true reflection of your child’s personality and needs, making communication more motivating, engaging and effective.
Collaboration between AAC Core Boards and Speech Therapy
AAC Core Boards are an excellent tool but we need to know one important aspect: they only work well when used regularly by the child’s family and key people in the first place.
The board needs to be used and modelled by adults consistently and regularly across environments. This is so our children know what to expect, take an interest and begin to use the boards themselves. Modelling the use of AAC Core boards is vital. Think how long it typically takes for a child to learn their first word. Around a year! During that time the adults talk constantly to their child without hesitation or expectation! The same goes for introducing this new way of communicating.
Collaborating with your child’s Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) ensures that your child receives the right guidance in using the AAC system. SLTs can assess your child’s communication abilities, recommend appropriate boards and provide guidance on how to best put them in place, so that your child can reach their communicative potential.
For non-speaking children, AAC Core Boards are more than just tools. They are bridges to a world of communication, connection, and empowerment. These boards harness the power of visual communication, foster language development, social interaction, and personal expression. They can be tailored to individual needs with the support of skilled professionals. AAC Core Boards offer a beacon of hope, helping to break through communication barriers and thrive in a world that is waiting to hear your child’s voice.
For answers to your questions and to explore the most effective support for your child, feel free to contact us.
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.
December is often presented as a time of perfect, reciprocal play. Children are supposed to be unwrapping toys, sharing, and engaging in imaginative scenarios with family. But for parents of young autistic children, this high-pressure, socially demanding period can often feel like a battleground.
If you’ve been told to interrupt your child’s stimming, push for eye contact, or force them to play ‘functionally’ with toys, it’s time to take a deep breath. Those traditional approaches are not only stressful—they often miss the point of your child’s communication.
As a neurodiversity-affirming Speech and Language Therapist, I want to encourage you this December: You are allowed to follow your child’s lead, validate his or her unique interests, and trust that his or her play and movement are profoundly meaningful.
1. Stimming: not a distraction, but a regulator 💡
Stimming is short for self-stimulatory behaviour and includes repetitive movements or sounds like hand flapping, humming, rocking, finger flicking, or repeating phrases (called echolalia).
For years, parents were incorrectly advised to block or eliminate these behaviours. The neurodiversity-affirming view tells us the exact opposite: Stimming is a vital and essential tool for your child’s self-regulation.
Think of stimming as an internal volume dial:
Too loud/overwhelmed: Your child may stim to reduce incoming sensory input (e.g., rocking to ground himself or herself in a busy room).
Too quiet/under-stimulated: Your child may stim to increase sensory input and focus (e.g., running back and forth to maintain alertness).
The shift: validate, don’t block
Instead of saying, ‘Stop flapping your hands’, try to understand the message behind the movement.
Observe: When does the stimming happen? Is it before a meltdown? When your child excited? When your child is bored?
Validate: Name the need, not just the behaviour. You might say, ‘I see your body needs to move fast right now. That helps you calm down!’
Co-regulate: If the stim is unsafe (e.g., head-banging), help your child find a safer, alternative stim that meets the same sensory need (e.g., pushing hard against a wall, squeezing a stress ball).
By validating your child’s need to regulate, you are building trust, reducing anxiety, and teaching him or her critical self-awareness.
2. Autistic play: Meaningful, even if it’s monologue
The traditional idea of ‘good play’ often involves turn-taking, pretending, and specific toy functions (e.g., pushing a train around a track). When an autistic child spends 30 minutes lining up cars, spinning their wheels, or scripting whole scenes from a favourite movie, it can often be dismissed as non-functional or repetitive.
In neurodiversity-affirming practice, we recognise that autistic play is authentic play. These activities are crucial for learning, deep focus, and imaginative development.
Lining up toys may be an exploration of patterns, visual organisation, and order.
Spinning wheels may be a deep interest in cause-and-effect and visual sensory input.
Scripting is often a way to process language, regulate emotions, and practise complex social situations in a safe, controlled way.
Make a change: Join your child’s world, don’t drag them to yours.
Stop trying to force the ‘right’ way to play. Instead, try these neuro-affirming strategies:
Be a co-regulator, not a director: If your child is lining up cars, sit down next to him or her. Instead of moving a car, try handing him or her another car to line up. Focus on the shared interest rather than forcing interaction.
Narrate (don’t question): Avoid constantly asking, ‘What are you doing?’ or ‘What does this car say?’ This puts pressure on your child to perform. Instead, narrate your observations using his or her interest: ‘I see you made a long, straight line of red cars. Look at all the wheels spinning!’
Validate the interest: Show genuine appreciation for your child’s focus. ‘Wow, you know so much about how magnets stick together! That’s incredible.’
3. The communication revolution: Honouring gestalt language processing
Many young autistic children communicate in ways that don’t fit the traditional model of building language word-by-word. Many use Gestalt Language Processing (GLP).
A gestalt language processor learns language in chunks or scripts (e.g., ‘what’s-in-there?’ or ‘ready-go!’). These chunks (or gestalts) are not random; they are often tied to an emotional memory or meaning. Over time, the child breaks down these big chunks into individual words then learns to recombine those words creatively.
If your child repeats movie phrases or whole sentences that seem unrelated, he or she is likely a gestalt language processor!
Affirm the script, then model something useful.
Affirm the script: When your child says a script, respond to the meaning or emotion behind it, not the literal words. If he or she says, ‘We’re going to need a bigger boat’, and he or she is looking at a messy toy pile, he or she may be trying to express overwhelm or a need for help. You can affirm: ‘That pile is too big! I can help you move it.’
Model new ‘mix and match’ scripts: To help your child move from whole scripts to single words, you can model shorter, slightly changed versions of the script, also called ‘mitigated gestalts’. If they say, ‘I want to go home now’, you might model, ‘Let’s go home, now’ or ‘I wanna go home’.
By honouring your child’s communication style, you validate his or her experience and naturally support his or her path to language development—a core part of neurodiversity-affirming SLT.
Your December gift to your little one:
This December, stop trying to make your child fit into a neurotypical box. Instead, make your home a safe space where he or she can be his or her authentic selves.
Prioritise regulation and connection over compliance.
Trust that when your child is regulated, his or her communication, learning, and engagement will flourish naturally. This is the true gift of neurodiversity-affirming 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.
Does your child struggle to focus on toys or activities? Do they dart away as soon as you approach? You’re not alone!
The key to unlocking your child’s potential lies in following their lead. Let them guide the play session, and watch their engagement and focus soar.
Why Child-Led Play Works:
Empowerment: Children feel in control, sparking their curiosity and motivation.
Focused attention: They’ll stay engaged with activities for longer periods.
Reduced frustration: By stepping back and observing, you eliminate the pressure and stress that often comes with directed play.
How to Implement Child-Led Play:
Prepare the environment: Set out a limited selection of engaging toys.
Observe and wait: Sit back, watch, and listen to your child’s interests.
Embrace the moment: Resist the urge to direct or question; simply enjoy the process.
Remember: This simple approach can transform playtime and support your child’s development. Give it a try for a week and see the difference!
#OWLing #hanenmorethanwords
Observe, Wait, Listen. It’s a powerful formula for unlocking your child’s potential.
You will likely see:
Your child will stay put with any toy for longer whilst you are near them.
Your child will tolerate you being nearby and he/she won’t move away.
Your child will start giving you brief glances of enjoyment, or perhaps they will hand things to you, or they might take your hand and lead it to something that needs opening etc.
In other words, you will see that there suddenly is JOINT PLAY. Yes, granted it may not be according to your adult agenda, but there will be more togetherness than there was before. And this is the START of communication and social engagement.
USE Core words and a coreboard — to help your child understand the power of words
Core words are the building blocks of communication. Try using a coreboard like the one below, they are versatile and can be used in countless ways. By modelling these words naturally during play, you expose your child to their meaning and function in context. This approach is far more effective than isolated drill and practice, more powerful than flashcards!
Combining child-led play and AAC modelling creates a magic effect. To summarise:
Increased engagement: When you follow your child’s lead, they are more likely to be engaged and receptive to learning. This creates optimal conditions for introducing AAC core words.
Natural learning: By modelling AAC core words in the context of play, you help your child understand their meaning and purpose naturally. This fosters generalisation and spontaneous use.
Building relationships: Shared play experiences strengthen the bond between you and your child. This trust and connection are essential for successful communication.
Reduced pressure: Modelling AAC core words without expectation removes the pressure to produce language. This allows your child to explore communication at their own pace.
Expanded vocabulary: As your child becomes more comfortable with AAC, they will begin to incorporate core words into their own communication. This leads to vocabulary growth and increased independence.
Practical Tips
Observe and respond: Pay close attention to your child’s interests and actions. Respond to their cues with enthusiasm and support.
Keep it simple: Start with a few core words and gradually introduce new ones as your child’s skills develop.
Be patient: Language learning takes time. Celebrate small successes and avoid frustration.
Have fun: Remember, play is supposed to be enjoyable for both you and your child. Relax and have fun together!
Let’s say your child is playing with a pop-up toy like you see me do in the above photograph. Here, I followed my child’s lead by waiting to see what she wanted to do with the toy. You are now OWLING! (Observe Wait and Listen)
Once I noticed that there was repetitive opening of the flaps going on I then pointed to OPEN and MORE on the board, as I said: ‘let’s OPEN this one’ / let’s see MORE animals’ / ‘MORE cow! it says moo!’ ‘OPEN another one’ and so on.
Important to know, we are not expecting our child to respond verbally or with AAC, but we are providing language input and demonstrating how these words can be used with enthusiasm.
Naturally in time your child will look at the board and at your pointing and they will eventually want to copy you!
By incorporating these strategies into your daily interactions, you can create a supportive environment that fosters language development and communication growth. If you would like more guidance please get in touch and book in for a consultation, some individual therapy and/ or some parent coaching.
I look forward to supporting you. Please contact me and let’s see how.
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.
We often hear from parents who are trying their best to connect with their child, especially when reading books, but are met with frustration. They’ll say, ‘I read the book exactly as it’s written, but my child can’t focus for very long and just runs off!’ or ‘my child just flicks through the pages then turns it upside down and runs off with it’ or similar.
It’s a common story. Traditional reading—going through the text from cover-to-cover—has its place of course, but for little ones with a language delay or autism it can move too quickly and place all the focus on the book’s words, not on the interaction.
But what if I told you that story time could become one of the most fun and productive times for your child’s communication development?
Watch the fantastic little video clip above! You can see the pure joy and connection between this dad and his son. This is the same family who, just a few weeks ago, felt defeated when trying to read a book, with their child quickly losing interest and leaving the reading/book corner.
What changed?
The power of parent coaching and Hanen principles
The difference you see in the video is the direct result of parent interaction therapy, or parent coaching, based on the internationally recognised Hanen principles.
I didn’t ‘fix’ the child. Instead, I coached the parents in a few simple, powerful strategies that completely changed the dynamic of their interaction. Instead of being a time for teaching and instruction, story time became a back-and-forth conversation.
Here are the four major transformations that coaching helped this family achieve:
1. From reader to play partner
Before coaching, the parents felt their job was to read the text and to teach the words in it to their child. Now, their job is to follow their child’s lead. They learned to Observe, Wait, and Listen (OWL). If the child points to the tree or the badger on the page, the parent talks about the tree or the badger.
The result
The child is now initiating and leading the conversation! He is sharing what he finds interesting, which makes him feel powerful and keeps him deeply engaged.
2. Building connection and attention
When parents focus solely on reading, they often forget to make frequent eye contact and use animated facial expressions. The principles taught them to put the text aside and prioritise connection.
The result
Our little boy is looking at his dad more frequently, making great eye contact, and clearly having fun! When the interaction is fun, the child’s attention span naturally lengthens, allowing him to attend to the book and the interaction for a much longer time.
3. Creating opportunities for communication
The parents learned simple ways to prompt communication without pressure. They stopped asking knowledge-based questions (‘What colour is that? Or point to the pig!’), which can feel like a test.
Instead, they learned to use techniques like ‘Saying less and pausing’ or ‘copying their little one’s echolalia ‘, signalling that they are very interested in what he is saying and that his communication matters!
The result
The child is now spontaneously using strings of sounds and gestures to communicate his needs and interests, knowing and enjoying his parents’ enthusiastic responses.
This video is a testament to the fact that you are your child’s best therapist. With the right tools and coaching, you can transform everyday routines, like reading a book, into the most joyful and effective communication sessions.
4. Acknowledging and interpreting echolalia
In the video, you may hear the little boy repeat a phrase from the book or from what his dad just said. This is called echolalia, and for a long time, it was often dismissed or discouraged.
However, a core principle of our parent coaching is that echolalia is communication. For children who are ‘Gestalt Language Processors,’ these memorised phrases (or ‘gestalts’) are their building blocks of language.
The key is not to stop the repetition, but to become a ‘language detective’ and ‘interpreter’!
By modelling the correct, first-person phrase right after the echo, parents/caregivers are teaching a child how to break down the ‘chunk’ and use the individual words functionally. They are showing their child: ‘I heard you. Your communication makes sense to me.’
This strategy is a game-changer because it:
Validates the child’s communication: It honours the child’s natural way of learning language, which boosts their confidence and willingness to communicate.
Facilitates language development: It provides the child with the next step—a meaningful, functional phrase—to move them from repeating language to generating their own spontaneous sentences.
Look at the child’s face again in the video. When his dad acknowledges and interprets his communication, you see that spark of joy and connection—that’s the moment when true, functional language learning happens!
Ready to unlock the potential in your family’s story time? Contact me to learn more about our parent coaching programs.
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.
