Information For Parents/Carers
For information on local Drop-in and information sessions for parents/carers please see info from your local SLT team
A Telephone Helpline Service is available on a Tuesday afternoon . To seek advice, or to discuss a child or young person with a Speech and Language Therapist from the East Lothian team, please phone: 0131 446 4136 from 1.30 – 4pm every Tuesday.
Early Years Communication
We offer an Early Years Communication CPD session through the East Lothian CPD directory. This usually runs twice annually. The training is also available on request as a 2 hour or half day session to nurseries and primary schools, including partnership nurseries and Early Years Centres.
Signalong
Signalong is a sign supported communication system, designed to help children and adults with communication difficulties. It is designed to support spoken language to help people with communication difficulties understand and express themselves.
Unlike British Sign Language training, or that provided by some other organisations, Signalong training focuses on developing communication skills rather than teaching blocks of signs, many of which will be quickly forgotten through lack of use. The precise Signalong method of presentation enables users to remind themselves of signs which have been forgotten and to learn new signs from the manuals. Training programmes therefore focus on the application of sign-supported communication, e.g. aspects of total communication, such as facial expression, body language and voice tone; plus simplification of language and keyword selection.
Annual Signalong Accredited Foundation courses are offered through the East Lothian Education CPD directory as a 7 week twilight course. The sessions usually run at Sanderson’s Wynd Primary School.
The ASN team in East Lothian also offer Signalong training sessions on request to schools and nurseries. This could be for individual children and staff associated with them. There are also Introductory and Foundation courses available for parents and nurseries, which schools can request if they have a minimum of 8 people to train. Training sessions are tailored to need, e.g. 1 or 1.5 hour refresher sessions, 2 hour training or 15 hour accredited Signalong course.
Eating, Drinking and Swallowing (EDS)
Training for nursery staff and school staff on eating, drinking and swallowing is available on request.
There is a pilot in East Lothian based on the Edinburgh Visual Support Project within 6 mainstream nurseries, with one from each cluster. This pilot was funded by the East Lothian education department and was undertaken by an SLT and an educational psychologist. It is a programme delivered to raise awareness, change practice and improve access to visual symbol supports, e.g. whole class visual timetables and environmental visual labelling.
The Visual Support Project aims to:
- Enhance staff confidence, knowledge and practice in the use of visual symbol supports.
- Ensure equal and consistent access to high quality visual symbol supports for all children to meet their communication and educational needs.
Once an establishment has enrolled to participate, we will: run a 2 hour whole school professional learning session on visual symbol supports; provides a ready made pack of visuals and ongoing support and advice. The aim is that each nursery in the project will achieve a Bronze level award.
We will evaluate this pilot and we are looking at ways to take forward this project in East Lothian.
Targeted
Nursery Drop In for Parents
A Speech and Language Therapist can be available on request from Nursery for parents to discuss concerns they may have about their child’s speech and language development; and to receive support and advice. Nursery staff are encouraged to contact their local Speech and Language Therapy team to arrange a convenient date and time to meet with parents.
Talking Time and Early Talking Time
Talking Time and Early Talking Time are programmes developed by SLT to enable nursery staff to run early language group sessions for children within the nursery.
Both programmes consist of 6 topic led group sessions, targeting the early language skills of listening, turn taking, peer awareness and understanding and using language. Talking Time 1 and 2, aimed at 3-5 year olds in the ante- and pre-school years, are designed to target the development of listening and attention skills, vocabulary, expressive language skills and early language concepts and benefit other areas such as turn-taking, pre-literacy skills and social communication. Early Talking Time 1 and 2, aimed at 2-3 year olds, are designed to target pre-verbal skills such as active listening, eye contact, attention, copying, turn taking and early sound awareness. This also benefits the development of understanding and expression of language and social communication skills.
A visiting SLT provides nursery staff with written session plans to follow, along with materials to use. They will arrange at least 1 joint session with a key member of staff, who they will train to run the early language group independently so that they have the tools and the knowledge to run more groups throughout the years for those same children or other children in the nursery.
Talking Twos
A number of partnership nurseries were identified for involvement in a pilot project aimed at supporting key nursery staff working with priority two year olds. A set of resources called ‘The Great Box of Toys’ has been provided, together with a discussion about what activities and strategies can be used to support the children in their setting.
Each box contains five toys, with a matching postcard outlining ways to use the toy to help promote play and communication skills. The project involves initial and follow up visits with key staff and aims to identify outcomes for staff and discuss the need for further training or support from the SLT team.
For more information on any of the services detailed above, please contact your local SLT department.