Talking Tips for Kids – AD gifted for review

disclosure:  I was given free access to the two video’s mentioned for the purpose of review, my comments, however, remain my own, honest thoughts.

As regular readers will know, my son’s speech was delayed, which caused some anxiety for me at the time, and lots of frustration for him.  At 2 years of age, the expected level is to be able to have a 50-word vocabulary and be able to put 3-5 words together.  We took a while to reach that level, and have been on catch up ever since.  So I have a keen interest in speaking skills and what I can do to help him on his communication journey.

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So when Talking Tips for Kids contacted me to review a couple of their video’s I was keen to have a look.

TalkingTipsForKids  offers a range of videos written and presented by Speech and Language Therapist Fiona Barry. The videos are packed full of useful tips to boost your child’s communication skills that are designed to be put into practice as part of your everyday routines at home. All the advice is based on research and evidence from current clinical practice.

There are a number of free video’s available to view on the website, alongside some more in-depth ones which can be purchased for £2.99 each (there are also bundle deals for bulk buys).

I decided to look at Ages and Stages (0-5 years) and Talented Talk (approx 3-5 years) as these were the most relevant for Monkey, now aged 3 and half years.

Ages and Stages is just over 13 minutes long and provides some key information on a child’s speech and hearing development right from within the womb.  It was great for me to watch, and realise how far my son has actually travelled on his walk with language and communication. I could relate to a number of the points raised.

Fiona talks clearly and the video gives you information of likely developmental stages. It’s an interesting video to watch for anyone with younger children, the first half of the video shows stages that are now behind him – building up an early vocabulary etc, but I can imagine it being good for some ideas if I’d had another child. It was great at focussing me and actually, where are we now with my son’s speech?  What types of words are we using together and what can I focus on in the next few years to help him.

Talented Talk focuses on children aged from approximately 3 years – 5 years, the video is 18 minutes long and is packed with useful information on how to help your child’s speech development during these years.  I’ve picked up lots of tips – tune in to what he is actually saying and trying to communicate to me, join in with his imaginary play (which I do) but follow his instructions rather than taking the lead.  It was interesting to watch this video as not only did I learn quite a lot, but it also reaffirmed some things that I already do, such as getting down to his level to talk and play.

One of the things I learnt with him and his speech delay was to talk continually about what we were doing (sounds easy), whether it be in the car or the supermarket.  I struggled with this at times, it would all be going on in my head but I didn’t always vocalise it.  Once I’d realised my mistake, I soon saw how much it helped him and this video continues with that theme. Talk through play, what? why? where? letting your child take the lead.

I’m guessing that if you have older children, or are involved in education, then all of this is obvious but I know have a better understanding of Mark Making – why it’s so important for writing skills, and also how important getting your child to listen and complete tasks is now, for their future development in years to come.  There is so much value in uninterrupted talk time, something that is so important in a world where we all tend to rush around, stop, make time and listen.

I learnt things from each of these videos, and have certainly made notes from the Talented Talk video to help my son over the coming years.  I found them informative and easy to understand and would recommend them to any parent wanting some clear and concise tips for talking with their kids.

You can find out more about the entire range of video’s available from the Talking Tips for Kids website.

 

2 thoughts on “Talking Tips for Kids – AD gifted for review

  1. sounds interesting, speech development is such a massive area and impacts children so much when they are delayed for whatever reason! these kind of videos sound quite beneficial, its so important to have the right skills at home as well as speech therapy if they need it, considering how many hours they spend at home, and how many in therapy! your little monkey seems to be doing so well now! so should be very proud of him 😀

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