Mar '22 - DLD, Noala Club & Consultative Therapy

👨 This month, we focused on developmental language disorder (DLD). We enjoyed learning from "Evidence-based pathways to intervention for children with language disorders", so much so that discussed it during our first Noala Club.

🇺🇸 We also had a lot of fun in our discussion with Joanne Cazeau, Pediatric Speech Pathologist during our Instagram Live. In case you missed it, you'll find a short recap below >

🔔 Last, but not least, we're excited to share the new set of features available on our platform: generate invoices in an instant, automatic patient session reminders and ability to "pause" a patient.

Let's build the future of speech and language therapy together!

This month, we discussed "Evidence-based pathways to intervention for children with language disorders", a research paper published by Susan H. Ebbels, Elspeth McCartney, Vicky Slonims, Julie E. Dockrell and Courtenay Frazier Norbury (full text available on our platform).

This month, we discussed "Evidence-based pathways to intervention for children with language disorders", a research paper published by Susan H. Ebbels, Elspeth McCartney, Vicky Slonims, Julie E. Dockrell and Courtenay Frazier Norbury (full text available on our platform).

We were particularly interested in the following findings:

• SLTs working in children's service have roles ranging from awareness raising and public engagement (Tier 1), to advice, support, training and coaching for parents and professionals working with children at risk of or failing to make expected progress (Tiers 1–3), and finally to individualized direct or indirect intervention for children with severe and persisting language disorders (Tier 3)
• The evidence indicates that children with complex and pervasive language disorders and those with additional complex needs require the specialist skills of SLTs at Tier 3 in order to make progress.
• SLTs also have roles supporting schools, pre-schools, families and communities at Tiers 1 and 2, particularly via close, collaborative working relationships with all those who work with and care for children

We would love to hear from you! Feel free to share your experience working with children, schools, families and communities with the Noala community on our forum.

Meet Joanne Cazeau, Pediatric Speech Pathologist based in NJ, USA

What is the Consultative Approach?

The consultative approach is a process where therapists act within the parenting/caregiver model, allowing the parent to take the front seat in sessions. It enables the therapist to coach the parent to understand and implement tools in daily life. This ensures transition out of the clinical setting, that the parent has enough insight and capability to follow through with tools learnt.

What piece of advice would you give to a family you are working with?

The consultative approach maximises outcomes - it allows therapists to hand over skills to the parents, when they are not there.

What piece of advice would you give to a therapist?

To think about how adopting a consultative approach can impact their therapy. It gives them the opportunity to turn 1 hours weekly sessions into 85 hours weekly sessions, as parents are taking their tools learnt within sessions home.

In case you miss our Insta Live, you can rewatch the video here

Other news we've been reading 

🗣 SLT specialist @voicefituk, shares a useful TEDx YouTube video by Leanne Goldberg explaining speech and how your emotions can affect the “voice box”

🙌 In a study of AHPs, Bruschini, Carli and Burla (2018) found that 10% of SLPs were at risk of burnout. At Noala, we loved this insightful podcast on Mindfulness by Jessi Andricks, CCC-SLP

🎒 Three quarters of the school surveyed by the Education Endowment Foundation reported that new starters were behind in speech, writing and number skills. We highly recommend @ICANcharity progress

🌟 Noala features update

We've carefully listened to our users feedback and we're thrilled to release a set of new features:

⏰ No more no show! A reminder email is now automatically sent to your patient ahead of your session

✅ From your patient profile, you can easily generate a pre-filled patient consent form

💯  We changed our therapy plan format so that you can create an unlimited number of targets!

⏸ A new "pause" status is now available, enabling you to still log clinical notes and phone calls. The Noala subscription is based on your active patients only.

We're always open for feedback, feel free to drop us a line at contact@noala.co

EPIC Speech and Language Therapy: Word Aware: Teaching Vocabulary (Early Years)

Word Aware is a structured, whole school approach full of practical and inspiring ideas to promote the vocabulary development of all children. This course is written for all teaching and support staff working in Early Years settings. As Word Aware is aimed to be a whole school approach, Senior Leaders must be committed to the programme for it to be effective. Word Aware training aims to teach how to implement vocabulary teaching in the new National Curriculum, review evidence and theories being word learning, and learn a structure approach to teach vocabulary in Early Years. The Early Years training includes the fun and engaging ‘Concept Cat’ method to teach children early verbal concepts such as ‘both, corner, smooth, and after’. This training takes place on Monday 7th March 2022 at Braunstone Community Primary School, Leicester. Please see www.bookwhen.com/affinitytsa for more information and to book your place on our course.

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