HERES ONE / EDITORS CHOICE

Heres one I made earlier...

Alison Roberts with another low cost, flexible and fun therapy suggestion, this time best done in a one-to-one session Vocabulary workbook
This is a way to work on vocabulary building in themes, with the extra value of being able to record idioms associated with each theme area. This is best done in a one-to-one session. MATERIALS Exercise book Coloured pens or felt tips IN PRACTICE Decide on some themes to be tackled. Its a good principle to go for the themes suggested by your client, usually a favourite pastime, or a school or college subject, adding some that you know they need to work on. You dont need to think of all possible themes at the start, just build them up gradually. You can also come back from time to time to add to themes already tackled. Allow four pages for each theme. On the first page draw a spidergram (see www.speechmag.com/Members/Extras), or mind map, with the theme word in the middle. (Mind maps are really the same thing as spidergrams, but the central shape is not a spider.) This page is the place to put ideas associated with the theme. For example, if the theme happened to be HORSE RIDING you would put this in the centre, adding all the generally connected ideas such as ponies, fresh air, special clothes, group, teacher, Thursday afternoons, Willow Farm. Each of these can have further connections; for example, Willow Farm might spawn ideas such as view, tea break, barn shelter, top field. The second page is for all the extra, specialist vocabulary that you both can think of, connected with the theme, and presented in sub-themes. You can make more spidergrams for this if you like but, in this case, you would need to take more pages over each major theme. For either approach you will need to have a title and then a list of connected items; for example the title Tack would include halter, bridle, saddle. Parts of the Horse would include fetlock, withers and hoof. Then there would be Riding Gear, including jodhpurs, hardhat, boots. (I am not a horse rider myself, but this has been inspired by some of my clients!) Use different colours of pen for writing the title and content of each sub-theme, as it makes it easier to remember. The third page is for connected idioms. Continuing with the horse-riding theme, this could include: closing the stable door after the horse has bolted; getting up on your high horse; being saddled with; get the bit between your teeth. Beside each idiom the client should write the agreed meaning of each idiom. This will take you from the original theme to many other areas. The fourth page is for a quiz. You write one quiz question, for example What metal things do you put your feet into when you ride? The client adds the next question, which may be What is the name of my riding teacher? Building the quiz up together in this way helps the client to own their therapy. The quiz answers also call for a different kind of thinking. With the spidergram, we start from a central point and find many associated ideas (divergent thinking). With the quiz, we start from an associated idea and work towards the target word (convergent thinking).

Editors choice

Jonathan Rowson, Steve Broome and Alasdair Jones present a fascinating report on real world social network research. Here are just two of many examples from Connected Communities How social networks power and sustain the Big Society worth exploring for our practice. Firstly, they discuss the Six degrees of separation, three degrees of influence law of connectivity (p.25), and the relationship between bonding and bridging capital (p.27), which would add a potentially fruitful dimension to assessment and intervention. Secondly they point out (p.41) how merely participating in surveys has the effect of holding up a mirror and changing behaviour. RSA Project report, 74 pages, available at http://www.thersa.org/projects/connectedcommunities/reports/how-social-networkspower-and-sustain-the-big-society Its a shame that Social capital theory: A crosscutting analytic for teacher/therapist work in integrating childrens services is so jargony, because the thinking behind it is practical and useful. Joan Forbes and Elspeth McCartney are looking for a way to produce improved public services for the benefit of children and young people (p.331) through better integration. The article offers a different way to reflect on yourself and your service by considering the value and types of relationships and connections you have. If these are well balanced, it becomes more likely that professional problems are recognised as being shared and there is the potential to promote better collective action (p.331). Child Language Teaching & Therapy (2010), 26(3), pp.321-334 When we buy a fridge or a sofa, we are consumers exercising a choice (of sorts). We have played no part in the production process. In healthcare, the outcome is always coproduced by the client and the professional / service. In Co-Production and Health System Reform From Re-Imagining to Re-Making, Roger Dunston, Alison Lee, David Boud, Pat Brodie and Mary Chiarella argue that the level of success of the outcome is therefore inextricably linked to the strength of this co-production. Words like relationships, assets, capacity, capability and contribution are again much in evidence, and there is a thought-provoking section on the role of higher education. The Australian Journal of Public Administration (2009) 68(1), pp.39-52
SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE WINTER 2010

So many journals, so little time! Editor Avril Nicoll gives a brief flavour of articles that have got her thinking.

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