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Speech and Language

Springwell School Speech Therapy Assistant

Hello,

Just a quick message to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about what I do in school.

My name is Cheryl DeCosemo. After working in Springwell School for 8 years as a Teaching Assistant, the opportunity for me to train as a Speech Therapy Assistant became available, and I haven't looked back since. That was 6 years ago now.

My role in school is to liaise with parents and carers, teachers, teaching assistants, NHS speech therapists and any other professionals who may be involved with the child.

I currently have many children on my case load. I see children on a 1-1 basis, group therapy and whole class sessions.

These sessions are structured around the assessments which the child's NHS therapist has carried out.

I try to make each session fun and engaging, no matter what my objectives are. This way the children are eager to join in and learn new strategies to help them with their communication and understanding, without realising.

At the moment my sessions include:

* two focused communication groups

* one peer communication group, which two classes participate in

* two sensory groups

* 1-1 therapy

* three ASD communication groups

* communication aid support around school

* Makaton signing support around school

* Lego therapy

* The Listening Programm

* staff training in Makaton, Eye Gaze, Communicate in Print

* make resources for school, as well as for in the home

and more to be added in September.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on the school number 01429 280600

I will always try my best to help.

One afternoon every week I get to spend the afternoon with the amazing pupils and staff in Caimen Class.

I plan a variety of different exciting activities for the children to take part in which enables them to build their skills in areas such as answering questions/asking questions, problem solving, taking turns, attending to an activity which was chosen by a peer, requesting objects, following instructions and much much more.

21/3/19: Caiman Class and Elephant Class working together.

14/3/19: Caiman Class

7/3/19: Caiman class

14/2/19 - Developing Communication skills with Caiman Class

7/2/19: Developing communication skills with Caiman Class

17/1/19: Caiman Class - Developing individual communication skills through the use of board games.

1-1 session. Monday 24th June 2019.

Today Logan sorted through many symbols so that he could communicate which object he wanted to explore.

He really enjoyed the rice bottle today. Well done Logan.

1-1 session. Monday 24th June 2019.

Jack using the photographs to request and exchange for the ball that he loves.

Great work Jack.

1-1 session. Friday 21st June 2019.

Aleisha did an amazing job today. She is sorting through her communication book so that she can find the symbol for the objects she wants.

she then sat back and enjoyed popping the bubbles. Well done Aleisha.

1-1 session. Tuesday 19th June 2019.

After another brilliant session, this pupil enjoyed her most favourite things in my room... bubbles and the Feelings book. She does love looking at her reflection in the mirror in the back of the Feelings book.

1-1 session. 19th June 2019

Before we started our work on feelings, I asked Evie- Eliana how she was feeling today.
Here is her reply...

1-1 session. Tuesday 21st May 2019.

1-1 session. April 1st 2019.

Maisie was busy showing me how she can follow instructions and understand some adjectives.

Here she is jumping and sitting.

1-1 session. Tuesday 19th March 2019.

1-1 session. Wednesday March 13th 2019.

One of our pupils using the 'feely box' to explore hidden items and use some brilliant adjectives to describe the it to help me guess what it is.

Although some really good adjectives were used, I was still unable to guess what the item was.

The second picture shows how happy my student was to beat me at this game!

Excellent work ****

1-1 session. Tuesday 05th March 2019.

This little girl began her 8 week loan of a new communication aid only 1 week ago. We had a session today to see how she is managing with using it.

I was so pleased to see how she was able to navigate her way through the pages to be able to answer the questions I was asking. Questions like "What did you have for tea last night?", "What lesson did you have this morning?", "What did you do at home last night?".

This 'talk pad' is never out of reach in school, and this is because it is her voice. Her way to communicate with whoever she wants.

1-1 session. Tuesday 05th March 2019.

This little girl amazed me today during our 1-1 session.

Every piece of work I asked her to complete, she completed with no problems. I gave her a bigger inset puzzle to attempt...She completed this while singing Old McDonald, then naming all of the animals and telling me what noise each of them make.

WHAT A LITTLE STAR ****

1-1 session. Monday 11th February 2019.

Maisie has been learning some Makaton signs, so that she can ask people for things that she needs and wants.

You can see here that Maisie is learning how to sign 'more' in Makaton.

She is doing really well and is always very eager to use her Makaton sign to ask for 'more' jelly babies.

1-1 Therapy. Logan is working really hard in his session today. He listened really well throughout, he stayed focused and interested in the activity I chose... and he really enjoyed his reward. He loves popping the bubbles.

1-1 Therapy. Friday 2nd February 2019.

Alisha worked really hard this morning. She exchanged independently and consistently for a pencil, using symbols rather than photographs. She then was pointing to the symbol again while she had the pencil. I gave her the symbol and she began to mark make.

Alisha then spotted the symbol for the bubbles, and no matter how many times I rearranged the symbols, she managed to locate the bubbles symbol.

Well done Alisha.

1-1 Therapy. Friday 2nd February 2019.

More verbs and adjectives have had to be added to Tyler's Colourful Semantic pack as he is making so much progress so quickly.

Keep up the good work Tyler.

1-1 Therapy. Tuesday 8th January 2019.

Maisie finds it very easy to sit and complete these two inset puzzles now. She can even complete them when I try to trick her and jumble all of the pieces up and put the boards upside down.

Then we get the bubbles out and Maisie and I work together to practise her Makaton signing for 'More'.

Maisie always tries her hardest at her signing as she LOVES bubbles.

Makaton sign of the week.

Each week the whole school are taught a different Makaton sign. We all try to use that sign as often as we can that week to help us to try and remember it.

Each sign is taken from the 'We Talk Makaton' website which is updated every Monday morning.

You can find all of these signs, and many more by visiting https://wetalkmakaton.org

The sign of the week Monday 23rd September. This weeks sign is 'thank you'.

The sign of the week. Monday 16th September. This weeks sign is 'please'.

The sign of the week. Monday 9th September 2019. This weeks sign is 'where'.

The sign of the week. Monday 2nd September is 'uniform'.

The sign of the week. Monday 24th June 2019. The sigh of the week is 'late'.

Monday 24th June. This weeks sign is' Late'.

Connor has kindly helped me today to show everyone how we sign 'late'.
Thank you for your help Connor.

The sign of the week. Monday 17th June. This weeks sign is 'now'.

The sign of the week. Monday 10th June. This weeks sign is 'cake'.

The sign of the week. Monday 3rd June. This weeks sign is 'Queen'.

The sign of the week. Monday 27th May. This weeks sign is 'June'.

The sign of the week. Monday 20th May. This weeks sign is 'hospital'.

The sign of the week. Monday 13th May. This weeks sign is 'mood'.

The sign of the week. Monday 6th May. This weeks sign is fire exit.

The sign of the week. Monday 29th April 2019. This weeks sign is May.

The sign of the week. Monday 1st April 2019. This weeks sign is April.

The sign of the week. Monday 25th March 2019. This weeks sign is 'purple'.

The sign of the week, Monday 18th March 2019. This weeks sign is 'sock'

The sign of the week. Monday 11th March 2019. The sign is 'green'.

Thank you Anaconda Class (some of Anaconda Class) for showing us how to sign 'green'.

The sign of the week. Monday 04th March 2019. Pancake.

Here are 3 children from Panda Class showing us how they sign pancake.

Here are two pupils from Tiger Class enjoying the pancakes they have made.

The sign of the week. Monday 25th February 2019. Today's sign is March.

The sign of the week for the week beginning 11th February 2019 is Love. Perfect timing for Valentines Day on Thursday.

Here are two children from Dragon Class showing us how to sign 'love'

The sign of the week. 4th February 2019. Today's sign is Pig as it is Chinese New Year and it is the Year of the Pig.

Thank you Tiger Class for helping me to sign 'pig' this morning. You were all brilliant.

The sign of the week. 7th January 2019. This weeks sign is 'January'.

The sign of the week. 14TH January 2019. This weeks sign is 'cold'.

Elephant Class showing us how they sign 'cold'.

Cold

Here are Shark Class (The ARP) showing us how to sign 'cold' just before they set off to complete their 'Mile A Day' in the snow.

The sign of the week. 21ST January 2019. This weeks sign is Jumper.

The sign of the week. 28TH January 2019. This weeks sign is February.

Monday September 3rd 2018

Good Afternoon everyone.

Just a short message to say I hope all of you had a lovely Summer Holiday and are feeling ready for our Autumn. Term.

As always, I am in school full time. Working with our pupils on a 1-1 basis, in small groups, in large groups and with full classes.

I liaise with the NHS Speech and Language team on a regular basis, with other professionals, as well as the second most important people, you the parent and carers of pupils....the most important people being your children of course.

If at any time you would like to have a chat with me regarding what intervention I am currently working on with your child, if you'd like to sit in on a session so that you could maybe take some ideas home and carry on the practise, If I could offer you some support with Makaton signs or make up some visual time tables for in the home. I am always here and happy to help.