Little House Childcare

Our total communication approach includes the use of :

PECS - Is another strategy we will be happy to use if directed to do so by Speech and Language Therapists.
Children with communication difficulties or autism often benefit from having all information presented to them visually.   In order to empower our children and ensure the choices they make are their own, we intend to work cooperatively with our parents in seeking advice and support from the child’s Speech and Language Therapist, referred to as SALT.  If the therapist recommends using PECS, Picture Exchange Communication System, we can assure our parents and care givers that we are skilled and experienced in using this system to compliment the system used in their home.  We believe that communication is key to a child’s development and confident that by using PECS we can facilitate their success.  
The PECS book should not be confused with the visual timetable and schedules as those are used only to inform and offer the children no choices.  A PECS book is a child’s communication tool and therefore should be about their person or in close proximity at all times. 
For further information please look at the link provided and always discuss all your options with your child’s Speech Therapist.
http://www.pecs.com/webcasts/ClearPictureHandout.pdf

 

 

We will also be happy to support the children's acquisition of language by using Intensive Interaction strategies as one of our daily, child specific strategies. This therapy is a time of fun and gives an element of control to the childen so if this intervention is in line with parents wishes and if we have been advised to implement Intensive Interaction by the Child's Speech and Language Therapist we are skilled, certified and happy to have an excuse for rolling around on the floor with our little ones- please see the web site for further information below are excerpts from the same site. 
http://www.intensiveinteraction.co.uk

Who is Intensive Interaction for?

Intensive Interaction is designed to meet the learning needs of people who are still at early stages of communication development. At one extreme, this may be a person who is very 'difficult to reach', living a socially isolated life, perhaps having a range of self-stimulatory behaviours and not showing motivation to be with other people. Equally, the approach is for people who may be highly social in many ways and have many successful interaction activities with other people. Yet such a person may still need to develop further knowledge and ability in areas like: use and understanding of eye contacts and facial expressions, taking turns in exchanges of behaviour, developing and furthering vocalisations toward the threshold of speech. Indeed, some of the people for whom the approach would have meaning may be people who have some speech and language ability, but would still benefit from further learning and development in the area of the 'fundamentals of communication'.
Frequently heard terms for the people with whom we are concerned would include: people who have severe and complex learning difficulties, people who have very severe learning difficulties, people who have profound and multiple learning difficulties, people who have multi-sensory impairments, people who have a diagnosis of autism
The fundamentals of communication?
The fundamentals of communication can be characterised as things like:
Learning to give brief attention to another person.
To share attention with another person.
Learning to extend those attentions, learning to concentrate on another person.
Developing shared attention into 'activities'.
Taking turns in exchanges of behaviour.
To have fun, to play. Using and understanding eye contacts.
Using and understanding of facial expressions.
Using and understanding of non-verbal communication such as gesture and body language.
Learning use and understanding of physical contacts.
Learning use and understanding of vocalisations, having your vocalisations become more varied and extensive, then gradually more precise and meaningful.

How does Intensive Interaction work – what do you do?
First and foremost, Intensive Interaction is highly practical. The only equipment needed is a sensitive person to be the interaction partner. The approach works by progressively developing enjoyable and relaxed interaction sequences between the interaction partner and the person doing the learning. These interaction sequences are repeated frequently and gradually grow in duration, complexity and sophistication. As this happens, the fundamentals of communication are gradually rehearsed and learnt in a free-flowing manner. The style of the teacher person is relaxed, non-directive and responsive. In fact, a central principle is that the teacher person builds the content and the flow of the activity by allowing the learner basically to lead and direct, with the teacher responding to and joining-in with the behaviour of the learner. This simple principle is the one used by adults in interaction with babies during the first year. The first year is the period of development when a baby carries out intense and very rapid learning of the fundamentals of communication. Much of the development of Intensive interaction was based on reading of the scientific research on the way in which human beings learn to communicate during the first year.
The teaching sessions are therefore frequent, quite intense, but also fun-filled, playful and enjoyable. Both participants should be at ease with enjoyment of the activity as the main motivation. A session could be highly dynamic, with a great deal of vocalisation, sometimes with fun-filled physical contacts. A session could also be peaceful, slow and quiet.