Banter Speech & Language

Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

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Selective Mutism: key things to know

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  • Selective mutism is a persistent failure to speak in specific social situations (e.g. at school), despite speaking fluently in familiar situations.
  • Children with selective mutism can appear socially withdrawn, oppositional, perfectionistic, or have an increased degree of emotional or sensory sensitivity.
  • Early intervention leads to better outcomes and reduces negative effects on social development, educational progress, and emotional health.
  • Psychologists and speech pathologists both play important roles in treating children with selective mutism.
  • Treatment usually involves a combination of behavioural, speech, and family therapies, teaching the child that they can have more control over their environment by using their words.
  • Community desensitisation is a program that exposes a child to communication situations with controlled, gradual increases in verbal expectations.
  • The goal of therapy is to reduce anxiety and increase confidence in speaking.
  • Therapy involves creative and fun activities (e.g. drawing, colouring, turn-based games), with natural consequences.
  • The desensitisation hierarchy involves four stages: nonverbal, ghost/whisper, motor/voice, and generalisation.
  • It’s important there is a carryover in expectations at each stage in therapy to other contexts, such as at school and at home. Parents and teachers should be actively involved at all stages.
  • Speech pathologists often include oral language, speech or social goals into their activities to address secondary language or speech issues contributing to selective mutism.
  • For more on selective mutism treatments, read our article: When silence is not golden: evidence-based treatment for children with selective mutism.

Principal sources: Richard, G. J. Selective Mutism: Assessment and Intervention Strategies. Retrieved from here; Sharkey, L. & McNicholas, F. (2008). ‘More than 100 years of silence’, elective mutism. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 17(5), 255-263.

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Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

Help your child to make inferences when reading

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Inferencing – the ability to join the dots or to read between the lines – is a key life skill.

In this week’s infographic, our speech pathologist, Emma Robinson, outlines what we can do to help students of all ages to learn how to do it.

1. Inferencing is the ability to combine: (a) what we already know (our world knowledge); and (b) what a text says, to generate meaning about the text.

2. Generating inferences is a key part of understanding what we read. Inferencing is needed to analyse and solve problems, and to think critically: key life skills.

3. As students progress at school, the ability to generate inferences becomes more important.

4. We can help students to make their own inferences by:

  • modelling how we do it out loud;
  • teaching them common text structures;
  • practicing answering and generating questions about what we read;
  • activating prior knowledge of information related to what we read; and
  • explicitly teaching evidence-based strategies e.g. the ‘ACT and Check Strategy’ and the ‘Why technique’.

5. The ACT and Check Strategy involves a few steps:

  • Asking a question about the sentence/text.
  • Considering the text.
  • Thinking about what you know and making educated guesses.
  • CHECKing the accuracy of your educated guesses as you read more of the text.

6. The ‘Why technique’ (also known as ‘elaborative interrogation’) involves asking yourself ‘why?’ questions several times as you read a text and forcing yourself to answer them.

7. For lots more detail on helping students to improve their inferencing skills, check out our article.

Sources:

(1) Murza, K. (Presenter), (n.d.). Supporting Students’ Inference Generation Reading [Webinar]. Medbridge: https://bit.ly/3qacsyr.

(2) Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J., & Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1) 4-58.

(3) Freed, J. & Cain, K. (2017). Assessing school-aged children’s inference-making: the effect of story test format in listening comprehension. International Journal of Communication Disorders, 52(1), 95-105. 

Related articles:

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

The Story Wizards’ Master Story Builder

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Humans are wired to tell stories. But some children struggle to understand or narrate stories, including many children with developmental language and other learning disorders, and some children who are learning English as a second language.

This resource is designed to support children to learn the fundamentals of story-telling, with evidence-based scaffolds, scripted modelling, and idea prompts to make up an unlimited number of stories.

To help children understand and tell stories we start with an evidence-based recipe to teach students the “macrostructure” of good stories: Our Story Builder.

We explicitly model story telling before jumping into it. Many children with language and learning delays struggle with some of the jargon academics use when discussing stories – orientation, complication, etc. We’ve tried to translate the jargon into simple language to help children understand.

Fundamentally, this resource is all about learning by doing.  Many children (and adults) fear the blank page. So we have included lots of story building elements and suggestions to get (and keep) going. Suitable for one-to-one, small group and whole class work, this resource is a versatile tool for every teacher and therapist’s toolbox.

DOWNLOAD THE STORY WIZARDS’ MASTER STORY BUILDER

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

Parents of teenagers aged 16-18 years: 11 ideas to increase participation and communication skills

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This week, our speech pathologist, Juliana Li, gives us 11 ideas to increase the participation and communication skills of teenagers aged 16-18 years.

  1. More independence, choice, voice, and control. Health, relationships, recreation, economics, employment, volunteering, goal-setting.
  2. Future map. Discuss pathways to increased independence, e.g. education, jobs and career, adult relationships, moving out. 
  3. Maintain high expectations. Encourage leadership and increased accountability to others, e.g. within the family, in community services, creative collaborations, social groups.
  4. Promote healthy relationships. Continue educating about intimate relationships. Be there to help when needed, recognising teens will also look to peers and social networks for practical and emotional support.
  5. Up-skill. Encourage more education, training, work, and/or participation in activities (e.g. apprenticeships, internships, sports clubs).
  6. Connect. Investigate fields your teen is curious about and respects. Link up with potential employers and interest groups; encourage mentoring relationships.
  7. Support physical and mental health. Keep educating so teens can make informed decisions about their own health and wellbeing. Connect with community groups and health resources (including online).
  8. Learn through experience. e.g. how to drive, work part time, participate in coding challenges, join a band, camp with friends, cook for others, volunteer, shop, and complete chores.
  9. Seek professional support (if needed). Access services to support your teen’s participation in life and to help them overcome barriers.
  10. Self-advocacy. Continue to instil values, e.g. about justice, human dignity, autonomy, reciprocity, and kindness. Build your teen’s capacity to advocate for themselves and others.
  11. Look after yourself. Prepare for your teen’s adulthood and independence. Continue to invest in your own projects, skills, interests and health. Engage in your own community activities, too!

Key Source: National Disability Insurance Scheme (2014). Report of the Independent Advisory Council to the National Disability Insurance Scheme: Reasonable and Necessary Support across the Lifespan: An Ordinary Life for People with Disability. Examples our own.

Related infographics:

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

Parents of teenagers aged 13 – 15 years: 10 ideas to increase participation and communication skills

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  1. Independence: Support your teenager to participate in activities without direct parents/carers supervision (e.g. public transport, movies, bowling, Laser Tag, video arcade, park days).
  2. Decision-making: Encourage teenagers to make hard decisions and trade-offs (e.g. about school subjects, assignments topics, extra-curricular activities and social groups).
  3. High expectations, more responsibility: ‘Raise the bar’ in what you expect (using support where needed), e.g. with home chores, self-study, sports, classroom tasks, community services to others.
  4. Adjust family relationships: Respect your teenager’s natural desire for more independence, encourage friendships with siblings and extended family members, address concerns that may hinder positive family relationships
  5. Re-frame support: Recast ‘babysitter’ supports to age-appropriate, informal oversight, opinion sharing and mentoring.
  6. Encourage friendships: e.g. peers they enjoy spending unstructured time with, and interest-based groups (e.g. games, sports, movies, music).
  7. Social/recreational activities: Keep teenagers busy with local sports (soccer, football, netball), before- and after-school programs, and community groups (e.g. computer and technology clubs, gaming clubs, dance troupes).
  8. Professional support: If required, access services and programs to target specific goals that are functional and important to your teenager (e.g. with talking to new people, sending messages/texts to friends, posting on forums, social media, and independent shopping).
  9. Stay positive: Understand your teenager’s strengths, abilities and needs; encourage your teenager to use and extend their skills, and to persevere through challenges, and connect with networks/families who share similar needs.
  10. Self-care: The teenage years can be challenging! Don’t be shy in seeking practical, emotional, counselling, and care support when required. Make time to have your own life!

Key source: National Disability Insurance Scheme (2014). Report of the Independent Advisory Council to the National Disability Insurance Scheme: Reasonable and Necessary Support across the Lifespan: An Ordinary Life for People with Disability. Examples our own.

Related infographics:

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

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