Banter Speech & Language

Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

functional communication

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.

Parents of children aged 6 – 12 years: 11 practical ideas to increase your child’s participation and communication skills

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In this, our fourth infographic on functional communication, our speech pathologist Emma Robinson, outlines 11 practical ideas parents of children aged 6-12 years can use to increase their child’s participation and communication skills.

  1. Learning new things (but not to be helpless): Increase opportunities for learning to occur through independent or supported completion of self-care tasks (e.g. getting dressed, brushing teeth), chores (e.g. making beds, laying the table, cleaning rooms), routines (e.g. for homework and bedtimes), and activities in real life situations.
  2. More unstructured play. Encourage children to play with siblings, cousins, neighbours’ children, including older and younger children, and extended family members. You can read more about play: here.
  3. More inclusion: Increase opportunities for your child to befriend and interact with peers by attending the local school, and taking part in after-school, and vacation programs.
  4. More participation: Involve your child in age-appropriate family, cultural and religious practices, and expect your child to fulfil obligations that are part of such practices.
  5. More teamwork: Encourage your child to join local sports teams (e.g. soccer, basketball, netball) and interest groups (e.g. drama, bushwalking, art, chess, music, Scouts, technology, computer-game, or youth groups).
  6. More choice-making: Encourage children to make their own choices (e.g. between chores, about topics for speeches, characters for Book Week, extracurricular activities, and to make difficult ethical decisions and trade-offs).
  7. More initiative:  Encourage your child to take action to achieve their wants and goals (e.g. by making enquiries at local shops, researching gifts for others, self-study, extra training for sports).
  8. More accountability: Support children to understand the consequences of their decisions and actions, setting clear boundaries, with proportionate and consistent consequences for breaking rules and letting others down.
  9. Adjust when necessary: Some services/activities may need to be adjusted so that tasks are in line with your child’s skills. Keep materials age-appropriate. Remember, finding a way for your child to finish the task is more important than whether it is done ‘normally’ or with 100% accuracy.
  10. Expect more for others: Give your child lots of opportunities to help others at home and in the local community (e.g. in community gardens, charity drives and works). Set high expectations!
  11. Strengthen social and relationship skills: If needed, access intervention, e.g. speech pathology and occupational therapy, to help your child to understand others’ perspectives, to communicate their wants and needs, understand personal boundaries, and to reflect on emotions and interactions.

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 children aged 0-5 years: 10 practical ideas to increase your child’s participation and communication skills

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In this, our third infographic on functional communication, our speech pathologist Vivien Wong, outlines 10 practical ideas parents of children aged 0-5 years can use to increase their child’s participation and communication skills.

  1. Increase the number of people the child spends time with, including grandparents and other members of the extended family, friends, babysitters, carers and others.
  2. Connect with families of other children with similar communication challenges.
  3. Encourage children to make their own choices and requests about what they want.
  4. Increase opportunities for your child to play, including with other children, e.g. in playgroups, childcare, and preschool. (See here for why this helps.)
  5. Explore your community with your child, e.g. by going to local shops, parks, libraries, fetes, fairs, and festivals.
  6. Give your child opportunities to help you and others – set high expectations.  
  7. Involve your child in age-appropriate family, community, cultural and religious practices.
  8. Look after yourself! Learn self-advocacy and self-care skills, and seek professional/community help for any family issues.
  9. If needed, access early intervention, e.g. speech pathology and occupational therapy.
  10. Incorporate language stimulation techniques into everyday tasks, routines, and activities, while co-exploring the world. (You can read more about some of these here.)

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. 

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.

Not about ‘fixing’: using the ‘F-Word Framework’ to support children with communication disorders and their families

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The ‘medical model’ of communication disorders focuses on ‘fixing’ children through assessment, diagnosis, and ‘treatment’. But children with communication disorders aren’t ‘sick’ or ‘broken’. 

A modern approach to health is the World Health Organization’s 2001 International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which shows that health is determined by complex interactions between body functions and structures, activities and participation, and environmental and personal factors.

But the ICF can be hard to apply in practice. An adaptation is to consider six ‘F‐words’:

  • Function: Thinking hard about what children do; their activities and participation; capacity and performance. Focusing on achievement of the activity – not whether it is done ‘normally’. Encouraging practice of the function without regard to how ‘nicely’ it is achieved.
  • Family: The essential environment for most children. Knowing parents and siblings bring talents and strengths and are dealing with their own physical and mental challenges and concerns. Involving the wider family, e.g. grandparents. Helping families to feel competent. Providing respect and continuity of care; enabling informed decision-making and partnership. 
  • Fitness: Promoting children’s physical fitness and recreation, whether in ‘therapy’ or not. 
  • Fun: Asking children what they enjoy doing, what do they want to do, and how they can be more involved in meaningful life situations. Thinking about formal (structured) and informal (free‐range) activities; done alone, or with others. Helping children to do the things they want to, and not worrying about what’s ‘normal’. Using purposeful activities to build children’s confidence, competence, sense of achievement, and capacity. 
  • Friends: Encouraging social development and inclusion. Focusing on quality relationships (not the quantity of acquaintances). Supporting peer connections and involvement in meaningful group activities. 
  • Future: What child ‘development’ is all about! Thinking positively, right from the start; and encouraging families to do so as well. Not deciding what is impossible. 

The F-words are connected: e.g. increasing a child’s (self‐identified, meaningful) participation might affect the scope and intensity of activities, and lead to changes in body functions and communication skills. Participating in a desired sport program, for example, might increase physical/social capacities and performance, including in the social use of language.

The F-Word framework is an appealing way for speech pathologists to think beyond ‘fixing’ kids, and to incorporate ICF concepts into their practices and relationships with clients and their families.

Key sources:

(1) Rosenbaum, P.  and Gorter, J.W. (2011). The ‘F‐words’ in childhood disability: I swear this is how we should think! Child: Care, Health and Development, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2011.01338.x 

(2) Cunningham, B.J., Thomas-Stonell, N., and Rosenbaum, P. (2020). Assessing communicative participation in preschool children with the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six: a scoping review, Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, DOI: 10.1111/dmcn.14665

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.

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