Throughout March we've been promoting Orchard Toys as our supplier of the month! We love their colourful characters and think their games are fantastic for stimulating language, learning and communication. 

Don't forget you can spend £10 and receive 10% off all Orchard Toys games! (*discount automatically applied at checkout; offer expires midnight 31st March 2023)

We've asked a couple of our specialty team to review their favourites for you! Here's what they say - 

Eva Galova, Special Educational Needs Teacher

"Early readers love Orchard’s ‘Match & Spell’ game. First CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words on reversable word cards, with and without a visual help. It is a great learning tools to be used by parents at home or teachers in early years settings. My children were always very happy and keen to work when I took it out.

I also used it for my autistic pupils as part of their independent work tasks. We added some Velcro on the letter tiles and the word cards and the children practised their spelling independently after the initial modelling. Small letter tiles are perfect for little hands and in-hand manipulation. You can also use the letter tiles on their own, searching for the matching letter to its sound when practising letter recognition.

To make it more fun and involve all senses in multisensory learning, the letter tiles can be hidden in a rice or sand tray or spread around the room for a searching game. You can play a swap game, exchanging just one or two letters to create a new word. You can differentiate by giving children only the letters they need for each word or as they progress in their phonics knowledge, give them a larger letter selection.

Children learn to recognise letter shapes and match them correctly to a word on the word card. They learn the meaning of the word from a picture printed on the card. Once they match the letter tiles to the letters on the word side of a card few times, they will start to memorise the spelling and can progress to spelling the word on their own on the other side of the card. This side can also be used to teach children spelling from the sound talk and then blending the sounds together. They have a picture of an object to help them. Have fun learning phonics and spelling!"

Natalie Fletcher, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

   

  

Children are so proud of being able to put these puzzles together and the lively pictures spark conversation and gestures as the characters are mid-action - just about to post a letter or cement some bricks. Farm Four is also brilliant for children who progress to the next stage or for mixed ability groups and happy sibling play! Thank you Orchard Toys."

Our Orchard Toys stock is moving fast this month so please let us know if you can't find what you're looking for. You may want to borrow from our Toy Library whilst you wait!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is a day to contemplate love - those we love, those who love us and those we want to love more...

10 years ago I wrote this:

"The expression of needs, wants and preferences is vital; the look of understanding is priceless; the ability to share something with someone is the foundation of all relationships.

This is the essence of communication and yet for many it is a confusing and closed door."

Pictologue opened its door for the first time in Autumn 2013. As we look forward to celebrating ten wonderful years, we feel deeply privileged to have been able to share in the journey to better communication for hundreds of local families - each and every one is special to us. 

We provide free and subsidised therapy services for families in need and this past couple of years we've seen applications for financial help double... and triple...

So we need to ask you if you can help us... help Pictologue to survive... and thrive... so that we can keep going with our life-changing therapies supporting those in greatest need.

It is thought that 14% of children (that's 1 in 7) are struggling emotionally, with a recent surge in mental health needs; periods of lockdown have greatly impacted on the developmental needs of all children, especially those who have learning and communication needs.

This Valentine's Day we invite you to join your heart with ours to give a parent the chance to help their child connect and communicate and to give a child the chance to be understood... to say 'I love you'... 

Thank you for your support.

Bethan de Mel

Founder

Looking at books is such a fantastic way to help children with their speech and language development for lots of reasons, here are just a few:

• It is the perfect way to introduce lots of new words and vocabulary, especially words for things your child wouldn’t necessarily see or hear in day-to-day life (especially during lockdown when it is tricky to introduce them to lots of new experiences!).
• Children learn best when they are interested, and books with exciting pictures will usually draw them in, or you can find books which suit their interests.
• Books help children to match the news words they hear to the pictures they see - this can help children to learn the meaning of lots of new words. For example, the meaning of words such as ‘tall’, ‘grumpy’, ‘behind’ or ‘whisper’ can be clearly demonstrated in books in a fun, engaging way.  
• Books can be a brilliant way of introducing or talking about different topics, for example emotions, starting at nursery/school, friendships or cultural diversity, as well as helping to stimulate imagination and play.
• If your little one is not too keen on reading books at first, try looking through books with real photos, or with flaps they can lift. You don’t have to read the full sentences at first, you could point to the pictures, or make sound effects (like animal noises for a book about animals for example).

There are so many brilliant children’s books out there, with a range to suit every child’s interest, but here are just a few of my current favourites:

Books with real photos:

These can be really eye catching for young children, and gives you an opportunity to look through and label lots of different things for your child. It can be tempting to ask your child ‘what’s this, what’s that’, but they will likely learn a lot and enjoy you pointing and telling them what the pictures are, and especially labelling pictures they are pointing to.   

Lift the flap books

There are so many brilliant lift the flap books, some of my favourites include Dear Zoo, Where does Pig Live and Where’s Spot. These books are great because there is lots of great vocabulary, they are engaging, and children who are not yet using words can participate by opening the flaps while you name the animal. They are repetitive too, as the child becomes more familiar you can try leaving a word off the end of the sentence to see if your child wants to fill in the word.

Books based on songs

This can be another appealing way to encourage little ones to enjoy books, especially if they already enjoy a particular song.

Books for busy children

Any of the Eric Carle books are great but the book ‘From Head to Toe’, or any other books which encourage children to copy the actions in the book can be useful for engaging children who prefer to move around lots. Brown Bear is another lovely lift the flap book.

Finally, for slightly older children the ‘You Choose’ book (or any in that range) by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt is a wonderful, interactive book. It is helpful for a range of speech and language skills including promoting vocabulary, conversation, questions and decision making.  Another very appealing book which I love for supporting interesting chat is called ‘Welcome to our World’, all about the different traditions, languages and ways people live around the world.

If you have any favourite books you would recommend let us know, we love to try new books!