Jj is for Jottings 142.  Critical Thinking. I was thinking the other day about how the world would be much better if more people applied critical thinking skills in their daily lives.  Also about how we can introduce critical thinking to children.  Funnily enough, the very next morning I read an article in the newspaper […]

Jj is for Jottings 137.  Auditory Processing Disorders. Following on from auditory skills and developing auditory processing skills, we now turn our attention to auditory processing disorders.  There are so many conflicting ideas in the literature as to exactly what constitutes auditory skills. One could really become bogged down by this and therefore any resulting […]

Jj is for Jottings 143.  Mouth Breathing. Mouth breathing – breathing through the mouth instead of through the nose – seems like a harmless enough sort of habit.  But its effects turn out to be quite far-reaching.  I referred to mouth breathing as a potential side effect of tongue tie, but that is only a […]

 KIDS’ BOOK REVIEW, Susan Whelan 0n 21/4/14.  Kids’ Book Review is a book-loving site with a focus on children’s books from babies to young adults.  KIDS-BOOKREVIEW.COM Review: Aa is for Alpacas Aa is for Alpacas and, in this informative and enjoyable alphabet book, B, C, D, E and all the other letters are linked to […]

Jj is for Jottings 87.  Fluctuating Hearing Loss. Fluctuating hearing loss in young children often results in speech and language delays.  (For an explanation of the differences between ‘speech’ and ‘language’ see here.)  Figures quoted by the Audiometry Nurses Association of Australia Inc suggest that 90% of childhood hearing loss is of the fluctuating kind.  […]

A perfect day in the front paddock. Note the crimson rosellas in the tree. Jj is for Jottings 2.  More Repetition. In “the olden days” much time in school was spent rote-learning all sorts of facts and figures – a room full of children standing up chanting the facts over and over. “That’s no way […]

Jj is for Jottings 160.  Creativity in Children, Part 2. Following on from Part 1, we will now go into more activities in greater detail in Creativity in Children, Part 2.  In order for creativity to flourish, it is important for us to slow down and create the time and headspace to allow room for […]

We – alpacas and Kieran and Sue Thank you for all that you do To read, Like and share And show that you care; Season’s Greetings we send to you, too. Christmas 2023. The alpacas and Kieran and Sue Send our Christmas greetings to you. We hope the New Year Will bring much greater cheer, […]

Jj is for Jottings 76.  Voice Disorders and Vocal Nodules. Manuel is trying to open his mouth as widely as he can so we can see if he has vocal nodules. In my last post I said I’d talk more about voice disorders and how they develop in children.  Vocal nodules, also referred to as […]

My name is Sue Carolane.  Born in Victoria, Australia, I’ve had over 35 years experience as a speech pathologist working in education. Troubled by the increasing number of children struggling to learn to read, write and spell, I decided to do something about it at its core – teaching each letter of the alphabet and […]

Jj is for Jottings 153.  Speech Sound Problems: /k,g/ We have previously learned about /s/ as a speech sound problem.  Let us now focus on speech sound problems: /k,g/.  As always, if your child makes speech errors, you need to know whether the error is actually appropriate for age.  (In which case, is it actually […]

Jj is for Jottings 159.  Creativity in Children, Part 1. Walk into any preschool/kindergarten and you see that they provide many opportunities for creativity in children.  Why is that?  Because arts and crafts are one of the most important ways to help children develop and grow between ages 3-8.  Here is a chart of communication […]

Jj is for Jottings 135.  Morphemes. There was a brief definition of morphemes in the article on learning vocabulary.  Direct vocabulary instruction referred to using morphological knowledge to work out meanings of more complex words.  So it’s probably time to go more thoroughly into morphemes and how important they really are.  Knowledge of morphemes is […]

Jj is for Jottings 158.  Smartphones in Schools. A few days ago (July 2023) in Australia, smartphones in schools were banned.  Some states had already banned or restricted their use, but the ban is now nationwide.  The ban also includes smartwatches.  There are quite a few reasons to ban smartphones in schools given below, but […]