The Bright Ideas Outfit is thrilled to announce the launch of Throw & Blow, a fun first boardgame for the 3 – 5 year old market that is versatile (can be played by 1-4 people) and is unique in that it is a speech game – you blow your way through the game! It is being manufactured and sold by Smile Education for R120.00 and was developed by speech therapist Bronwen Campbell and myself to encourage children aged 3 – 5 to identify and use all the parts of the speech tract required for good speech – the tongue, lips, cheeks, jaw and right down to the diaphragm.

Try this exercise: put your hand just below your ribs, now say ‘p’ and ‘b’. Can you feel how these particular sounds require a pressure build up in the speech system right from your trunk? While sucking is a natural reflexive action that all children “know how to do” from birth, blowing is something that must be learnt, and is far more difficult for a child to do. Hence our game, Throw & Blow which requires players to blow their tokens around the board, picking up matching action cards and following the instructions.

Throw & Blow is great fun for everyone, not just children in speech therapy. Place orders with me or contact your nearest Smile consultant.

THROW & BLOW

Nikki Bush and speech therapist, Bronwen Campbell will launch their next unique mouth co-ordination game, Throw & Blow, through Smile Education in August 2007. Children aged 3 – 6 will be enthralled with this interactive game that will have them moving around the board and exercising the different parts of the mouth for good speech. The design of the packaging and the game contents is both enchanting and slightly funky at the same time. Kids will love it. Mums will buy it. Watch this space for details of the launch.

Ideally done at the dinner table, when the whole family is together. You get to hear about everyone’s day and how to label feelings.

Round one :

Each person gets a chance to share a ‘sour’ (we say it is “the worst thing that happened in your day”). Mention what it is and how it made you feel. Eg. “By mistake I left my takkies at home so I couldn’t play tennis. I was very cross with myself because I really wanted to play.”

Round two :

Each person gets to share a ‘sweet’ (we say it is “the best thing that happened in your day”). Mention what it is and how it made you feel. Eg. “Robyn came to play with me this afternoon and we had fun. It made me happy.”

During the process, no family member may interrupt another. It is a game about listening and sharing. My youngest son was 3 ½ when we started playing it. I thought he would be too young to participate but I was taken by surprise as he actually led the process from day one, and still does today.

In today’s rushed and hurried world, characterised by the use of more screens than ever before, parents should remember the importance of making eye contact with their children.

Face-to-face contact is diminishing daily as we:

• spend more time on our cellphones when we are with our children
• multi-task continuously e.g. working on our computers or sending and receiving sms’s while playing with our children
• or helping them with homework walk while we talk, so we are side-by-side, or our child is trailing behind us
• talk or shout through walls instead of walking to the room where our child is busy
• spend more time in our cars due to traffic congestion so we are often side- by-side, or our child is behind us in the back seat
• spend less time playing with our children
• allow our children to spend more time watching TV or playing some on-screen activity (computer game, Playstation etc)

Why is making eye contact important for your pre-schooler?

• It means you take him / her seriously enough to make time to focus on him which builds his self esteem
• Conveys a non-verbal message of “I want to be with you right now”, and “You are important to me.”
• By watching your mouth movements, children are better able to copy how you say and form words.
• By using both the visual and auditory senses a child can tell if you really mean what you say. Is what you are saying congruent with the expression on your face?
• We role model good listening by being good listeners ourselves. We do this by paying attention and not doing two things at once.
• When discipline issues arise, a child will take you much more seriously if you make eye contact while using a firm voice.
• It teaches respect with regard to relationships

Useful tips:

For maximum effect you should get down to your child’s level when making eye contact. When my eldest son was three years old one of my closest friends told me she was battling to connect with him. Ryan was very reserved at the time although he was a good communicator. I told her to try physically getting down to his level when communicating with him because I had noticed that she always spoke to him while in a standing position. She took my advice and it was all she needed to do to gain his respect, trust and interest. Today they have a very good relationship and my friend says it was one of the most useful parenting tips she has ever received. Give it a try!

And don’t forget: either leave your cellphone in the car or switch it to silent, when you are collecting your child from school, or when walking into the house from your day at work. It will make your moment of connection with your child focused and meaningful. Your child will know that you are really pleased to seem him / her. Keep on connecting with your child through the noise and clutter. It’s your choice!

NIKKI BUSH

Presenter of Connecting with Children through the Noise & Clutter

Speech therapist, Bronwen Campbell and I, have designed a unique oral sensory motor game called Drop the Spot, which will be available through Smile Education in South Africa from 3 September 2006. Bronwen is also the innovative therapist behind the Chat Pack concept which is used by speech therapists and parents. Here is some background information from Bronwen about the Chat Pack. For more information contact broncam@iafrica.com.

ABOUT THE CHAT PACK

Early in 2005, I got my hand on some wonderful speech equipment from America. My intention was to utilize these tools in therapy in an attempt to enhance my therapy techniques and to try new methods, which are not widely practiced in South Africa. This however, was not the case…the “Chat-Pack” came into fruition due to a number of children, their parents, and my colleagues encouraging me to provide the speech equipment for them, and to bring them into the country for wider use. What was a small exercise has become a challenging and incredibly exciting project! I am now able to provide home programmes that include speech devices for children. This certainly enhances their practicing and is thoroughly entertaining!

The Chat-Pack© consists of the some therapy tools in a handy carry bag, as well as a manual outlining the usage and aims of these tools. Parents are encouraged to really get involved in the therapeutic process and to add to the Chat-Pack© should they find extra whistles and straws. Through the use of tactile, visual and auditory feedback, the Chat-Pack© will provide cues for different oral postures and movement patterns. The Chat-Pack© will also help to lay down motor plans that are similar to speech sounds, increase tone, improve lip closure and tongue muscle tone and posture. Proprioceptive and tactile feedback is an important motor learning principle, which is part of articulation and phonological processing therapy. The Chat-Pack© is a fun way to establish motor learning and facilitate articulator placement.

Object of the Chat Pack:

To suck, swallow, breathe and blow as much as possible! Children will master the integration of these skills, which are necessary for speech development. How to use the Chat Pack: The beauty of the Chat-Pack is that it is easy to implement and is a fun way to exercise the oral cavity. The Chat-Pack can be played almost anytime and any place. The manual provides several examples of learning opportunities, during which the Chat-Pack can be played, with or without parental facilitation. The fun part of this game is simply in the blowing of the whistles. Children can even blow on these whistles, without even having to hold them in their mouths. Skills developed by the Chat Pack:

• Improve voluntary control of oral movements in non-speech processes.
• Improve motor planning of oral functions: sucking, swallowing, breathing.
• Improve voluntary control of oral movements for speech processes.
• Improve motor planning to establish a phoneme repertoire for language.
• Improve synchrony of airflow and vocalization patterns for speech.
• Improve ribcage mobility and stability for effective breath control.
• Improve laryngeal control.
• Improve speech sound awareness.
• Improve postural aspects affecting speech production.
• Retrain tongue position and habitual movement for incorrect sounds.
• Eliminate or reduce the open mouth posture.
• Improve muscle strength, tone, co-ordination and synchrony of oral movements.