Online training login 
Attending one of our standard training courses will:
- Provide you with a range of practical tools and models that will help you evaluate a person’s ability and their level of support required
- Give you a holistic framework to support people with communication disability
- Build your confidence in using Talking Mats
- Encourage your creativity in using and applying Talking Mats in different situations such as goal setting, sharing views, supporting disclosure, enabling decision making…..the list is endless!
You can either
- Book places on our regular courses held in different venues across the UK
- Book a bespoke training for your organisation
- Participate in our 12 week online training course
However, you cannot train others unless you have completed and passed one of our residential ‘train the trainers’ courses. We put significant emphasis on our accredited training because without it, the quality and integrity of the Talking Mats framework is diluted and damaged.Talking Mats is based on extensive research and although it may appear simple, there are many complex layers involved in using it and we need to be confident that trainers have an in depth knowledge and understanding of these.
In order to apply to become a Talking Mats trainer you have to have completed the standard training (above), be experienced in using Talking Mats and fulfil the course requirements.
Intellectual Property
Talking Mats was originally developed at University of Stirling and the Intellectual Property is held by the University and Talking Mats Limited is assigned the sole rights to Talking Mats. Talking Mats is registered as a trademark. Only training that is sanctioned by us is recognised and anyone training others without being a recognized Talking Mats trainer is infringing Intellectual Property and copyright.
Signposting and sharing knowledge
We are of course delighted when people share their knowledge and experience of Talking Mats and signpost others to the website and resources.
We wanted to develop a tool that would give a holistic picture of how a child or young person feels about their lives at home at school and in their communities. We took into account the significant developmental changes that occur from 3 to 17 years and the influence of environmental and personal factors surrounding the child or young person.
We asked our artist to reflect the age and stage of the child in developing a symbol set for:
- Early years
- Primary and
- Secondary
The symbols are organised into three topics:
My Body and Skills: In this section you explore how the child is growing and developing by focussing on the functions of the body as well as skills that are emerging. You can gain an impression of how the child feels he or she is progressing physically, socially, cognitively and behaviourally.
What I do and my support: In this section you look at the child’s lived experience by asking about the activities they participate in, as well as how they feel about the support they receive.
My Wider world: The communities in which children grow up have a significant impact on the well-being of both children and families. In this section you look at the child’s wider world by exploring the impact of nursery or school as well as the support system available to them.
Talking Mats prompts you to cover the relevant topics for each age group you’re working with. You can help children and young people to see their personal strengths and abilities and take time to consider what their problem areas are.
The mind map below shows what is included in the Primary pack – What I do and my support.
If you want to read about how Talking Mats were used to help young people think about targets for their IEP read the 2012 research report.
If you would like the complete Consulting children and young people pack, covering Early years, Primary and Secondary then buy the silver resource which can be purchased either as an original or through a digital subscription.
By Dr Norman Alm, School of Computing, University of Dundee.
Have been thinking for some years – and having dialogues with Joan Murphy – about this : would it be possible to come up with a new type of AAC where both the non-speaking person and their communication partner(s) were equally in joint control of some sort of system? Imagine a touch screen which also could be controlled by switch input. A non-speaking person and their communication partner are both engaged with the screen and both equally making use of it to do … what ?
Don’t know at the moment, but there are several suggestions for ways to explore and develop this idea further. Talking Mats is one.
The purpose is to help the person with communication difficulties express their opinions, with the other participant being a facilitator. But notice what is not happening – a face-to-face interview. Instead both participants look away from each other and focus on the mutual task, manipulating the symbols on the mat to produce the communication. Much less stressful – and much more enjoyable and productive. Another example is the CIRCA system, which supports what is usually problematic communication between a person with dementia and a carer or relative. The support takes the form of touchscreen access to an engaging multimedia display of reminiscence material drawn from public archives. Again a potentially stressful and unproductive face-to-face encounter is converted into an enjoyable mutual activity that flows effortlessly. The design of each of these systems taps into something powerfully motivating. Talking Mats lets the person describe their emotional reactions to a subject, as manifested by the scale which organises the elements on display into a snapshot of that person’s individual feelings. CIRCA makes use of the one faculty still operative even in quite advanced dementia – the ability to recall long-term memories and enjoy sharing them.
Both these systems offer a structured communication encounter in which the structure has the effect of not restricting, but freeing up the communication. Crucially ( I would argue) both free the participants from the direct responsibility of keeping the interaction going and let them share that responsibility with a third agent.
Speech presented at the launch of new Talking Mats Resources
Hello everyone, my name is Greig McMurchie and I would like to take the opportunity to welcome you all here today. If I look familiar it may be because you recognised me from the original talking mat video, where I had a cameo appearance with the lovely Joan murphy of course that was over ten years ago, and back then I was much younger and better looking. Joan however is still as lovely as the day I met her.
As you can see, I have been involve in talking mats for many years now, ever since Joan asked me to help her trial a new communication system, that she and her colleague Lois had been developing. My initial thoughts were wow, this sounds really complicated and I was a little bit scared. But I had known Joan since I was little and I really wanted to see what this new Communication system was all about.
When Joan came to visit me at that Dundas day center, all those years ago, all my fear quickly disappeared, it was really easy. I was able to have my say, and because it was visual I could change my mind also. I began using talking mats to share my views, opinions and wishes, and before long this system was helping me to make life Changing decisions, such as what I wanted to do with my life once I had finished my college course. In fact you could argue that I am where I am today because of talking mats. And I like to say I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Anyway, that was away back then, and times have move on. About four weeks ago Joan and Lois came to Upper Sprinlands to visit me, and of course show me their wonderful bran new talking mats app. My initial thoughts were this sound fantastic, and when they arrived we had a wee chart and they explained what they had been doing.
I don’t know about everyone else, but when I was a kid a tablet was something you took if you were not feeling too well, an android was a character from a computer game and an apple was something you gave to your teacher to butter them up if you forgot to do your homework. But today all this modern technology is making it easy for everyone to engage creating doorways to all kinds of wonderful stuff. And boy can I say this new talking mats app is all kinds of wonderful.
So after we chatted I got to have a wee play with the new app, I couldn’t believe how easy it was, you were able to just move the pictures around and place them were you want them on the screen. The New picture sets are fantastic, they are bright colourful and easy to understand. I also like the way you can enlarge the picture to make it easier to see. And of course the fact that it come already to use. You can even take a photograph and send it to yourself by email. No more printing, cutting out and Velcroing, no more hunting for the camera only to realize the batteries are flat and you can’t use it anyway. Everything is just nicely packaged. And the fact that it can be used not only on an Ipad but also on a computer makes it even more accessible.
Dare I say I personally felt the new App for me was even easier than the old system; it is quicker, fun and very cool? Now I just need to persuade Upper springland to Purchase a copy or twelve.
Thank you talking Mats
(Speech at the Launch of the New Talking Mats Resources )
One of the things I love about Talking Mats is that it can be used by all agencies. When thinking about the rationale behind GIRFEC the main focus is to encourage professionals to work together. It is so refreshing to have a resource that is recognised and used across the agencies.
It is not necessary to have written reports with names of assessments or measures that are a mystery to each other. Talking Mats uses visuals to capture feelings and views. The reporting of those views can be understood by children, parents and professionals.
In developing our new resource we listened and responded to a wide range of professionals. We have researched the Well-being indicators and have provided a tool to give an overview of the issues in the lives of children and young people.
Our vision is to provide a tool to listen to and capture children’s voices. We have a responsibility to be open and realistic about how we respond to what they tell us. Taking time to listen means we need to take time to respond.
We hope that Talking Mats will improve understanding throughout the whole GIRFEC team as we seek to get to the heart of what matters to the child. Margo Mackay
(more…)
We are about to launch a digital version of Talking Mats which uses our brand new images, specially designed by a leading comic artist. We are currently in the testing phase to check how it is received by different client groups and professionals and to iron out any glitches.
We are planning to launch a free taster version first.
Following this there will be a Lite version with 2 full symbols sets ( £5.99) and then a subscription model with many more symbols sets and lots of additional functionality. It will also be available for Android.
The final version will be launched on 12th September.
If you would like to be kept informed of this exciting development please send an email to info@talkingmats.com
I want to go on holiday on my own!
At a recent training Jenn Hall who is a Personalisation Development Worker, told the story of her first use of Talking Mats. She used it with a woman that she has known for some time to discuss her views about her going on holiday. The lady is in her forties and has Downs Syndrome. As she came to the people symbol she looked at it for ages and then placed it in the middle column explaining that she wanted to go on holiday on her own and visit her brother who lives in Spain without her parents. she had never been supported to do this and it was what she really wanted to do. She also put the food in the middle column explaining that it was hard to understand the menus when she was abroad and that she wanted to learn a few basic words in Spanish. Jenn said that the Talking Mats really enabled the lady to express what she wanted not just go along with the status quo and for those around her to appreciate and understand her views . The Talking Mats has supported discussion with the family to enable this lady’s wish to come true . Hopefully she will have her first successful holiday with her brother visiting him all by herself.
Talking Mats has been working with Survivor Scotland. They are the organisation that oversees the National Strategy for Survivors of childhood abuse in Scotland. They have focused their work on a whole range of people but recognise the incidence of abuse within Learning disability is very high and that people with a learning disability often don’t have the resources or skills to tell their story and get the support they require. Survivor Scotland are anxious to address this and develop appropriate resources for this group of people.
.In our current project with Survivor Scotland we have developed 3 sets of Talking Mats that would allow conversations to be had with people with a learning disability. These sets were developed from a previous project that had been conducted in NHS Fife;‘the 6D Cards’ and with the input of staff experienced and skilled in working with survivors of abuse. The sets cover general issues but within those issues, patterns of concern may emerge that would allow people to discuss concerns further.
We then ran 3 training courses. These courses gave participants space to think about disclosure, encouraged them to become trauma aware and built their confidence in supporting and dealing with disclosure. Specific training in Talking Mats was also provided. The training was run jointly with Kingdom abuse Survivors Project, Survivor Scotland and ourselves and was funded by the Scottish Government
The 3 courses have now finished and 40 people have been trained in the resource. They came from all over Scotland from the Western Isles to the Borders and represented a range of professions working with people with a learning disability and with an interest in preventing abuse in learning disabilities: therapists, nurses, social workers, consultants, advocates They will use this resource in their practice and it will be evaluated later in the summer
Grandma Murphy’s thoughts
Last Monday I was visiting my mum-in-law who is 95 and has severe dementia. She wasn’t great when I arrived and the staff said she was very tired. It was hard to understand what she was saying and she seemed very frail. For something to do, I showed her some of the new Talking Mats images on my iPad and she perked up and smiled at several of them.
I then took a risk and suggested she might like to use them to tell me what she thinks about herself. I was amazed as she looked carefully at each image, thought about it, made a comment and indicated where she wanted to put it on the ‘mat’. For the first time in ages with me she seemed to be in the present and not in some confused place in her mind
Here are some of her comments:
Getting around – she said she was glad she has a wheel chair to help
Hearing – she said she thought her hearing had got better ( I later discovered she had just got a new hearing aid that morning!)
Feet – sometimes her feet are sore underneath (the staff are going to get the chiropodist to have a look)
Talking – she said it depends who she’s talking to!
Money – said she could always do with more!
The 3 things she was not happy about were – needing help from others, taking her medication and her teeth. (The staff confirmed that she hates taking her medication and have referred her to the dentist).
She loved the pictures and took loads of time thinking about each one and really studied the whole mat at the end.
Her granddaughter Susan said: ‘I thought it was amazing to get a sense of what Grandma is thinking. This may be silly but I actually felt really moved by it! It’s so hard to get any sense out of Grandma these days so it was really fascinating to get an insight into her thoughts.’
Talking Mats role in child protection
Here are 3 stories of how Talking Mats has been helpful to staff from Edinburgh Council – Child Protection Team.
Use with parents
N. works with chaotic drug using parents and said “TMs was a turning point – like gold dust – it helped parents identify important issues”.
Involving child in access decisions
A young girl completed two mats the first one about going to mum’s and the second one about going to dad’s. The social worker was then able to explain to the parents how the child felt and TMs allowed the parents to discuss positive ways to unify care. The visual impact of having two differing viewpoints is very powerful.
Use of Talking Mats in children’s panels
L. has trained many Children’s Panel members in Edinburgh and some are now asking social workers if they have used a TM. Using the actual mat rather than a photo was considered to be more beneficial. “it is like the child is present in the room”. An example was given of a young child bringing in her mats about cats. She showed the panel member her mat and it acted as evidence to show the panel that the girl is now able to separate from her mother. Her mother had suffered abuse as a child and she had become over-protective of her daughter. TM increased the child’s participation.
If anyone has used Talking Mats in Child Protection we would love to hear from you.
