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During the final stages of developing Digital Talking Mats, we invited some people with aphasia and their partners to come and try it out for us. I spent some time talking to Matthew, who has severe global aphasia and dyspraxia. Matthew loves having a chat, but relaxed conversation can be a challenge because Matthew finds it difficult to generate language and sometimes his yes/no responses get mixed up. I used the ‘activities’ topic with Matthew to have a chat about the things he likes (and doesn’t like) doing. Matthew found the Digital Talking Mats easy to use and quickly gave me his views about activities. Using the i-pad made the conversation feel very natural, and Matthew was able to convey his sense of humour – when I asked him about Church; Matthew started to sing the Funeral March! We had quite a laugh about this, and it turned out that at the moment, Matthew really only goes to Church when there is a funeral. Matthew was also able to tell me about things that he finds difficult since his stroke, such as reading and doing DIY. During our conversation, I was struck by how equal the conversation felt. Matthew was able to express his views without feeling pressurised to think of words. I was able to ask Matthew open questions without worrying that I might not understand his responses. Using Talking Mats on the i-pad was easy and relaxed. I could imagine using it with Matthew to have a chat over coffee or at the pub. Perhaps we should think of some conversational symbol sets?
To see Matthew using the app, click here
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.
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
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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.
The Talking Mats Team have been funded by the Scottish Government to adapt the CARE Measure to make it accessible for children and to examine if the Paediatric CARE Measure (PCM) can be used to gain the views of children or parents attending AHP services. It is a patient-centred measure of relational empathy. It measures patients’ experiences of the interpersonal aspects of clinical encounters. It is recommended that the PCM is used by all Paediatric Allied Health Professions as standard practice. This should be supported by AHP Child Health Leads and will inform the self-assessment component of recommendation 5.6 in the AHP National Delivery Plan and will be integral in the development of the AHP Children’s Services Plan (Recommendation 4.1).
For information about the research project which was carried out to establish the feasibility, reliability and validity of the PCM please click on the following links:
Paediatric CARE Measure – Phase 2 Final Report
Paediatric CARE measure – Phase 2 Summary
For copies of the AHP guidance, PCM forms and information sheets please click below
Involving young people in making decisions that affect their education can be both challenging and time consuming. Margo Mackay has just completed a research project, funded by NHS Forth Valley, which examined whether using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health – Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY) can be usefully combined with Talking Mats to provide a practical framework for decision making and target setting. It tested whether:
- combining Talking Mats and the ICF-CY framework was acceptable to secondary pupils with complex needs, and
- using the information obtained from them is helpful in setting targets for their Individual Education Plans
The project found that Talking Mats, when combined with ICF-CY, is a powerful tool with the potential to greatly enhance the nature of partnerships between pupils, parents and professionals.
A theme from our Seminar: Using Talking Mats in research and evaluation
The 4 main discussions which emerged from this theme were:
1.How to evaluate the effectiveness of Talking Mats – this has been done in several projects which are listed on the Talking Mats website as well as by other researchers
2.Using Talking Mats to evaluate the progress of individuals by using Talking Mats to measure their goals before and after intervention
3.Using Talking Mats to evaluate whole services by adapting questionnaires to be used in the Talking Mats format of main topics and options – e.g. making Care Inspectorate questionnaires accessible
4.Getting group feedback to evaluate an event such as the benefit of a training course or seminar
At our recent accredited training Anne Lafferty form the Advocacy Project Glasgow described how she used Talking Mats in a group setting. She had been asked to work with a group of adults with mental health difficulties who lived together in a house but found it a challenge to relate to each other. She decided to use Talking Mats with a data projector plus lots of paper and glue . The topic was what activities they were interested in participating in and what Anne did was project each symbol one at a time onto the screen and then everyone placed their own symbol onto their own paper Mat. She said this worked really well, the image of the symbol projected onto the wall held the groups attention but everyone had their chance to express and then share their views. Apparently the staff were amazed and really pleased about how well the tenants participated, stayed and listened to each other. Thought it worth sharing this easy and creative way to use Talking Mats in a group setting – thanks for the idea Anne
