Talking Mats supporting children and young people

Top 10 blogs

New school year – new blog compilation! We have updated our Top 10 guest blogs for supporting children and young people using Talking Mats.

Thank you to everyone in our Talking Mats Community who continues to share their stories with us. If you work with children and young people and have used Talking Mats, we would love to hear from you. You can reach a member of the team at info@talkingmats.com.

Time to Think: Building Confidence in using Talking Mats within an Additional Support Needs School Setting

Deborah Little, Clinical Lead for AAC and Total Communication at NHS Dumfries and Galloway, describes how she worked with her teaching colleagues to embed Talking Mats in an Additional Support Needs School setting. Deborah reflects on how using Talking Mats helped to create a space where staff could listen to and act on children’s views with authenticity and without agenda.

Talking Mats as a Self-Reporting Pain Assessment Tool for Children and Young People with Cerebral Palsy

Meredith Smith, Paediatric Physiotherapist and Lecturer in Physiotherapy at the University of Adelaide, talks about the development of a Talking Mats resource to help open up conversations about pain with children and young people who have cerebral palsy.

Talking Mats; UNCRC, The Promise and Hearing the Thinker

Janie Scott, a Talking Mats Licenced Trainer with Perth and Kinross Council, describes her experience of using Talking Mats to help uphold Scotland’s Promise to care experienced children, young people and families.

Trialling a Braille Talking Mat

Olivia Ince, a Talking Mats Licenced Trainer and Speech and Language Therapist, describes how a Braille Talking Mat facilitated a more structured, empowering and accessible interaction for a thinker with vision loss.

Me and My Senses: A Personal and Professional Journey Intertwined

Lisa Chapman, Lead Speech and Language Therapist at Bee U: Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services, shares what our Me and My Senses resource means to her both professionally and personally, describing it as an “invaluable tool to anyone wishing to explore sensory processing in a neurodiversity affirming way.”

Using Talking Mats to Open up Conversations about Offending with Young People

Natalie Paris, Project Lead for CashBack 180, describes how using Talking Mats has helped her to open up conversations with young people at risk of becoming involved in offending, anti-social and/or risky behaviours.

Therapy Goal Setting with Children in a Specialist SLCN Setting

Charlotte Phillips and Laura Douglas, Speech and Language Therapists at Blossom House School, describe how they have used Talking Mats to support therapy goal setting within the context of a specialist school for children with speech, language and/or communication needs.  

Supporting Communication – Secondary-Aged Pupils with SEBN

Lynn Blair, Speech and Language Therapist at NHS North Lanarkshire, shares how she and her colleagues have used Talking Mats to gather the thoughts of secondary-aged pupils with social, emotional and behavioural support needs.

Using Talking Mats to Support Police Interviewing

Louise Tickle, Specialist Learning Disability Nurse at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, shares a great example of how she used Talking Mats to support a child to share information about a serious safeguarding concern.

Moving from Primary to Secondary School – Pupils Share their Views

Rachel Woolcomb, Talking Mats Associate and Occupational Therapist, reflects on the beauty of Talking Mats in allowing children and young people to explore a range of issues that are relevant to them, rather than being asked questions that the listener thinks are relevant.

If these blogs have inspired you and you’d like to take part in our Foundation Training find a course that suits your learning needs here!