Important Dates

Speech Pathologist

Which speech sounds aren’t appropriate for school age children?

While speech sounds are developing, there are errors that are age appropriate for children and not a reason for concern. Sometimes however, there are speech errors that are not expected at any stage in typical sound development. If your child is making any of the following errors, referral to a Speech Pathologist is recommended.

Small sound inventory

When a child has only a few sounds, this can be an indicator of a speech issue.

Unusual sounds

Is your child using a sound not found in the English language? They may be using glottal sounds, which are made at the very back of the throat.

Swapping /t/ and /d/ to /k/ and /g/

Speech pathologists call this Backing. /t/ and /d/ are produced by touching the front of the tongue to the front of the palate. Are they being replaced by /k/and /g/, by touching the back of the tongue to the back of the palate? For example, ‘tan’ may become ‘can’, and ‘duck’ may become ‘guck’.

Leaving the first sound off of a word

Speech pathologists call this Initial Consonant Deletion; the first consonant is removed from a word. For example, ‘puppy’ would become ‘uppy’.

Vowel sound errors

If your child is replacing one vowel with another, it can indicate that a more severe speech disorder as this is very uncommon. For example, ‘dog’ may become ‘dirg’.

Inconsistent errors

If your child is inconsistently producing errors in speech, saying the same word differently, this could be indicating Childhood Apraxia of Speech. For example ‘ball’ may be said as ‘ball’, ‘bah’, ‘bawell’, ‘pall’, etc.

Replacing more than one sound with the same sound

Speech pathologists call this Multiple Collapses. Is your child habitually replacing multiple consonants with another consonant? For example, they may replace sounds with ‘n’, saying ‘nog’ for dog, ‘nun’ for ‘mum’, ‘noe’ for ‘shoe’ and ‘annle’ for ‘apple’.

Special Needs

How can you teach your children the importance of difference and uniqueness?

We live in a diverse society where we need to teach young children to respect and celebrate the differences in all people. It helps children realise that we are all humans despite our differences in how we look or dress, what we eat or celebrate and how we behave and learn. Our children begin to develop empathy. Empathy is about understanding the differences in other people.

Children notice differences at about age 2 years. At about 3 years of age, children notice physical disabilities. At about 4 and 5 years, they start to become fearful of differences. There are activities you can do with your children to teach them to respect differences and also to celebrate their own uniqueness.

I have shared a few activities you can do with your child below.

1. Hair, hair everywhere: you need photographs of different hairstyles and hair types. Talk about hair texture and curl and allow them to imagine if they had that certain hair texture and type.
2. Diversity dress-up: incorporate diversity into a dramatic play which will help children learn about different cultures. You will need cultural clothing to do this. Have your child try on some of the clothing and talk to them about each piece of clothing. Try to explain why/how that style of clothing was created.
3. Simply empathise the importance of friendship: teach your child that a difference or a disability does not define a person. Remind them that children with disabilities are just like them- they want friends, they deserve respect and they want to feel included. Speak to your child about what it means to be a good friend.
4. ‘Duck on a Bike’ & ‘A Bad Case of Stripes’: these are two books you can read with your child which can be found on YouTube. The story is about differences. Ask them to review the story and what lesson they understood from it. Ask them how they could carry on what they learned into their life.
5. Let your child embrace their own uniqueness: take time each day to observe and discover your child’s new skills, listen and ask questions about the events in their life. The more you can listen with openness and acceptance, the more you will discover and at the same time affirm your child as a unique individual. Observe and comment on the games that they play and celebrate with a smile when they become excited about a new interest. Provide praise and encouragement and try to expose your child to many different activities such as sports, drama, science, reading, visiting parks, the forest, the beach, museums, hobbies and anything else you can think of. Encourage them to have a try and praise them for trying new things. Lastly, show patience and understanding. For more ideas, you may visit the webpage below.

SEL Program

Dear Parents,

At Sirius College we have always had programs in place that focus on student health and wellbeing. We continuously aim to make use of new tools and practices which may enhance our students’ social and emotional wellbeing. In the past we have made use of programs such as You Can Do It! Education Program, Smiling Mind, Mindfulness and many more. As times change so does our need to make use of new practices and approaches. For these reasons we have adopted a new Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Program which may enhance our students’ learning experiences.

What is SEL?

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

We will keep parents informed about our practices and its impact on our students learning outcomes. Please feel free to ask your child teacher for more information and continue to read the article we have attached.