ACQ Vol 10 No 1 2008

Overall, this resource is easy to use, provides valuable instruction material for 4–5-year-olds, is well structured and well presented.

De La Bedoyere, C. & Lowry, C. (2007). School start. Programmes for language and sound awareness . Brackley, UK: Speechmark. £33.99 / US$61.25. Chyrisse Heine Although originally based on work by SLPs, this resource is primarily aimed at school staff, specifically teachers, school aids/teaching assistants working with 4–5-year-old children. It consists of 4 parts: an introduction, group session sheets, resource templates and program delivery templates. The book begins with an 11-page introduction which provides information regarding a proposed timeline for the program, how the group sessions should be run, the possible team members involved in the delivery of the program, brief details regarding the implementation of the program (includ­ ing meetings, the use of checklist and the need for evaluation) and software requirements for use of the CD-ROM. Part 2 is an extensive compilation of group session sheets targeting language (30 sessions are provided) and sound awareness (30 sessions are provided). Each sheet outlines the learning objectives, activities to be completed and resources to be used. Spaces are available for noting children’s progress. An example of a plan for a group session is: ■ Learning objective (four are provided), e.g., To work as part of a group, taking turns and sharing. ■ Activities (four are provided), e.g., A toy is passed around the circle. When the bell rings, whoever is holding the toy says his name. ■ Resources: A number of options are provided, e.g. Toy such as teddy, doll or puppet. Part 3 contains the resource templates which are selected weekly, to correspond to the resources identified in the target week. Resource templates vary and include: ■ Pictures (e.g., for week 1, eight pictures of everyday objects are provided) ■ Yes/No cut-outs ■ Filling in the missing part (e.g., for week 18, the resource is the outline of a boy) ■ Sentence lists (e.g., for week 19, a two word sentence is ‘He jumped’) Templates are large black and white, easily identifiable, pictures and/or written words or sentences. Part 4 contains the program delivery templates which include checklists, tips for conducting the programs and teacher handouts. For SLPs, this program would be a valuable, quick resource to use as an adjunct to therapy or as a program to recommend for teachers to use to promote children’s language and sound awareness skills. On the practical side, this program is spiral bound with a soft attractive cover. ACD-ROM is provided to aid replication.

Love, E., & Reilly, S. (2006). Story talk: An oral story telling kit . Camberwell, Vic.: Speech and Language Products. $49.50 (including GST). Ruth Nicholls and Jemma Skeat Story Talk is designed to promote oral narrative skills, includ­ ing knowledge and use of story grammar, planning and sequencing, understanding of causality and vocabulary. The kit (which comes in a carry case) includes some magnetic shapes, brief instructions and two figurines (‘Smiley’, a character to be used in stories, and ‘Story Star’, a soft toy to support turn-taking). There is also a CD containing an electronic manual (PDF of 77 pages), which includes instructions, activities, story starters, black-line masters, awards, prompt cards and photographs. Story Talk would be suitable for use with junior and middle primary school age children. For older primary school or early secondary school students, some elements of the kit could be utilised with modification (e.g., exclusion of the figurines). Although designed to promote oral storytelling, this kit may also be useful to support the development of written narrative skills with older primary school children. The CD includes a variety of activity ideas suitable for work­ ing with individuals or small groups. The various elements (e.g., figurines, magnetic shapes and pictures) support multiple learning styles. Our impression was that this resource requires careful thought and time to prepare, prior to use. In order to select appropriate activities and materials, clinicians need to read through the lengthy electronic manual, which we found dif­ ficult to navigate on the computer screen. Other materials, such as the magnetic shapes (to support story sequence/ grammar), would require pre-teaching in order for children to understand what each shape represents. The pictures provided on the CD are in colour and lose some detail if printed in black and white. We also wondered how much of a story some of the pictures would trigger (e.g., notice board, ATM, choosing an electrical cord). We were not particularly taken with the ‘Smiley’ figurine although young children may find ‘Smiley’ more engaging than we did. Story Talk brings together various elements to support oral storytelling such as pictures, activity ideas and ‘characters’ and may provide fresh ideas for those who work in this area. However, many of the elements are available in other resources and Story Talk may not provide anything new for some clinicians. While the kit is not expensive at $49.50, clinicians may need to factor in the costs of printing the manual and colour pictures.

Speech Pathology Week Sunday 24 August to Saturday 30 August 2008

The theme for this year is ‘Communication – more than just words’ For more information see www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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S peech P athology A ustralia