Section

Resource Review

Children's books

• Dr Seuss books I have found many of the range of Dr Seuss books very useful e.g. 
  • The Cat in the Hat, 
  • The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
  • Fox in Sox, 
  • Green Eggs and Ham,
  • One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
  • There's a Wocket in my Pocket
  • Horton Hears a Who!
  • The Lorax

  Author -  Dr Seuss

  Publisher - Collins

  Comment - I have found these books very useful for encouraging Beth's speech. Rhyming text seems particularly helpful for developing her understanding of the order in which sounds are appearing in words.
  
  

• Letterland books
  • Letterland First Alphabet and Word Book
  • Letterland ABC

  Author - Jane Launchbury

  Publisher  - Collins

  Comment - I found these books really useful when my daughter was first learning her letters but still had limited speech. Some letters she could not make the sound for e.g. 'v' ,but she could use the letterland name 'vase of violets' and even though what she actually said was 'ase of iolets' I could understand that by that she meant the letter 'v'.
  
  

• The Usborne First Thousand Words
  
  Author - Heather Amery
  
  Publisher - Usborne
  
  Comment - A really good word and picture book. The first part of the book has double page spreads organised by topic e.g. at home, the street, travel etc. 
  Each double page spread has an interesting centre picture, very good for encouraging your child to discuss and describe what they see. Each central picture is surrounded by a border with the individual pictures and words e.g. for seaside - sea, starfish, spade, bucket etc. It makes an interesting game to try and spot all the border pictures in the central picture.
  The second part of the book has pictures arranged by topic with no central picture e.g. food, me, my clothes, people, doing things, opposite words, days, special days, weather , seasons, pets and more!
  
  
  
• Each Peach Pear Plum
  
  Author - Janet and Allan Ahlberg
  
  Publisher - Puffin Books
  
  Comment - A really magical picture story book with lovely rhyming text and beautiful illustrations. Lots to talk about in the pictures. This has been a very popular book with my children for years.
  
  
  
• Playing
  
  Author - Catherine Anholt
  
  Publisher - Orchard Books
  
  Comment - Lots of interesting illustrations of children carrying out activities e.g. pushing, sliding, climbing, hiding, cycling, reading, drawing and many more. Playing is part of the Doing things series of books. Others in the series include Animal Friends, Bedtime and Helping.
  
  
  
• Incy - Wincy Spider
  
  Author - Katie George
  Publisher - Levinson Childrens Books 1995
  
  Comment - Incy - Wincy spider decides to find somewhere new to live. But nowhere in the garden is quite right. Until he finds.... 
  This book has a finger puppet to lift the flaps and open the giant picture page to help Incy find his new home.
  My children love this book.
  
  
  

• I Spy ABC
  
  Author - Vivian French
  Illustrator - Sally Holmes
  
  Publisher - Walker Books 1998
  
  Comment - From an antelope in a coat and a tie to a zebra dressed in black and white, there's a whole alphabet of animals to spy in this colourful, fun-packed ABC rhyme.
  
  
  

• The Grumpalump
  
  Author - Sarah Hayes
  Illustrator - Barbara Firth
  
  Publisher - Walker Books 1990
  
  Comment - Just what is the grumpalump? A variety of birds and animals try to discover the answer in this simple repetitive, rhyming story with a surprise ending.
  
  
• The Hairy Hamster Hunt  And Other Pet Poems - Compiled by Tony Bradman
  
  Publisher - Macdonald Young Books
  
  Comment - A really magical compilation of poems with great illustrations (by Chris Fisher)
  
  
• Poems for the very young
  
  Author - Selected by Michael Rosen
  
  Publisher - Kingfisher
  
  Comment - A lovely selection of traditional and more recent poems. Beautifully illustrated by Bob Graham.
  

• Cockadoodle Moo
  
  Author - Compiled  by John Foster
  
  Publisher - Oxford University Press (2001)
  
  Comment - A lovely selection poems for children. Beautifully illustrated by various artists
  

Reference Books

(Speech related issues)

• Developmental Dyspraxia - A practical manual for parents and professionals.
  
  Author - Madeleine Portwood
  
  Publisher -Durham County Council, County Hall, Durham, England, DH1 5UJ
  
  Or through David Fulton Publishers, Ormond House, 26-27 Boswell Street, London, WC1N 3JD
  web site - http://www.fultonbooks.co.uk
  
  
  Comment -  I have found this book very useful. Madeleine Portwood is a Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist. The aim of the manual is to provide:- assessment techniques to identify dyspraxia, remediation activities to develop perceptual and motor skills, strategies to improve curricular attainments, programmes to develop self-esteem and information about where to find help.
  

Teaching reading

• Teach your child to read - A phonetic reading primer for parents and teachers to use with children
  
  Author - Annis Garfield
  Illustrator - Jill Downie and Jane Gedye
  
  Publisher - Vermilion 1992
  
  Comment  - This book presents the phonetic, step-by-step method of teaching reading. It is flexible. It can be taught by parents to one pre-school child, by teachers to a whole class or by parents to an older child in difficulties; it can also rescue children and adults with reading problems.

Games / Toys

• Game - Story Building Puzzle
  For ages - 4-7 yrs
  Produced by - Marks and Spencers
  Comment - Each set of 4 puzzle pieces builds a sentence.
  There are 9 character pieces, 9 how they got there pieces, 9 where they went pieces and 9 what they did pieces.
  e.g. the girl - went by bus - to the park - and ate an ice-cream.
  You can build lots of different stories, this helps to develop reading skills, enhances imagination, develops word recognition skills and helps increase an awareness of sentence structure.
  
  
• Toy - Super sticker factory
  For ages -5+
  Produced by - MB Creative Hasbro
  Comment - Brilliant for making your own stickers out of small pictures. These can be used just for fun or could be incorporated into your educational/speech therapy activities. You can use bits of magazines or catalogues etc. for pictures. You could also print out our clipart pictures and use these to make stickers. Get your child to draw their own sticker pictures. Refill tape rolls are available from Hasbro.

CD ROMS

• Anyone have any good suggestions for this section?

Videos / Audio CDs

• Video - Makaton Nursey Rhymes
  Produced by - W H Smith
  Comment - 19 traditional songs and rhymes sung and signed by Dave Benson Phillips. This is a great video.