Valuable thread on reading comprehension

I know this is supposed to be raising awareness and helping… but I am not sure it is. 🙄 @wordaware.bsky.social what are your thoughts? www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

DLD journal club is on Feb 25th at 3.30. Run in conjunction with @cltt.bsky.social @vjoffe.bsky.social & Judy Clegg. Article by @samueldcalder.bsky.social @suze-freogirl.bsky.social & Mary Claessen on grammar and Shape Coding journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... Bookings www.naplic.org.uk/events/

🗣️ 'It is time to tear down those barriers.' 😊 Huge RCSLT thanks to @davidpintod.bsky.social for asking Keir Starmer at PMQs yesterday what the Government are doing to help people with speech disabilities and differences to get the support they need, so that their voices can be heard.

Man on the bus: I love my cat. Woman: Dogs are the best. Man: I don't have to follow Betsy around with a poo-bag. Silence.

But the last 15yrs or so have seen a shift away from outcomes and towards insisting on ways of behaving /doing. This is bonkers to me. A pedagogy or practice is only as good as it’s impact. A script is only any good if a child understands it! I have “given” many teachers permission to change.

Great day delivering Language for Behaviour and Everyone today. We have been doing quite a few of these recently! We have 2 day, half day and a free seminar coming up. Check them out thinkingtalking.co.uk/finding-a-wo...

I've had a few bumpy weeks, but am back to writing. Here is some thinking about school improvement/school development. I was thinking about this as I read about the RISE evaluation published this week. Principles to work by... meganjanedixon.co.uk/2026/02/10/p...

Watch this. It’s the business.

This is because a statistical model of word frequency is not a useful tool for modeling the complex interactions of the human body

Breaking: The government has pledged write off 90 per cent of councils’ historic SEND deficits – estimated to be worth £5 billion https://schoolsweek.co.uk/government-to-write-off-90-of-councils-send-deficits/

'Communication is highly important to these very vulnerable young people. Speech and Language Therapy services and other professionals need to provide more timely and targeted support for young people within the care system'

If you live in Great Britain or are just visiting, type in the places you are going to, and find extraordinary trees to view Searchable by species, location & age ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/...

At the DLD/SLCN specialist network listening to Georgia Wrigley from @speechandlanguk.bsky.social talk about No Pens Day which is on May 20th this year. Get involved and raise money for #SLCN. Details and resources speechandlanguage.org.uk/get-involved...

Concept Cartoons are a fantastic way to kick start conversations in science. #oracy #SLCN #DevLangDis raisedgrounded.com/concept-cart...

"School nurseries lack the staff, space or demand to offer more wraparound, holiday or pre-school childcare, particularly in poorer areas, research shows." Well who would have predicted this?!!! schoolsweek.co.uk/school-nurse...

Today is is the day of our DLD/SLCN specialist provision network meeting. If you work in a resource base, unit or school, you are welcome. We'll be talking literacy, No Pens Day and the recent report on best practice in specialist provisions. Join us at 4. www.naplic.org.uk/event/slcn-d...

I’m an Ambassador for this brilliant charity, Bookbanks, giving away books with food parcels at food banks. There are two part-time jobs going for Regional Leads in London and East Anglia. Link below. Please share far and wide :)

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Good morning. We are open. 📖☕️

Hello E-DLD followers! Today's research study aimed to investigate the relationship between Social Communication Disorder and DLD. Article summary: www.engage-dld.com/post/the-rel... Full text available at: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... #DevLangDis #DLD #SocialCommunicationDisorder

This is the joy we all need at the moment

Every resistance counts at this point. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...

A reminder to the media and others trying to claim this Government and Starmer are worse than anything they've ever seen, a Government which has only been in power for 19 months. Here's a handly list of the scandals we had to endure from the Tories between 2011-2024.

We are excited about our conference (of course), but also OVER THE TOP EXCITED about amazing artist, Frankie Boyle talking about her lived experience of DLD (Developmental Language Disorder). Don't miss it. May 9th, Birmingham. www.naplic.org.uk/conferences/ #DevLangDis

When learning English stops being a bridge into society and becomes a test you can fail, integration turns into exclusion. New language rules risk shifting English from empowerment to control. Article by Declan Flanagan and Mike Chick. eastangliabylines.co.uk/immigration/...

This thread has become one the most glorious things. It’s like twitter in the olden days.

Join us on Monday for the DLD/SLCN specialist provision network. We'll be talking about the recent report from @afasic.bsky.social @speechandlanguk.bsky.social and NAPLIC as well as No Pens day. Join us! Free to members. #DevLangDis www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/slcndld-pr...

Absolute chills

Everything will soon be alright. We'll have curling to watch. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/videos...

Word Aware is our tried and tested whole school approach for supporting vocabulary. Our training provides an understanding of the method as well as ideas to implement right away. You will leave enthused (or more enthused 😄) about words. thinkingtalking.co.uk/finding-a-wo... @lang4think.bsky.social

A man at Milton Keynes station shouts insults at the train guard for not letting him onto the train. Man (as the train leaves): What a prick. His wife: No Jason. The train needs to leave on time. That’s her job. You, in fact, are the prick.

I can’t believe anyone would submit something written by AI to a national newspaper and think the editorial team wouldn’t know?! This is ridiculous. And insulting. And arrogant. As if writing was that easy. bsky.app/profile/jons...

We have a problem. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

📢 'We must stop treating speech and language support as optional.' 🚨 Check out this great article by Jen Craft MP (@thurrockjen.bsky.social), in which she says Govt should see more speech and language therapy, 'not as an expense but as an upfront investment'. schoolsweek.co.uk/spending-on-...

It's the same story time and time again. Cognitive offloading to an AI tool damages learning and knowledge acquisition. When will high-skill professions wake up to this?

For every additional £100 a Plan 2 graduate earns they repay an extra £9 - but their debt also accrues an additional £7.20 in interest, due to the rising interest rate. www.edrith.co.uk/p/rage-rage-...

Lived experience of those living with DLD is a key component of our conferences, and so we look forward to welcoming Finlay Urquhart, a young person with Developmental Language Disorder to Birmingham on May 9th. Join us! www.naplic.org.uk/conferences/ #DevLangDis

'early intervention, the training of early years staff and teachers, and more speech and language therapy, not as an expense but as an upfront investment: one that saves money, strengthens families, reduces future demand on public services and most importantly, transforms lives'

This took me fucking ages

“The number one thing is that these [SEND] reforms need to be developed in partnership with children and young people, with their parents and carers, with experts in this field." We really hope the Government listens @dcpcampaign.bsky.social! https://bit.ly/49SJigh

Without addressing the SLT difficulties, the challenges for the students are compounded. They will not magically disappear with a bit of debating and presenting from a PowerPoint. Phonics/sentence dictation won’t sort it out, either. It is also important to highlight the link with behaviour.

Colour photo of monochrome London.

There’s been a lot of talk about ADHD being over-diagnosed — but the evidence doesn’t support it. ADHD is under-recognised, under-diagnosed and under-treated. When ADHD goes undiagnosed, it doesn’t disappear. It shows up in our health services, our schools and our criminal justice system. 👇

Wowsers look at what happened to posts on Twitter/X about London crime after monetisation of posts was introduced… economist.com/britain/2026...

Considering how children are feeling in these trying times, gather a bunch of picture books they like, including some humorous ones, and read them together. READ. READ. READ. nancyebailey.com/2015/11/16/t...

the foreign descriptions of what is going on are hilarious and terrifying www.youtube.com/shorts/SfzuV...

Lift with your legs

City St George’s is looking for UK paediatric SLTs to take part in research interviews exploring their views and experiences of providing child-facing reports. If you are interested, please follow this link for more info and to sign up: cityunilondon.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... #bskyspeechies