Lis'n Tell - Live Inclusive Storytelling - Speech and Language Therapy

What Lis'n Tell is:

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Edmund Du Lac

A dynamic, imaginative and versatile approach to therapeutic intervention for communication development through storytelling.
Specific communication, speech, language and social skills aims are facilitated through Lis'n Tell.
Spontaneous intentional communication from children/students is stimulated.
Lis'n Tell facilitates the creativity of therapist(s),parents,co-professionals and students with complex communication needs - the listeners who become co-tellers.

Who Lis'n Tell is for:

Lis'nTell can be applied to students with a wide range of communication challenges, including :

Hearing Impairment,
Autistic Spectrum Condition, Learning Disabilities, Multiple and Profound Disabilities,
Physical Disabilities,Articulation/Phonological/ Linguistic problems,
Emotional/Behavioural challenges
It is also used educationally with mainstream children.
Lis'n Tell can provide a creative challenge to Talented and Gifted children, and several workshops have been successfully run at Primary School level.
It is applicable to adults and children from three years old.
Multi agency,teacher and therapist groups seek Lis'n Tell training workshops as a form of team building as well as a training for working with special needs.
Lis'n Tell training for carers, relatives and therapists working with adults with dysphasia has just been commissioned.

Some Indicators of how Lis'n Tell works for complex communication needs:

An appropriate story is chosen. Educational targets are reinforced .
The key teller uses rhythm and role, rhyme, repetition and ritual.
There is an intro at the beginning, and an outro at the end, involving story specific rituals, to build and release attention, and reinforce auditory and visual memory.
Verbal and non verbal communication are used, with multi-sensory props. Musical and percussion instruments are used, if students are not too sound sensitive.
Sensory, voice and gesture techniques are employed, enabling the teller to convey the heart of the story to the hearts of the listeners.
The lower the attention levels of the listener students, the earlier efforts are made to involve them.
The listeners become active participants- 'co-tellers'. Roles may include: keeper of objects, scribe, illustrator, musician, narrator, director, character,chorus, eye gazer, pointer.
The key teller notices ever more subtle nuances of behaviour from the co-tellers, and includes these in the story, when and where appropriate.
Lis'n Tell is not about creating a storytelling performance, it is process orientated.
Lis'n Tell is to do with errorless learning. Nearly every response is acknowledged or included somehow. The teller is very alert and practices flexible thinking and creative communication. However, harmful /destructive behaviour by the students to self, others or the environment is managed appropriately by the teller and the staff present. Usually this involves apologising to the child, along the lines of, ''I'm sorry, I can't let you do that...', as developed by Dr Rachel Pinney * who innovated 'The Listening Hours' for children with ASC.
Meaning may be given to seemingly irrelevant or random responses, which are then encouraged, and the co-teller usually starts to take part more willingly.
The more disruptive or withdrawn a listener is, the more responsibility they may be given.
The co-teller's communication is accepted, expanded and reflected.
The story may be told as a one off, or may range over a term or number of sessions.
Whenever possible, the co-tellers make drawings and props, giving them increasing ownership of the process.
The listeners evolve as co-tellers in their own unique ways.

* Rachel Pinney was born 11th July 1909, the daughter of a Major-General. She obtained a medical degree and practiced as a GP until 1961. On leaving the medical profession, Rachel contacted Dr. Margaret Lowenfeld, the distinguished child therapist. Rachel learnt her methods but never trained formally. This period resulted in the pioneering of her 'methods for conflict understanding' which she called Creative Listening, and Children's Hours, the former incorporated as a limited company in 1967. These techniques were widely used by experts working therapeutically with children. In 1977 Rachel went to New York and treated a four year old boy suffering from autism. This resulted in her publication 'Bobby, Breakthrough of an Autistic Child' (1983).

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One of the most inspiring books about child education I have ever read! LC

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The ideas expressed are by no means the only approach to a given diagnosis, it is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive and does not cover all disabilities, diseases, ailments, physical conditions or their management or treatment.

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