There is so much information available online these days. Pretty much anything that you choose to put into a search engine will bring up a huge number of hits. However, we all know that just because something is on the internet, it doesn’t mean that it’s good information. Today, I thought I’d share with you some of my favourite websites for good free information about speech and language. There are many more good websites as well as these, but these are a few of my favourites that you should check out if you don’t already know them. I have focussed here on sites which offer free information for parents, rather than sites aimed at therapists. Although many of these sites also have items for sale, I also haven’t included sites which are predominantly selling things (though there are great websites in both of these categories too – perhaps we’ll come back to these another day!)
- Speech and Language Kids. This is an amazing website with so much information on it. As well as step by step posts on how to work on all sorts of different skills, Carrie has developmental norms for language development, some free resources to print off and also two podcasts. (Watch out for us on one of the podcasts in the new year!)
- The Communication Trust – This website is a collaboration between 50 or more different charities and other organisations working with children with speech and language difficulties throughout the UK. There are lots of great free books, leaflets and videos available to download on all sorts of topics connected to speech and language.
- Special Needs Jungle – We have a regular column on this website, but that’s not why I’m sharing it here. I’m sharing it because it is THE place to go to if you are the parent of a child going through the EHCP process. That is not all you’ll find there though – there are fantastic posts on topics to do with any and every kind of special need or disability.
- British Stammering Association – If you have a child who has started to stammer, this website is a fantastic source of information. There are tips on when to be concerned and how to help, and even a free telephone helpline.
- Busy Bug Kits – This website is very useful, particularly if you have a child with speech sound difficulties. There are free sets of pictures for pretty much every sound that you can print off and use as well as some language resources and lots of information too. (Unfortunately this website seems to be offline today but it does say it is coming soon, so do check back again).
- The SpeeL– This is an Australian website which has weekly parent information posts giving tips and advice about working on a variety of skills. You can also download a useful 16-page free e-book sample of activities to do to support langauge skills with preschool children. See our review of the book here.
- Autism Teaching Strategies – if you have a child who is on the Autistic Spectrum or who is working on social skills for any other reason, there are loads of great free activities to download here. Particularly, there are some great ideas for working with secondary age children.
- Playing With Words 365 – This website hasn’t been updated much in the last year or so, but the back catalogue is an amazing library of advice posts for parents of children with speech and language delays and disorders. The posts are mostly aimed at preschool age children.
- Talking Point – This website offers loads of great information for parents, including a Progress Checker where you can put in information about your child to get an idea of whether you should be concerned about their language skills or not.
- Free language stuff – This site is exactly what it says – lots of free language activities that you can do with your child!
There are also lots of other great websites, this is just a few of my favourite ones with information/resources aimed at parents. If you want to find more great speech therapy websites check out the Kidmunicate Top 100 SLP websites for 2016 which came out this week (and don’t forget to check out what they had to say about Speech Blog UK!)
Hi Helen
Surprised you have not mentioned http://www.speech-language-therapy.com, Caroline Bowen’s amazing site.
Or maybe every S< knows it already -they should!!
Yes, that is a fantastic website! I guess I think of that one as more of a website for speech therapists than for parents, though I know she does have useful information for everyone!
You haven’t included anything specifically aimed at AAC users, missing out an important group of people needing support from speech language therapy.
You are absolutely correct. This is not an area either of us specialise in. We are always open to specialists writing posts that we would host on subjects like this.