Speech Bubbles is monitored and evaluated robustly - the pre and post assessments mark the changes in the children’s behaviour and attainment in school. However, there is not a defined benchmark of communication success that all children must hit or a grading system that measures success. Instead, Speech Bubbles ends as it begins and recognises the journey to effective communication isn’t linear and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. The super clever but too-shy-to-put-their-hand-up girl giggles in the session and puts her hand up more in class.

The boy who speaks English as an additional language and was an elected mute a year ago, has started to ask adults for help instead of staying silent. The child with ADHD has started to put their hand up and volunteer what happens next in a story and is writing better stories in class. These are the changes that will contribute to better attainment in education and improve their life chances.

One of my lasting memories of delivering Speech Bubbles was watching a child who did have an ASD diagnosis participate in the second term. He had been reluctant to join in for a while. For a few weeks, we wondered if Speech Bubbles was really for him or not. However, I started to appreciate that my offer to him was like giving him an attention bucket and he wanted a sensory bin. I realised he liked looking at his wristwatch and telling the time. So, I started to ask him to time the games we played. He went from being outside the activity to in the middle of it, calling out and counting down - alongside other children who were rolling around the floor in various incarnations of animals. The game hadn’t changed, I just better understood the way he enjoyed playing it. Once we start to work in this way, the opportunities for communication changed. As from that moment on, every time he went to leave, I would ask him to come back and time something - and he did. He was no longer “not participating” because of a perceived communication need. I had instead learnt the value in changing my own expectation of how games can be played - it never required me to be the keeper of time. Over the weeks he would call time, then another child would initiate a conversation with him, he’d agree to participate with them, and the group was playing, building skills and relationships that make new friendships flourish. A few weeks later I was walking through the corridor, and I heard his teacher calling out, getting him to time something in class which made me smile. The Teaching Assistant told me she’d seen him playing with more children in the playground and had attempted to comfort a child who was crying during lunchtime.

A Senior Leader in one school told me that one of the things that she liked about Speech Bubbles was the fact that it ran over a year. It wasn’t a quick programme that popped up and disappeared. It meant, as a school, by the second term of delivery, they were all starting to acknowledge and appreciate the difference in the children. It resonated with me. I delivered more Speech Bubbles sessions to groups of children in the last year than my son has received in Speech Therapy from the NHS in three years.

Over three years, most of the targets my son was given - he was always going to fail - because we were set top-heavy targets to keep us on the linear journey of development, yet no one ever assessed his sensory strengths or motor skills before they set them.

As a society, we have an estimated 1.9 million children struggling to communicate in our classrooms, I can’t help but wonder how many of them are struggling because they feel like they are sitting in front of an attention bucket, but they’d rather be putting their hands in a sensory bin? Or in the age of austerity, have had an assessment of their sensory needs or foundation skills overlooked. I have also been shocked by the EHCP process & how much of my child’s development now gets handed over to the school to be responsible for. In a packed curriculum, where is the room for working on the nuances in different styles of learning? Where is the time and attention for this, that won't bring teachers to their knees? I will continue to deliver more Speech Bubbles sessions in a year than my son will receive in 1-1 therapy from the NHS. Having already been cut to the bone, they are now shaving the bone from NHS service provision. One therapist I met separately to my son's sessions acknowledged that we are unfortunately living in the age of austerity therapy. My heavily cursed attention bucket becomes a one-size-fits-most kind of approach. I have seen other examples from parents, where they have been told to do it at home, after one session with only a worksheet to follow. There are gaping holes in our system that children are falling through. I know from my own experience, if I had been offered a sensory assessment two years ago, my child would be in a different place right now, because we would have all communicated with him differently to meet his preferences.

So, if we are to get serious about reducing that 1.9 million figure and closing the holes in the system, change must happen. Programmes like Speech Bubbles should be part of that change.

Why? Speech Bubbles shows there are new ways to work. By drawing upon the collective expertise of artists, therapists, and educators, the programme demonstrates the potential to create a space which moves away from linear lines, attainment, data sets, and a language of deficit. We can start to close the gaps. It harnesses the new wave of thinking about difference - where the perceived norm is not the sole measure of success or where we place all of our value. A space where the kids that like attention buckets and the kids that like sensory bins can sit side by side, because we recognise that they will learn differently but one way isn’t superior to the other, and both are equally supported to strengthen their communication skills. A space where children feel that being themselves is good enough and if certain elements of learning are more challenging for them, they are comfortable with that, because they also know their strengths, and therefore don't feel judged as lesser.

That’s the world I want for my son.

The Value and Success of Speech Bubbles by Louise Pendry (part three)