Lucy Atkinson

🗣 Paediatric Speech & Language Therapist
💫 All views my own
📝 Creator of The Little Speech Bubble

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

This webinar was SO informative tonight. Feel like I've got a much clearer view on the overlap/differences with SM & ASD. Handy thinking of the term 'reactive mutism' to describe the different presentation when it's not SM but it's 'something'. Thank you so much, Andy! 😊

[Spectrum Gaming @Spectrum0Gaming]

Autistic young people regularly report receiving the wrong support when they experience difficulties with communication - which has motivated us to create this webinar on autism and selective mutism. The webinar is recorded: https://t.co/DaoqvrtSMA

[SSAM Primary Sch @SSAMprimary]

‼️‼️IPAD UPDATE …. PLS SHARE THIS‼️‼️
Bolton Schools work with a FAB TEAM at Bolton ICT -on Sunday they turned all our iPads into ‘lost mode’ - they are USELESS to anyone PLS keep your eyes open for them. It doesn’t pay to STEAL from our CHILDREN!
@BoltonSICT
@MoorgateBolton

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

This is absolutely awful - please share this post in case it reaches anyone with any info on this 🙏

[SSAM Primary Sch @SSAMprimary]

‼️‼️Pls keep your eyes open, for our IPads. ‼️‼️They are all labelled & security marked. Our school has been broken into this evening & the thieves have taken our children’s iPads. 😢
If you hear anything pls contact the police or email school.

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

Plenty to think about following the National SM CEN today 💡 thank you to all the speakers & @national_sm_cen for organising

[RCSLTpolicy @RCSLTpolicy]

⏰️ With just 5️⃣ hours to midnight, you've made @MikeysWish_VDA's #InvestInSLT petition one of the most popular - again.

❤️ Massive @RCSLT thanks.

🗣 Now let's get Mikey the 2️⃣1️⃣1️⃣ signatures he needs to hit 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣.

➡️ https://t.co/O6F8pi3pne

[Gillian Rudd @GillianRudd]

❕Did you know that:
- We only need 270 more signatures for Government to respond to the #InvestInSLT petition?
- All British citizens and UK residents can sign?
- There is no minimum age requirement? (Here is my 8yo signing it!)
❔Can we get to 10,000 signatures today?? ✍🏿✍️✍🏼

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

It's such a privilege to be part of someone's journey into their career in SaLT. All the time and effort being a practice educator is so worth it when you can see the development in a student. Incredibly grateful for the kind words my student has shared, it really means a lot 🌟

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

Just finished having a final run through of my Selective Mutism training for tomorrow. I'm so excited to be delivering SM training to our CAMHS colleagues & feel hopeful that this may be the start of some wonderful collaborative working 🌟 #selectivemutism

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

I've just seen that the theme of children's mental health week is 'My Voice Matters' - how amazing! 🌟

[ClaireC, EP @Claireicarroll1]

Statement from UK national charity SMiRA on the use of "situational mutism" Vs "selective mutism". Please RT and share. #selectivemutism #situationalmutism

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

SO excited for 2024 for a number of reasons, both personally & professionally 🌟
Today felt like there was a huge step forward with an idea of mine at work 💡 really channelling my new found confidence & rolling with it as long as I can! 💪🏼

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

Such a lovely part of my day - back at my old primary school for careers week, spreading the news about how wonderful Speech and Language Therapy is as a career ❤🌟 the children were absolutely brilliant & asked fantastic questions. Thank you for having me @SSAMprimary 😊

[SSAM Primary Sch @SSAMprimary]

Our final visitors for Careers Week were Dom Carey - an area manager for Tesco - and Lucy Balchin who is a Speech and Language therapist. Year 6 have had an insight into many jobs and careers this week and have impressed all our visitors with their questions and contributions.

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

Had a huge shock when I realised the children's comic I picked up, purely for the SpiderMan/IronMan stickers inside, cost £5.99!!

But it will be 100% worth it to surprise the children I work with, with stickers of their favourite superheroes at the end of their sessions 🌟

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

Ready to start the course 'Working with Teens and Adults with Selective Mutism' by Susannah Thomson this morning 🌟

So lucky & grateful to have won a place as part of SM Awareness month 🎉

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

@LondonSMCEN It's a work in progress, but this week we joined up to talk about what we in SaLT offer for our children and young people with SM. CAMHS were impressed with the pathway & were asking questions & talking about their role too. The word is being spread about SM! 🎉🌟

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

So far this week, I've supported a new speech sounds group, joined a session of forest school for observations, had a meeting with CAMHS to discuss our SM pathway, discussed coaching skills - alongside the usual assessment & treatment appointments too... & it's only Wednesday! 🌟

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

@ChloeNkomo If you're on Facebook, there is also a SMIRA Professionals group, where you can post questions and gain advice from other professionals with SM experience which can be really useful too! If I think of anything else, I'll let you know ☺

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

@ChloeNkomo I've seen that you already have the SM Resource Manual which I definitely would recommend! I also accessed Maggie Johnson's training through Course Beetle (online) - it was fantastic! It's expensive though - fortunately my Trust funded it for me as I work with the SM caseload

[Selective Mutism Association @FindTheirVoices]

People generally have a hard time understanding SM.

Swipe through to hear how Jonathan Kohlmeier, a SMA Board of Directors member, best explains SM.

Head to the link below to read the full post. https://t.co/Ip1Pj4AtDv

[Lucy Atkinson @_Lucy_Atkinson_]

Very blessed to work in a wonderful team; we were invited to head in to work early before our team meeting this morning, so we could eat breakfast together and have a catch up. Connecting with each other is so important & it's amazing that it's valued by our leaders too 🌟