Hi, welcome and thank you for visiting Find Your Voice. I’m Hannah, a mum, a qualified Speech and Language therapist and founder for Find Your Voice. Our Sensory Storytime, aimed at babies and toddlers, are all about giving parents confidence to play and share books with their children, knowing they’re helping to build language skills. My mission is to share my professional knowledge and experience, as well as my experience of being a first time mum to provide inspiring, interactive activities you can easily do at home.
Enjoy sharing stories with your child,
Worry about whether you’re doing this parenting thing right,
Value time with your child when you’re not distracted by the dishes,
Want reassurance about how playing helps your child develop,
Like to get out of the house and talk to an adult once in a while,
Don’t mind getting messy,
Then come along and discover the power of captivating multi-sensory experiences with Sensory Stories. Each six week block is based on a popular children’s book. Each week, whilst you arrive and settle, drinks and cake are available. Then, as the story is told, you and your child will take a journey through scenery, textures, messy play, music, and scents so you are fully immersed in the narrative. We then take time for parent and child to connect through shared activities using themes from our story that are designed to develop the building blocks of talking. Information and handouts are provided to support this.
For more information and to book please visit the website www.findyourvoiceslt.co.uk/book-online or contact us on info@findyourvoice.co.uk or 07923402604.
So how did this all begin?
The story starts when I was on maternity leave. I was worried about returning to work. Although I enjoyed the variety, challenge and reward of working as a Speech and Language therapist (2011- end of 2016) and experiencing the vast difference the right strategies and activities can make to families whose children are having difficulty developing communication skills. I was a mum now and as many mum’s do, I was now fretting over whether my son was doing what he is supposed to do, when he was supposed to do it and whether I was providing the right environment for him to thrive. This is in spite of having knowledge and experience of supporting children’s development. I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, it’s a cliche, but they’re only little for a short time. Then, an ice breaker at a baby group I was attending with my son (then around 6 months old) inspired me. We were asked what we did / do, other than being a parent. On explaining I was a Speech and Language therapist the group leader lit up and explained she thought this is a great role. The funny thing was, I looked at her and thought, actually, I like the idea of what you are doing. She had her 3 month old on the mat in front of her and her 3 year old off to the side colouring, plus, she was bringing parents together and supporting interaction with our babies. What a great way to be with your own children and share your skills! There’s a host of research about how parents can support children’s early development with books and in play, why not transform this into baby and toddler groups to support all parents build their knowledge and confidence, have a safe space to share any concerns and enjoy some coffee, cake! I am very much still on the journey towards making this work, having very little business experience and a now 2 year old means it’s a slow process but I love this new aspect to my role.
