Posted on: 18 February 2021
A CNWL Speech and Language Therapist and her two friends have created a free video resource, designed to make stories more accessible and enjoyable for children with language and communication difficulties.
Katie Kennedy, a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist with the Complex Needs Speech and Language Therapy Team in Milton Keynes, and friends Alex and Sam Rowe, have co-founded the charity Stories with Symbols. 
Their aim is to stimulate children’s interest in books and support understanding of the language used within them. This is achieved through story-telling videos featuring on-screen symbols to underscore the key meaning of the book’s text.
Each video also has a section to teach vocabulary from the story, first based on an illustration in the book, and then through real life footage. Some videos also feature a section where the narrator talks about her favourite page, modelling language beyond the book.
So far, five videos have been produced. All follow a set formula and are filmed in a specific way, maximising the opportunity for attention and learning, while minimising distractions.
All resources are free through www.storieswithsymbols.com. You can also get the latest updates from Stories with Symbols through Facebook.
Originally designed as a resource for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), the trio has since come to realise that lots of children, with – and without – additional needs, enjoy the concept.
The project was a labour of love that was a year in the development, before launching about a month ago. It stemmed from Alex and Sam’s experience of raising a child who has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and learning difficulties and the trio’s shared love of communication.
Alex said: “While our son didn't find us reading stories with him particularly motivating, regardless how animated and silly we got, he was very interested in videos. We had enjoyed quite a bit of success making 'social story' videos, to prepare him for events and situations he found challenging, so we applied the same principle to books, and tried filming ourselves reading stories to camera.
It worked - he would watch the videos over and over again. What's more, his enjoyment of those books extended away from the screen, and he would read them alone and share them with us. Stories with Symbols was born.”
Katie has known the couple for many years and is enjoying being able to offer her speech and language therapy knowledge and skills to develop the videos.
“I’m seeing this as a springboard to sparking interest, curiosity and enjoyment of books and of course, developing language and communication skills for children. There are so many benefits of books, for example, building attention and listening skills, our understanding of words, concepts and ideas and in turn our ability to express ourselves. Books also provide a communication opportunity and enable us to spend quality time with our children.”
“This resource is most definitely not to replace reading books with children. Interactive book sharing is so important for building language, literacy and communication skills. I feel this resource compliments this and for many, offers a way in to the wonderful world of books!”
“For all of us, this has been a passion project for evenings and weekends that we’ve all somehow managed to fit in, between jobs and family life. And now we have a resource available to people anywhere in the world, for free. We hope you enjoy!”
CNWL runs three Speech and Language services for children and young people in Milton Keynes, information on which are accessed via this link.