'Together we make the best out of it'

Until recently, toddlers and preschool chlidren came to the communication plus group in Breda four times a week, because they have a developmental language disorder (DLD) and a developmental delay. Pedagogical practitioner Matté Schroder: “The main goal of the communication plus group is that communication becomes fun for the children again. In treatment, we mainly focus on communicative conditions and communicative development. What is happening in the world around you? How do you actually interact with someone? And what do you need to communicate? ” 
Now that the group is temporarily closed, Matté sends the children and parents a fun and appropriate exercise at home every day via the digital Social Schools app. Matté: “I make a video with our hand puppet Bob, which we always use in the group, and challenge the children and parents to do an exercise at home. For example, Bob shows how you inflate a balloon together and then let it fly away. I then give parents advice, custom made, via an online response on how they can elicit interaction during the activity. You do this, for example, by waiting for the child's initiative. The name Bob stands in Dutch for: experience, meeting, meaning. In the normal situation we do all experiential activities in the group with Bob and the children. The strength lies in the consistent repetition of the activity. In this way they learn to give meaning to their experience and their environment. We are now asking parents to offer this repetition as much as possible.”