Using Our Books for Speech Therapy

My colleague Sandhya Taksale told us about speech therapist Sawani Godbole and how she is using our books in therapy. Swani lives in a little town Pen (???) near Mumbai. She and her husband have made a conscious decision to move to a smaller place and start their own practice there. Sawani reads a lot and has a small library at her place which kids can access. She is fond of Pratham Books and uses our books in her therapy sessions..

This is what she has to say- 

As a speech language therapist I deal with kids who have deficient linguistic skills. Although the prime focus is speech (i.e. oral language) written language too is very important especially in school age children. 

Moreover there are several concepts which I would like to build on in the child’s repertoire. But sitting within the 4 walls of the therapy room this is difficult. It is at this point that I realize the importance that Pratham Books has in my therapy aids. Not only is the book colourful and attractive but it has a definite storyline. There is one picture per event which is very useful for me because initially all auditory language should be pictorially reinforced. I am spared the colossal task of picturising all the events and experiences the child is exposed to, because I get fairly relevant illustrations. The stories too are novel, culturally familiar, and thankfully not the ‘moral ’stories which the kids get bored with, very soon.

My only regret is that the availability in rural areas is lacking. The parents cannot buy the books and I am forced to keep a good stock of the books and lend them periodically.

If you want to donate books to Sawani’s little library, please mail us at web(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

We also hope that our books soon travel to places where every child has access to them. If you want to learn how you can help our mission of getting ‘a book in every child’s hand’, click here OR send us your ideas.