August 26, 2026Helen Guntrip
In this blog post, specialist speech and language therapist Helen Guntrip, shares her experience supporting children’s communication through whole body movement. As a result, she created Talk & Move, a holistic programme that develops children’s speech, language and emotional development through movement. Over to Helen…
Children learn best through their whole bodies. They see, hear, touch and move to experience the world around them. When we combine these different sensory experiences, we give children more than one way to access and remember new information.
When children learn new words in a multisensory way, it gives more concrete meaning to language. The child isn’t just listening to a word; they can be gesturing, clapping syllables or engaging in whole body movement. This is known as embodied learning. When a child hears a word while actively experiencing it, their brain can make connections between the word, its meaning and what they are seeing and feeling.
In Talk & Move children don’t just hear hop, they try hopping. They don’t just hear tall, they stretch up, stand on tip toes and feel tall. Words such as up, down, spin, crawl and stretch become meaningful because they are experienced as well as heard.
The same principle can be used during everyday interactions. While children are climbing, you might comment, “You’re climbing up. You’re going higher.” You can describe what they can see and feel: is it fast or slow, high or low?
These simple interactions provide rich opportunities to hear, see, experience and use new vocabulary.
Multisensory learning can also support the foundations for literacy. Phonological awareness (the awareness of sounds, syllables and rhyme) is an important foundation for learning to read and spell.
In Talk & Move, we explore speech sounds and syllables through sound, movement and visual prompts. Children might roar like lions, buzz like bees or make the “ch-ch-ch” of a train. They hear the sound, make the sound, clap the syllables and connect it with an action or image on the Talk & Move card.
There is no pressure to get sounds right or say words. Children can join in at their own level, making sounds, copying actions or clapping syllables. Children who are not yet talking can participate through the actions, making the activity inclusive.
Multisensory learning can also support children’s emotional development. In Talk & Move we use a combination of active, balancing and calming movements, giving children opportunities to experience different types of movement and notice how their bodies feel.
Identifying how your body feels inside, a sense known as interoception, is a skill that is continually developing. After running outside you might say, “I can hear you’re breathing faster. Can you feel your heart beating?” After a story you could ask, “My body feels calm and relaxed now. How does your body feel?”
These simple conversations help children develop emotional vocabulary alongside greater awareness of their bodies. They are another example of how children can learn through what they hear, see and feel, rather than through language alone.
Not every child learns or communicates in the same way. True inclusion means creating a learning environment where all children can join in together. A multisensory approach provides children with different ways to engage. A child may not yet be ready to answer a question verbally, but they may be able to participate through moving, copying an action or sound.
Multisensory learning is not about adding more to the day. It is about thinking differently about the learning environment we are already providing and asking: How can I give this child more than one way to experience, understand and communicate?
When we give children different ways to learn and communicate, we give more children the opportunity to join in, succeed and enjoy learning.
About the author
Helen Guntrip is the Founder of Talk & Move and a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and children’s Yoga Teacher. She has worked for over 22 years with educators and families supporting them to develop children’s communication skills and confidence in a fun and holistic way. Talk & Move’s mission is to support the whole child. Helen has developed a unique approach that combines body movements with vocabulary, speech sound and phonological awareness development. The programme is easy to use and inclusive, respecting the individual development of every child.
