Speech & Language - Redriff Primary, City of London Academy

What is Speech and Language Therapy?

Speech and Language Therapy (SaLT) is the intervention, support and care of children and adults who have difficulties with their communication, or with eating, drinking and swallowing.

Speech and Language Therapists work with a range of people including parents, carers and other professionals, such as teachers, nurses, occupational therapists and paediatricians. The Redriff speech and language offer will be supplemented by Unlocking Potential who will provide a student SaL therapist for one term of the school year

Speech and Language Therapists assess and treat a range of needs and difficulties, and children that receive speech and language therapy might experience one or more of the following:

Difficulties using language (words and sentences)
Difficulties making speech sounds
Difficulties saying words and sentences fluently – stammering
Difficulties understanding language (making sense of what is said to them)
Difficulties interacting with others (for instance understanding non-verbal cues, or using language in different ways to question, problem solve and clarify)
Voice problems such as hoarseness and lost voice

For more information about speech and language therapy, click this link to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists:

https://www.rcslt.org/-/media/Project/RCSLT/rcslt-what-is-slt-factsheet.pdf

Visit site

For more information about speech, language and communication needs, click here.
https://www.rcslt.org/-/media/Project/RCSLT/rcslt-communication-needs-factsheet.pdf

Speech and Language Therapy at Redriff

At Redriff, we believe strongly that oracy and communication skills are integral to the curriculum, and we ensure that they are interwoven into all subjects and lessons. As such, when a child experiences difficulties with their speech, language or communication we respond quickly and provide support to ensure they develop these skills and become confident and able communicators. We are lucky enough to have our own speech and language therapist, Sarah Parsons, who works at Redriff three days a week. She works with all our children, from Nursery to Year 6, and is an important part of the school team, providing essential support to all children with communication needs.

Alongside direct work with the children, Sarah also works closely with our staff team to better understand, identify and support children’s needs within lessons and the wider school community. She provides training and ongoing advice, and leads on the delivery of Makaton in the school.

About Sarah Parsons

Sarah is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist living with her family here in Rotherhithe. After finishing a degree in Sheffield, she completed a two-year postgraduate diploma in Clinical Communication Studies at City, University of London. This qualified her to work as a Speech and Language Therapist with both adults and children.

Sarah is a registered member of the following professional bodies: The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT); the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC); and the Association for Speech and Language Therapists in Private Practise (ASLTIP). Sarah has been working as a speech and language therapist with children for over 20 years. She has worked in a range of professional settings including health centres, schools, special schools and the NHS, where she led the Early Years Service before coming to Redriff.

Sarah works at Redriff three days a week and also works at our Sister School, Galleywall.

Sarah says:

“I have a strong passion for supporting children with communication needs and being able to do this at Redriff is such a wonderful opportunity. Being a part of the school team enables so much collaborative working and skill sharing. It is wonderful to see how the children’s communication skills develop.”

How are children referred to SaLT?

There are different ways that a child can be referred to speech and language therapy, and different levels of interventions and support, depending on their age and their needs.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, teachers use a communication checklist to identify any potential communication needs. This is carried out with all children within the first four weeks of starting in Nursery or Reception.

Many children who enter the school are already receiving support from SaLT in the NHS. In this situation we liaise with the NHS therapist and discuss the level of need and recommended provision. If identified as having significant needs, these children will be formally assessed and specialised goals will be set. Other children who join our Early Years Foundation Stage will be assessed via the communication checklist to decide what their needs are and what support they might need.

If at any time parents express any concerns or questions about speech and language therapy these are directed to the teacher in the first instance. Following this a discussion/ observation will take place with the SENCO and a Request for help completed alongside observation /discussion in the classroom. Following this feedback and next steps are discussed with teachers and parents.

Parental involvement:

Parents invited to observe any sessions at any arranged time so that they can further support their child at home. Resources attached to reports and videos also being developed to show some of the interventions and approaches in action.
Regular workshops delivered to support parental understanding of communication needs.

Please contact the school office if you would like to arrange a conversation with Sarah

office@redriff.southwark.sch.uk 0207 237 4272.

Communication Interventions provided in the school

Sarah delivers (with the support of skilled teaching assistants) a range of supports/interventions for the children at different levels. There is a system of prioritisation in place, which follows the format below:

Yellow level support. This might include:

Parent sessions/training
Small Talk This is an out of class intervention based on using materials from the Talk Boost nursery manual and the Small Talk resources supplied by the Speech and Language Therapist. Talkboost is a structured and evidenced programme that aims to increase functional communication in children aged 3-4. Staff engage early talkers in activities through stories, songs and turn taking and building games, using a range of creative resources.
Support through the use and development of Makaton across the school

At orange level the children will have specific goals that are written to support their needs. In addition to this they may receive some interventions from the yellow or orange level:

This might include:

Talk Boost

This is an out of class intervention where children in a small group develop their language, speech and communication. Talk Boost is a structured and robustly evidenced programme that can boost a child’s communication by an average of 18 months after ten weeks of intervention. Sessions include speech and language activities, games and stories.

Lego Therapy

Lego-based therapy (LeGoff et al 2014) is an evidence based intervention that aims to develop social communication skills in children, such as sharing, turn-taking, following rules, using names and problem-solving. A trained adult facilitates this, although the intervention is child led to allow them a means of developing their social communication skills.

Word Aware

Word Aware is an evidence-based approach to promote vocabulary development in children. This method of developing spoken and written vocabulary in all children is based on extensive research by Anna Branagan and Stephen Parsons. It is of particular value for children with special educational needs and for those learning English as an additional language.

1-2-3 Look at Me/Attention Autism

1-2-3 is an intervention based on Attention Autism, an intervention model designed by Gina Davies, and adapted for children at Redriff by Sarah, our Speech and Language therapist and a specialist SEN teacher. It aims to develop natural and spontaneous communication through the use of visually based and highly motivating activities. The primary objective is that the sessions are fun and ‘offer an irresistible invitation to learn’.

Tools of regulation

Tools of Regulation is an adapted version of the Zones of Regulation, a framework to foster self-regulation and emotional control. The aims are for children to build their understanding of states of arousal and build a bank of regulatory strategies to support them with their emotional control. The framework and treatment approach is based on evidence in the fields of autism spectrum condition (ASC), attention deficit disorders (ADD/HD) and social-emotional theories. The Zones integrates Systemizing Theory, Central Coherence Theory and Cognitive Behaviour Management. It ties in Social Thinking®, Visual Supports and is a Self-Management approach. We use the Tools of Regulation at Redriff alongside our Emotion Coaching approach.

Adult child interaction

We use video feedback to allow staff to reflect on their interactions with children and reflect on the sessions. With the support of a therapist and training, this is used to reflect on and adapt their communication to help the child’s understanding and use of language in live interactions.

Colourful semantics/Shape coding

Colourful semantics/shape coding. Colourful Semantics uses coloured visual prompt cards to ‘show’ the structure of a sentence, so that the structure (syntax) is linked with its meaning (semantics). It was originally developed for use with children who have severe specific language impairment and relatively recently adapted for use in mainstream school settings. It has developed further in Shape Coding, a tool to support children’s learning (rather than a programme), that can be gradually withdrawn as children are independently able to use and understand the grammatical structures.

Intensive interaction

Intensive Interaction is a technique of communication with people who do not use words, for example those with profound and complex needs or autism. The approach uses pre-verbal communication techniques for instance responsive eye contact, facial expressions, vocal mirroring and joint focus activities. Just as a primary carer would imitate and turn-take with an infant, a practitioner using Intensive Interaction would develop imitations into mutually enjoyable games and build a relationship with a person with profound language or learning needs.

Red level support. This might include:

Specialist Speech and Language Therapy

Detailed assessment – both informal and formal (standardised assessments) of their communication skills looking at the following areas: attention, use of their language, their understanding, their expressive language, speech sounds, vocabulary and interaction.
A child will have a written report on entry into the school. Additional reports are written when requested and at key transition points Y2, Y5 and Y6. Termly goals will be shared with the Goals shared with the family and the teaching team at school.
Therapy provided to support the implementation of these goals and this may be in a small group, pair or individually depending on their needs.
Therapy sessions are usually 30 minutes in length and parents are invited to attend and share sessions where they can so that they can provide further support in the home environment.

Intensive interaction

Communication support in the Early Years

Early on in the Autumn Term Sarah works with the early years team to support completion of a communication checklist to identify children’s strengths and needs.

By identifying children at this early stage we can ensure that the correct level of provision and support is in place for them in order to maximise their communication potential at the start of their Redriff journey.

Resource Provision including specialist classrooms – Boathouse, Isambard, Merlin and Sail groups:

Sarah supports these provisions in the following ways:

Running weekly groups in each of the specialist classrooms
Sharing goals and advice to specialist teachers
Supporting TAs to carry out speech and language goals
Running individual or small group sessions to children
Supporting the skills and knowledge of Makaton for all staff in resource provision
Reviewing children’s goals termly and attending annual reviews where requested
Delivers accredited Elklan training for staff
Attending and delivering input to Tea and Talk and Chatt events and whole school events

Communication approaches used:

There are a range of tools and strategies used to support communication used throughout the school. Children may be involved in one or many of these at any one given time. Following assessment by the team and discussions with the family communication approaches will be discussed and implemented. The children are provided with a ‘toolkit’ for communication that may include speech, signing, gesture, symbols and voice output communication aids (VOCA).

Makaton: Makaton is a language programme that uses signs, symbols and speech to enable people to communicate. At Redriff Makaton is used by all staff throughout the school. Makaton is used to support the spoken word to provide visual support to help children with their attention, understanding of language and their expressive skills. At Redriff we are passionate about making communication accessible for all. We are currently working towards an application for our school to be Makaton Friendly.
Aided Language Stimulation (ALS) Boards, communication boards or communication books. We use these to model and support language in a relaxed and fun way. Using communication boards is a great way to increase vocabulary naturally without waiting for them to request anything. It is a way of using natural language modelling through motivating activities through symbols and speech. It also naturally slows down conversational speech and gives more opportunities for repetition in functional situations. Situations are carefully created to give reasons and opportunities to structure and scaffold. Using these we move through a range of language functions e.g. to request, to reject, to give opinions, to comment and to have conversations. Some of our children need a more comprehensive way of communicating beyond communication boards. These children will have a personalised communication book containing vocabulary and topics for situations that they communicate in. These are developed in collaboration with teaching staff and the family. Communication boards and books are always used alongside speech to give children support for their developing communication.
Communication books. A communication book is a form of AAC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication) allowing children to communicate by pointing or looking at specific sections of various pages. Communication books often contain pictures or picture symbols accompanied by a word or label. These support children to be able to communicate with people throughout their day.
Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCA): Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCA) are devices programed with a voice. These may be trialled with children who have very little speech or whose speech is very difficult to understand e.g. proloquo to go, wordpower 100
PECS Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is developed for children with autism to improve their communication skills. It is specifically designed for the children to communicate with picture cards but with little or no spoken language and is a specific, alternative and augmentative communication system. It is effective at supporting the initiation of communication.