Issue 28, Page 7: Supporting teachers to develop speech, language and communication skills in the classroom

To build strong foundations for learning, teachers must consider how their pupils learn and develop knowledge and skills.

All pupils, not only those with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), benefit from the use of evidence-based SLCN strategies in the classroom. Evidence shows that high-quality teaching improves both pupil attainment and outcomes and this is why Speech & Language Link places so much importance on the universal implementation of their High Quality Teaching Strategies.

How do Speech Link and Language Link support teachers?

Teachers at subscribing schools can log on to their school’s homepage and view individual pupils’ assessment results and difficulties, and an overview of the needs of the whole class. This can help facilitate how to focus and adapt their teaching – especially useful for ECTs. Additionally available are numerous printable resources, designed to support learners of all abilities and develop communication friendly classrooms and year-round access to our Speech & Language Link Help Desk.

Speech & Language Link offers the following additional support and resources for teachers at subscribing schools, each accompanied by bitesized video guides and PDFs for using them effectively:

INFANT LANGUAGE LINK (4-8 YEARS)

JUNIOR LANGUAGE LINK (7-11 YEARS)

High Quality Teaching Strategies and resources to support them, for use with all pupils in the classroom.

Printable, evidence-based resources (by our team of speech and language therapists) include sentence and story planners, visual timetables, Help Me cards and Question Cue cards.

Teacher Engagement Ratings completed before and after interventions, provide a functional measure of the impact interventions have on a child’s performance in the classroom.

Teacher Guidance Notes outline the skills and vocabulary covered in the interventions and offer fully resourced consolidation and ‘next-steps’ extension classroom activities.

SPEECH LINK (4-8 YEARS)

Age-specific speech sound development charts and printable resources such as Sound Cards, phonics and rhyme games.

Listening Games designed to develop listening skills in the classroom.

The Phonological Awareness Group is a fully resourced whole-class programme to help pupils recognise and develop speech sounds – an important foundation for phonics and literacy skills.

Speech Intelligibility Ratings completed by teachers before and after intervention to measure impact.

Two video-based training modules explaining speech sound development and how to support it.

Teachers, is your school a Speech Link or Language Link subscriber? If so, speak to your SENCo and ask them to give you access to the packages.

Don’t have a Speech Link or Language Link subscription? Ask your SENCo to take a four-week FREE trial to see what they’re missing.

Book a free trial