Language Interventions & Speech Interventions for Schools

Providing support at the right level

Communication is fundamental to learning, relationships and life chances (See Bercow: 10 years on). It is therefore vital to support and develop all pupils’ speech and language skills, especially those who struggle.

We know that if the right level of support is provided at the right time students with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) can do well in school, form and sustain better relationships and ultimately improve their life chances.

Language Intervention small group work

Getting the right level of support in place can be challenging. Access to specialist services is becoming ever more restricted whilst the numbers of children with speech and language needs is increasing. Language interventions take time and are costly in terms of support staff allocation so it is crucial that schools have a range of support options available to them to meet the needs of all their students.

This approach is sometimes referred to as a balanced system (Gascoigne, 2023).

A tiered approach to language intervention

A tiered approach to support is often described at three levels:

Universal / Wave 1 – at this level all students are benefitting including those with difficulties. This is usually delivered through quality first teaching and some additional classroom wide strategies.

Targeted / Wave 2 – at this level individual students are identified as needing specific input to address difficulties. This can be an individual programme or taking part in a focus group. This is usually delivered by support staff.

Specialist / Wave 3 – at this level individual children are recognised to have complex needs requiring the intervention of a specialist e.g. a speech and language therapist or an educational psychologist. These students will have an individually tailored programme of work. This can be delivered as part of a group or on an individual basis under the guidance of the specialist.

Universal-level support

Universal-level support is about making a classroom communication friendly for all students. Any strategies or resources are used across the whole class. This approach relies on quality first teaching strategies as part of general classroom practice.

To support students with SLCN, teachers are encouraged to use and promote visual materials to break tasks down and provide structure for oral and written work. This can take the form of table top aids or using signs, objects and pictures during teaching. Other strategies do not require any special equipment but focus on presenting and organising information in a different way for example, breaking instructions into short steps and giving students extra time to process what they are hearing. Any strategies used at the universal level will be most effective if used consistently across the whole school.

Getting the environment right

To get children talking, they need both somewhere to talk and something to talk about. Providing opportunities and spaces for ‘chat’ around the classroom and school is worth considering. The best spaces will include some level of privacy e.g. a den, low levels of background noise and role play opportunities that encourage dialogue. Link Community members can read our Link magazine article on making classrooms more communication friendly.

How to make your classroom communication friendly

The right skills mix

Universal-level support also includes training and advice for all adults in the school to increase awareness of SLCN and how to identify pupils needing additional support. A useful way to assess your school’s knowledge and training needs is to conduct a school wide speech and language audit. Link Community members can access our speech and language audit here.

The Link Speech & Language CPD is an online course for primary teachers and support staff. The course modules offer clear and comprehensive information to develop participants’ understanding of how best to identify and support speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in the classroom.

Find out more

Targeted support

Targeted speech and language interventions often take the form of group work or one-to-one sessions. There are benefits to both approaches and the most successful support will involve a combination.

Individual intervention can be particularly useful for focusing on very specific areas and help when adjustments are needed to support the individual pupil. It can take the form of a specific programme of activities or the use of particular aids when completing classroom work such as use of a task management board. This level of support can be time intensive and can lead to an over reliance on adult help. Where this level of support is being provided, consideration should be given to moving the student to a level of independence.

Group Interventions

Group work enables pupils to scaffold from each other’s efforts and generalise their skills by practising these in a group. It is an efficient use of adult support as it can meet the needs of multiple pupils at once. Group work does require the staff member to have some level of experience or training. To be effective any group work must consider the aims of the individual sessions and tasks and how to record whether those aims have been met. Consideration must also be given to the amount of group work. This is the frequency and duration of group sessions. Some language intervention programmes require a very intense delivery over a long period of time. When choosing a programme to follow schools must weigh up the benefits against what is manageable within the reality of a busy school timetable.

Speech & Language Link

Speech Link and Language Link include a wide range of planned and resourced individual and group interventions written by our speech and language therapists. They are easy to deliver and very flexible allowing staff to extend or reduce the dosage. Training is provided as part of the package to get staff confident in both running the interventions and measuring their impact.