The Children’s Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Service offers a range of training packages for schools and other establishments. This page sets out a framework for different levels of training, types of input available and any costs associated with these.
If your school or school network would like to explore any of these options, please discuss with your link therapist.
Where possible, training is co-delivered with colleagues in education and other professionals.
It is important that everyone who works with children has the appropriate knowledge and skills to:
- promote speech, language and communication development;
- identify those children who are experiencing difficulties;
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support children with SLCN.
(Speech, Language & Communication Framework, The Communication Trust)
We offer different types of training, depending on need:
Universal Training
Training to groups (e.g. school teams) who support children who have a variety of needs. This is not specific to the needs of individual children but is to develop skills and competencies in the children’s workforce that enable settings to meet their SEND obligations (SEND code of practice 2014):
Targeted Training
Training in identifying and supporting children who have mild to moderate needs who may or may not require an assessment by a therapist. This training will enable practitioners to implement interventions and use relevant assessments, checklists or measures of progress to inform decision making and enable children’s development as well as to deliver specific interventions.
These are designed to take one hour to run as a minimum.
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Wonderful words: How to develop vocabulary in the classroom - Find out how words are learned; consider how to maximise your effectiveness of teaching new words in the classroom and how to support those children who need some extra input.
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Narrative skills: supporting narrative in the classroom - Consider the elements of a good story; find out how narrative develops; what skills are needed to use narrative effectively in the classroom and in ‘real life’; and learn about supporting children who are finding this difficult.
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Understanding spoken language: how to support understanding in the classroom - Explore situations when understanding language is hard; learn about developmental language disorder and how this presents in the classroom; consider how to differentiate your own language levels; and explore simple strategies to support children’s understanding such as using visuals.
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Super Speech: working with children’s speech - Consider typical speech development; learn about common speech difficulties and common therapy approaches; think about how to work effectively in schools and when to ask for help. Aimed mainly at TAs.
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Great Grammar: supporting grammar in the classroom - Explore a visual system to represent grammar; consider how to use this with the whole class or targeted individuals; practise some of the skills needed.
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Basic Signing Training. Tailored to setting and needs of children on SLT caseload
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Supporting students with SLCN in secondary school (Level 2)
Where appropriate parents and carers can be invited to training in school.
Specialist Training
Training in identifying and supporting children who have moderate to severe needs where support staff should have a higher level of knowledge.
These are by invitation only as they support the needs of specific children.
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Supporting children with global developmental delay (whole day.
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Supporting children with social communication difficulties (whole day).
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Supporting children with eating and drinking difficulties.
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Bespoke training to meet needs of a particular school, class or child.
Accredited Courses
We can also deliver some accredited courses for which there is a charge.
For example:
Elklan - please see website for details about packages that can be delivered
https://www.elklan.co.uk
Makaton - Foundation and Enhanced courses can be arranged upon request subject to sufficient numbers attending
https://www.makaton.org
Word Aware - please see website
http://thinkingtalking.co.uk