Speech & Language Therapy

In key stages 1 and 2, children have three Speech and Language Therapy sessions each week. These are called ‘Communication Therapy’. The programme includes developing pupils’ understanding and use of language skills; developing pragmatic language abilities; developing functional language skills; and supporting the pupil’s ability to access the National Curriculum. We also put considerable focus on social skills, enabling children to develop their friendships and learn how to interact and problem-solve appropriately with each other. Our collaborative model means that all staff working with a child are aware of the specific speech and language strategies that will support their needs and can be used throughout their school day.

Each class group has their own Speech and Language Therapist who provides advice and assistance to teaching staff, as well as therapy, advice and assistance to pupils on a needs-led basis. Our staff plan together to provide a learning environment in which the academic demands are supported and reinforced by the Speech and Language Therapy Team, and life skills are woven into the curriculum. This helps children recognise and practice these skills in different contexts and reinforces key vocabulary.

Some children may also receive individual or paired speech and language therapy according to their needs.Our Occupational Therapists and Speech and Language Therapists also provide daily living skills sessions once a week to develop children’s communication skills, social awareness and overall independence. The integration of approaches from these two disciplines helps pupils learn functional vocabulary and appropriate social behaviour while gaining skills to help them plan and carry out daily living activities.

Topics include hygiene, dressing, personal safety and food preparation. These sessions also incorporate community visits where the pupils practise functional tasks like buying items in a shop, ordering a drink at a café or borrowing a book at the library. At the end of each session, children have time to reflect on their own performance in each activity. This increases their self-awareness of their own strengths and needs so they can use these strengths to harness their areas of difficulty.

The therapists also deliver interactive parent workshops where they demonstrate the skills explored in these sessions. You can then encourage these independence skills at home to support your child further.