I am part of a team of five Speech and Language Therapists working for PLP. We are school-based and work with children from nursery through to secondary school. We enjoy the variety of our role and the unique experiences that come with working in a school setting. Below is a snapshot of one of my days.
My first session focuses on speech sounds with a Year 3 child with autism. He is working very hard and has progressed to practising words beginning with the /fl/ sound. He finds visual support, such as a now/next board, very helpful for understanding what is happening.
We work on speech sounds to help children be understood by peers and adults. Not being able to communicate clearly can be extremely frustrating and may lead children to withdraw or become dysregulated. Being heard and understood is a basic human right, and speech sounds also play a key role in literacy, so early support is important. He leaves proudly practising his new words with a sticker, while I write up notes, set new targets for next week and find new resources.
Next is a new referral for a Year 5 child. Staff report that when asked questions such as “why did that happen?”, she is unable to respond or gives unrelated answers. Her hearing has been checked, so I suspect difficulties with Blanks Level understanding. Blanks Levels describe four levels of question comprehension, with Levels 1 and 2 focusing on the here and now, and Levels 3 & 4 involving abstract language such as thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
I assess this using the Test of Abstract Language Comprehension, a visual and child-friendly assessment. Results show she finds inferencing and predicting challenging, which explains her difficulties in class. I arrange a meeting with her teacher to discuss the findings and their impact.
I then attend a Team Around Me (TAM) meeting with the SENCo, class teacher, TA, and parents of a child with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). I explain that DLD involves ongoing difficulties understanding and/or using language, and we discuss strategies to support the child at home and in school. After the meeting, I create visual resources using Widgit symbols to support the child across both settings.
After lunch, I run an attention & listening session with fun games to help teach the nursery children about listening. Today's games are focusing on taking turns and we play fruit salad! Attention and listening skills are fundamental to all interactions and learning about them in a fun way really helps embed these skills.
The next session is with a Year 1 child who finds it hard to get words in the right order and to include enough detail in spoken sentences, leading to frustration. I support this using colourful semantics, which colour-codes sentence parts to provide visual structure. She enjoys this approach, and it is helping both her spoken language and her participation in the classroom, where staff use it with all pupils.
One advantage of working in schools is the close collaboration with the wider school team. Schools value our input and actively embed Speech and Language strategies into daily practice. My final session is training early years staff to use a Widgit symbol core board to support children’s receptive and expressive language. Core boards are part of the setting’s AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) approach, which includes tools such as symbols, Makaton, and objects of reference. Staff share great ideas, including using a weekly core word with the corresponding Makaton sign and Widgit symbol across all activities.
A busy day, however, it is a privilege to be able to work with the team around the child to help them achieve their communicative potential.
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