Language support model for teachers

There are seven documents that comprise this resource pack. They were written for teachers who are working with speech and language therapists (SLTs) to support children in mainstream primary schools who have language difficulties with no known cause (primary language impairment)

Voice and speech functions (B310-B340)

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) domain ‘voice and speech functions’ (b3) includes production and quality of voice (b310), articulation functions (b320), fluency and rhythm of speech (b330) and alternative vocalizations (b340, such as making musical sounds and crying, which are not reviewed here)

Supporting students who struggle with language

This chapter considers children who have speech, language and communication difficulties. These can arise from insufficient quality or quantity of language experience, or they may arise developmentally, despite appropriate language input from families and carers. They may or may not be associated with impairments such as hearing loss, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy or autistic spectrum disorders. Whether children's difficulties are specific to language-learning or more general, it is important that they become motivated, engaged learners. Motivation is central, but not in itself enough to guarantee high engagement. Engaged readers are intrinsically (rather than extrinsically) motivated to read, and have the required resources and strategies to do so. Meta-analyses show that strategy teaching, curricular coherence, choice, social collaboration and purpose all impact upon reading engagement (Guthrie and Wigfield 2000). Motivation and engagement impact upon attainment through mechanisms such as practice effects and perseverance. Continued engagement is therefore particularly important for children with speech, language and communication difficulties. Where language is part of the problem, children are at significant risk of literacy difficulties persisting into adult life (Law et al. 2009)

Open dialogue peer review: a response to Tymms, Merrell & Coe

We welcome Peter Tymms, Christine Merrell and Robert Coe's paper as a timely contribution to an important issue. For precisely the reasons that they state, this is an area of current concern. We are writing to suggest that for complex interventions involving educational programmes an even more complicated sequence of investigations could be useful, taking as the model the medical approach as detailed in MRC (2000). We agree that the RCT is an essential tool to investigate the efficacy of programmes. There is no other way to know if, on the whole, a programme works across a variety of contexts and if some programmes should 'work' better than others. Pragmatic randomisation as described in the Fife study outlined by Tymms et al. should be appropriate although it is a pity that it appears no children are continuing with their current exposure to peer learning, which would allow for the possibility that this is just as good as the new interventions. Blind assessment of outcomes is of course essential

A Survey And Cohort Intervention Using Indirect Speech And Language Therapy For Children With Primary Language Impairment In Schools

A cohort intervention was carried, out with 42 children with primary language impairment (PLI) receiving intervention from education staff in their mainstream school following discussion with and on the advice of a speech and language therapist (SLT). This is a widely-used consultancy model. No significant language gains were made on standardised language or reading tests, but the children fared as well as a comparable group in another research project who received community-based SLT services. The model was broadly acceptable to schools, but amount and patterns of intervention varied considerably amongst school classes. A survey of SLT managers provided a critique of the model, confirming that variation in implementation would be a likely issue. SLT services adopting this model will require to undertake careful audit of service provision and monitor the implementation of intervention in schools

The Functional Communication Classification System for children with cerebral palsy: the potential of a new measure

Two new validated measures of communication function in children have recently been reported in DMCN, with somewhat confusingly similar titles: the Communication Function Classification System (CFCS 1,2) and (here) the Functional Communication Classification System (FCCS 3). The interest in classifying communication function follows WHO international approaches, and meets the clinical need to support families, the children's workforce and indeed children themselves to identify child communication abilities in 'real-life' contexts

Mainstream school services for children with primary language impairment - implications from research

Invited keynote paper presented at the National Association of Professionals concerned with Lanaugage Impairment in Children (NAPLIC): Meeting children's needs in times of chang

Researching intervention - how much, by whom and what next?

Presentation delivered to the Centre for Integrated Health Care Research conference Current Issues and Controversies in Specific Language Impairment. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 27 May 2008

Language therapy manual

This is the research Language Therapy Manual written for the Health Technology Assessment Project 'An RCT and economic evaluation of direct versus indirect and individual versus group modes of speech and language therapy for children with primary language impairment'

What do primary teachers need to understand, and how? Developing an applied linguistics curriculum for pre-service primary school teacher

Seminars were designed to encourage debate about the applied linguistics understandings that are most helpful to primary school teachers in designing and teaching the language and literacy curriculum, in working with pupils with identified speech and language needs, and in working with other professionals such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists. Participants were invited to consider what would be most helpful for primary-school teachers to understand about applied linguistics perspectives, and how this understanding could best be developed. These seminars are possibly the first UK opportunity for such a wide range of people to discuss these issues. Discussion came not only from the different professional concerns and research perspectives but also from differences in how Scotland and England make, implement and monitor language and literacy education policy. The two seminars were designed to run as a conversation, and the papers in the second seminar developed themes and issues raised in the first, as well as introducing new themes of their own. The first seminar made the case for how applied linguistics perspectives can, and do, inform the curriculum and pedagogy in primary schools. Professor Debra Myhill (Exeter University) began by reporting on her research on Writers as Designers. She summarised some of the research on young writers' linguistic development - their lexical choices, syntactic features, and thematic variety - arguing that linguistic knowledge is necessary for good writers but not sufficient: good writers need also to have access to a thinking repertoire from which they design, craft and shape texts that meet their communicative goals. In doing this, the relationship between the writer, the text and context is central, and teachers need to draw on knowledge from all these perspectives