What does Speech and Language Therapy look like in Bamburgh School?
Communication is a fundamental aspect of every child’s educational journey, and at Bamburgh school, we are committed to fostering the communication skills of all of our students.
As the speech and language HLTA, my primary role is to work alongside teachers, therapists, and parents to create an inclusive and supportive environment where every child can thrive.
Every child has unique communication needs, and we recognise the importance of tailoring our approach to meet these needs.
I help to implement a variety of evidence-based techniques to empower students to express themselves effectively and engage meaningfully with their peers and teachers. These include:
Communication Boards and Books
Communication boards and books are visual aids that support students in expressing their thoughts, needs and preferences.
We integrate communication boards and books into our classrooms and therapy sessions to provide students with different ways to communicate. Communication boards and books are customised to suit the individual needs of the children and help to promote independence and autonomy in communication.
Intensive Interaction
Intensive interaction is a highly effective approach that focuses on developing communicationand social skills through playful and responsive interactiions. I work closely with teachers and therapists to implement intensive interaction sessions tailored to the unique needs and abilities of each student. These sessions provide valuable opportunities for students to practice communication in a supportive and engaging environment.
Colourful Semantics
Colourful Semantics is a structured approach to language intervention that helps students understand and use language more effectively. Through activities and exercises designed around the Colourful Semantics principles, we support students in developing their vocabulary, sentence structure, and understanding of language. This approach is particularly beneficial for students with language difficulties and helps lay the foundation for succesful communication.
See and Learn
We have recently introduced the See and Learn intervention for a small number of our pupils. It provides carefully structured, evidence-based activities to help children to speak more clearly, to communicate more effectively and to learn to count.
See and Learn is designed to help children with Down syndrome and other children with similar learning needs to learn early speech, language, reading and numeracy skills.
Talk Boost
Very recently, a small number of our students have begun accessing a Talk Boost intervention group. Talk Boost is a government initiative developed by the charity Speech and language UK. It is designed to support students aged 4-18 who are struggling with their language and communication skills. It aims to accelerate a child’s language development by focusing on skills such as listening, vocabulary, and sentence building through a structured, evidence-based approach with interactive activities.
Our younger pupils are thoroughly enjoying their Early Talk Boost sessions!
We are having lots of fun while also developing our attention and listening skills:
How Speech and Language is delivered in school
Speech and Language Therapists working within Bamburgh School