Assisting Students with Language Delays in the Classroom

A Practical Language Programme

Francesca Bierens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351699044
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

'Assisting Students with Language Delays in the Classroom' is a structured language programme designed for teachers and SENCOs to use in the classroom with children and adolescents with a range of language abilities. This resource caters to the needs of a broad range of students who require assistance with their language development, from the pre-verbal skills of language, progressing through to the skills required for effective, interactive conversation. The resource is accordingly structured within three key sections: the Pre-Verbal Skills of Language; the Building Bricks of Language; and the Skills of Conversation. Features: step-by-step instructions; language charts 200+ activities and exercise. Francesca Bierens is a Qualified Speech and Language Therapist and Primary School Teacher with over 33 years experience working with children with speech and language delays and/or disorders, in the Education, Health and Private sectors.

Part 1
Assisting students with language delays inthe classroom: a practical language programme

Introduction

Assisting Students with Language Delays in the Classroom is a language programme designed for teachers to use within the class setting. The purpose of this programme is to assist students who have speech and/or language delays to acquire the most important skills and concepts required for the development of language comprehension and functional verbal interaction. The programme is intended for school-aged children and young people from five to 18 years of age. Your speech and language therapist (SLT) will also have specific exercises and activities suited to the needs of your individual students.

The more complex linguistic features, such as verb tenses and conjunctions, have not received focused attention in this programme.

The activities in all three skill areas - 'The Preverbal Skills of Language', 'The Building Bricks of Language' and 'The Skills of Conversation' - are as practical as possible and are all purposely 'low-tech', so the majority of resources should be readily available within most classrooms or in the wider school, (You could try toy shops for items like toy windmills.)

This language programme is the result of years spent working as an SLT in classrooms, taking whole-class language sessions as well as working with small groups and individual students. Working closely with the teachers in this situation, it became clear that there was a need to create a programme that catered to the various language needs of the students and could easily be incorporated into the class programme and curriculum. The students themselves were an inspiration for many of the activities included in this programme.

I do hope that you enjoy using this programme as much as I have enjoyed creating it.

Chapter 1
Overview of the three-level language programme

This three-level language programme focuses on the most essential areas of communication:

• The Preverbal Skills of Language
• The Building Bricks of Language
• The Skills of Conversation.

Each of the three communication areas contains:

• information related to each of the language and speech skills
• activities to assist the development of each of the skills.

The Preverbal Skills of Language

In the 'The Preverbal Skills of Language' section are exercises and activities to assist in the development of the foundation skills of language.

• Learning to look at people	six activities
• Learning to attend, concentrate and anticipate	six activities
• Learning to look around at things	eight activities
• Learning to listen to sounds	six activities
• Learning to copy actions	six activities
• Learning to copy sounds made	six activities
• Learning to wait and take turns	six activities
• Learning awareness and control of the face and mouth muscles	six exercises and activities
	Total number of activities: 50

The Building Bricks of Language

In the 'The Building Bricks of Language' section are exercises and activities to assist in the development of comprehension, vocabulary and the concepts of language.

• Putting a name to the noun	14 activities + 14 example questions
• Putting verbs into action	10 activities + 10 example questions
• Add adjectives to put colour into words	8 activities + 8 example questions
• Putting prepositions in their place	8 activities + 8 example questions
• Making sure negatives are not left out	8 activities + 8 example questions
• When we need time	8 activities + 8 example questions
• Why the cause must have an effect	8 activities + 8 example questions
• How to remember the sequence in order	8 activities + 8 example questions
• Emotions put feelings into words	8 activities + 8 example questions
• Asking questions to gain some answers	10 activities
	Total number of activities: 90

The Skills of Conversation

In the 'The Skills of Conversation' section are exercises and activities to assist in the development of functional, interactive conversation.

• Looking politely at people and standing at an appropriate distance	six activities
• Looking carefully in order to see the important things	six activities
• Listening attentively and remembering what has been heard	six activities
• Waiting, listening to others and recalling information given	eight activities
• Speaking clearly	eight activities
• Asking and answering conversational questions	eight activities
	Total number of activities: 42

Chapter 2
Language development at a glance

Language skills impact on every aspect of daily interaction and learning. When expecting a student to communicate, it is essential to be fully aware of the skills and knowledge required in order for the student to be able to respond correctly.

If you want a student to tell you what they are doing, they will need to have acquired 'verbs' in their verbal language in order for them to identify the appropriate action, for example, 'drawing'. If you want a student to tell you 'where' they have put an item, they will need to have acquired prepositions, for example, 'in the box'. In order for a student to tell you 'why' they did something, they will need to have acquired more than just 'nouns' in their verbal vocabulary and be able to respond in more than single words. They will also have developed at least a basic understanding of the concept of 'cause and effect' and be independent of the need for visual cues. If you tell a student what they are not allowed to do, be sure that they have acquired an understanding of the concept of negatives.

The expectation is that the majority of students will eventually be able to answer and ask questions in an interactive manner and be able to establish and maintain some degree of conversation. However, in the busy classroom environment where students are constantly being asked to follow instructions and respond accurately to questions, we must make sure that they have the prerequisite skills necessary to respond appropriately, and we need to know where to start in order to teach these skills.

To assist with this, a practical framework is provided in the programme, describing the basic structure of language development. This framework illustrates what skills are required in order for effective verbal interaction to occur, the sequence in which to best teach these skills and exactly where to start to assist a student's language development.

Just because a student can talk does not automatically mean that they can communicate. In order for the student to develop functional and interactive language skills, they must acquire:

• The Preverbal Skills of L anguage
• The Building Bricks of Language
• The Skills of Conversation.

'The Preverbal Skills of Language' are the foundation skills of language on which the development of effective verbal communication is dependent. If any one of these skills is not consistently present or is missing, then a student's speech and/or language development will be affected to some degree.

'The Building Bricks of Language' are the words required in order for comprehension and communication to develop. The level of verbal communication becomes richer in function, information and interest as the knowledge and use of a student's vocabulary and language concepts increases.

Nouns are used primarily to label a person, place or thing, for example, 'girl', 'supermarket', and 'car'. Proper nouns can of course be used in isolation to call someone, for example, 'To...