TES and The Communication Trust Supplement 3 September 2012

Better learning, better behaviour,better communication

TALK LISTENTAKEPART

TES

Matthew’s “board” shows he needs a penciland ruler for today’s maths lesson. Havingthis on his desk in front of him reminds himof his task and helps to keep him focused.

Visual images are part and parcel ofspeech and language learning at Foley ParkPrimary School in Kidderminster (above).Every child, regardless of any special need,benefits from a whole-school system ofprompts, pictures and even sign language.

“We noticed about three years ago thatpupils were increasingly arriving at schoolwith little vocabulary, even for words youwould expect them to know such as ‘cow’ or‘horse’,” says Kathryn Sugars, headteacherat the Worcestershire school. “Familiesare not interacting at home in the way wemight expect.”

Foley Park had already been working withWorcestershire’s speech and language team,

A primary school in Kidderminsteris using visual prompts to increaseinteraction and help pupils communicate

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Ask, understand andanswer “what”, “where”,“when” and “what couldwe do next” questions.

Use speech that is easy tounderstand, although itmay still have immaturi-ties.

Join phrases with wordssuch as “if”, “because”,“so” and “could”.

Describe events but notalways joined together orin the right order.

Hello, I’m Jean Gross,the CommunicationChampion for children.I regularly meetheadteachers andteachers who areconcerned about the

number of children and young people withlimited vocabularies, difficulties expressingthemselves and who struggle to listen andunderstand language.

Recent Government statistics show therehas been a 58 per cent rise over the past fiveyears in the number of children identified bytheir teachers as having special needs in thisarea. This TES supplement showcases thesuperb work taking place around the countryto tackle the problem. It gives examples of thesupport available from The CommunicationTrust through the Hello campaign – 2011national year of communication.

Vocabulary at age five is a strong predictorof how many GCSEs a child will later achieve,and the best predictor of whether those whoexperience social deprivation in childhoodare able to escape poverty as adults. Goodcommunication skills are increasinglynecessary in a service-driven economy, yet 47per cent of UK employers say they cannot getrecruits with the oral language skills needed.

Links between behaviour problems andpoor language are strong. Two-thirds of thoseat risk of exclusion from school have speech,language and communication difficulties, asdo 60 per cent of young offenders – in only 5per cent of cases was this known before theyentered the criminal justice system.

It is really important that we do focus onimproving all children’s oral language skills,and getting the right help for those whostruggle. As many recent national Ofstedreports have noted, outstanding schools arethose in which speaking and listening is highpriority – like the schools featured here.

Believe inthe reachof speech

The card cuesVisual aids play a major role, from timetables to painstakingly prepared lessons.

By age five, children should be able to:Follow this timelineof what to expectat different ages tohelp you recognisegood progress andpotential problems.

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which was increasingly struggling to copewith the level of intervention required.

“They were only able to see about 20 of ourpupils a year, which simply wasn’t enough. Sowhen we suggested we work with them, theyjumped at the chance,” Ms Sugars adds.

The team trained staff at the primary onprocedures for early diagnosis of speech andlanguage problems and other interventions.A scheme called Language Link allows staffto assess every child entering the school forthe first time, to put in place appropriateprogrammes. Those who require veryspecialist support are still referred to thespeech and language therapy team but theschool’s own staff can now help most pupils.

The Communication Project is nowembedded in the school. Every member of

staff carries a belt-clip containing visual cuecards with instructions and praise, such as“good listening” and “good sitting”, which actas a prompt and are used to communicatewith pupils.

Classrooms all have a visual timetable ofthat day’s activities, and individual taskmanagement boards – such as the one usedby Matthew – set out in pictures and wordswhat is expected in class.

“The system was painstaking to set up,requiring hundreds of laminated cards withphotographs of children, pictures andprompts,” Ms Sugars says. “But it works.Visual timetables mean no surprises duringthe day for pupils who might be unsettled bychanges to their routine.” Governors made£10,000 available to help pay for staff anddeveloping resources.

The visual prompts have beenaccompanied by the “10-second rule”, whichgives pupils time to listen to, digest and reactto questions from teachers, rather thanbecoming stressed by not being able toanswer immediately. “Often when a childdoesn’t answer quickly, the teacherrephrases the question, when what the pupilactually needs is more time to think about theanswer,” Ms Sugars adds.

Linda Davis, Foley Park’s Senco, runsthe “nurture room” for children who needconstant support with language development.Here, visual prompts are supplemented withsign language for pupils who have difficultycommunicating and understanding.

“The benefit of visual prompts is that theteacher and pupil have to engage with eachother,” she says. “No one can just sit quietlyat the back hoping not to be noticed. It alsohelps to stop them being distracted. Theproject has had a huge impact and it is lovelyto see the children’s confidence increasing.”

It is too early to attribute the programmeto any improvement in key stage 2 results,which can be affected by cohorts. But MsSugars says: “The impact in terms ofbehaviour has been tremendous and haseliminated a lot of the low-level disruptionthat can make teaching and learning difficult.Attendance has also improved and exceedsthe school’s target of 94.6 per cent.”

At Watercliffe Meadow CommunityPrimary in Sheffield, only two pupils arrivedat the school last year with the appropriatelevel of speech and language proficiency.

Three years ago, the school reviewed itsteaching after it emerged that working withmany different speech therapists created alack of consistency in provision, says ClaireBradley, the assistant headteacher.

“We were working with different therapistsand getting mixed responses about whatwe needed to do with these pupils. Now allthe pupils are seen by the same person, whohas trained our school staff to deliver thesame provision.”

Watercliffe’s speech and languageprogramme was devised through the eyesof the children, says Ian Read, the deputyheadteacher. “We looked at what a pupil’sday looks like and there is a lot of playtimewhen the children interact socially.

“Just as the teacher would structureconversation and debate in the classroom,we have a team of ‘play leaders’, mainly TAs,who initiate games in the playground thatencourage children to talk and interact.”

The dining room has also been designed asa cafe, where children can sit in small groupsand chat to each other.

In the classroom, questions are moreopen-ended to discourage one-word answers.Teachers lead discussions that allow pupilsto express themselves, offer an opinion andtake part in discussion. Circle time is alsoused to promote conversation.

Parents are an important part of theprocess. “We organise workshops for parentsand call these ‘food for thought’,” Ms Bradleysays. “They are based on discussions raisedin the book Toxic Childhood by Sue Palmerand centre on issues such as healthy eating.

“We talk about the importance of play athome, not just on the computer, but how theycan interact with their children in a fun way.”The first workshop is called ‘It’s good to talk’and includes the experience of trying to talkwith a spoon in your mouth, to bring acrossthe message about the use of dummies.

From September, Watercliffe will introducea family-based project exploring 101 thingsparents should do with their children beforethey leave the school, to encourage goodrelationships and communication.

Mr Read says: “We don’t think we havecracked it yet, but speaking and listeninghas improved and we have gone some waytowards improving the communication skillsof our pupils.”Dorothy Lepkowska

Show good understandingof sounds and wordsimportant for readingand spelling.

Know key points to focuson to answer a questionor follow an instructionand begin to ignore lessimportant information.

Ask questions to findout specific information,including “how” and“why”.

Tell a story with keycomponents in place– setting the scene,a basic plot andreasonably well-

ordered sequenceof events.

By age seven, children should be able to:

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Supplement editor: Fiona SalvageProduced by TSL Education Ltd to a briefagreed with the Communication Championand The Communication Trust.Paid for by the Communication Championand BT.

All editorial content commissioned byTSL Education Ltd.To give us your feedback or to suggest ideas,contact [email protected] sponsorship or advertising opportunities,contact [email protected]

When staff at the Spinney Centre carried outan audit of pupils’ communication skills, itcame as no surprise to find that almost two-thirds had some speech or language need.

The centre is part of, though physicallyseparate from, Woodfield Special School inCoventry, and serves around 30 boys aged14-16 with complex emotional, behaviour andsocial difficulties, who have failed to succeedor fit into mainstream education.

“The audit looked in detail at their specialneeds statements, issues such as dyslexia andautism, but particularly their language andcommunication skills,” says Annie Tindale,the centre’s headteacher.

“We found that around 62 per cent of boyshad some communication need. Many hadpreviously been offered speech therapy butthey hadn’t attended and had consequentlydropped off the list. It is hard to assess youngpeople who don’t want to be tested.”

With the help of Sandi McKinnon, Coventry’slead speech and language consultant, andI CAN’s national Secondary Talk programme,staff at the centre were trained to focus moreon speech and language.

“We had to make staff aware of each pupil’sdifficulty and give them the tools to deal withthese,” Ms McKinnon says. “But they also hadto realise that not every strategy was going towork with every child.”

The first exercises included lesson observa-tions. “We looked at the amount of time teach-ers spent talking and found that there was toomuch,” Ms Tindale says. “Staff believed thattalking to the boys kept them engaged butactually it was more about controlling theirbehaviour. There was a fear of what might hap-pen if they let the students talk because thesearen’t the kind of kids who come in on a Mon-day and ask if you’ve had a good weekend.”

An effect of this was that students alsolooked to staff to negotiate their group and

pairs tasks, rather than discussing these them-selves with classmates. “Many of the boys havelow self-esteem and fragile confidence and relyon others to speak for them. Overall they hadvery little verbal independence in lessons andthis needed to change,” Ms Tindale adds.

Ms McKinnon noticed the tendency for staffto ask “closed” questions that left no room forstudents to elaborate. “There was not enoughthinking through and developing ideas, so weasked staff to increase the amount of time giv-en to students for processing information to 10seconds,” she says. “Staff were quite nervousabout this but it didn’t faze the boys at all.”

One breakthrough came when an exception-ally quiet teenager paused for a whole minutebefore answering a question, but got it correct.It dawned on staff that the strategy was work-ing and was encouraging the boys to speak,and to think more for themselves.

“We also do a lot of work with them on thelanguage of emotion to help them articulatewhat they’re feeling,” Ms Tindale adds.“Students often lash out but don’t alwaysmean what they say.

“A student refusing to do a lesson becauseit’s ‘rubbish’ probably means he’s stuck or it’sgoing beyond his pace. The students definitelyfeel more listened to in lessons now and it hasslowed down the pace of learning. Talking isembedded in the whole fibre of the place.”

At Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School inLondon, a focus on listening has improvedcommunication skills across the school. Sevenyears ago the school launched a project calledListen’Ear, for which it received help from aspeech and language therapist. Since then,staff have been trained to deliver many of the

strategies themselves, allowing staff to tailorprovision to the needs of children directly inthe classroom.

Janette Goss, the school’s Senco, says: “Staffare now self-sufficient and able to implementstrategies, while continuing to use the speechand language therapists in an advisory role.”

Pupils with communication needs are identi-fied in Years 7 and 8, usually based on reportsfrom primary school. Talking and listeninghave become part of the ethos of the school –staff are encouraged to take time to talk topupils, and nurture groups have been set upto support those who need it most.

For older students, the school offers a BTECin Workskills which includes units in aspectssuch as interview preparation and team work.

An emphasis on listening in the schoolmeans that pupils and staff are aware of exact-ly what is expected of them. “Active listeningreminds everyone that they need to listen andunderstand each other,” Ms Goss adds.

“It also reminds them that they need toprocess what is said and to make eye contactbecause that means you are engaging with thatperson. If the pupil is engaged with the teacherit means they are not doing something theyshouldn’t be.

“We have only a small number of childrenwith these difficulties but actually we havefound everyone benefits from developing theircommunication skills.”Dorothy Lepkowska

Schools can make a big difference to attainmentlevels with relatively subtle changes, such asgiving pupils more time to reflect on questionsor focusing on listening skills

Gift ofthe gab

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Infer meaning, reason andpredict.

Use a range of wordsrelated to time andmeasurement.

Use a whole range ofregular and unusual wordendings, with few errorsbeing made.

Understand the interestsof the listener.

Use language fora range of differentreasons, eg complimentingor criticising, clarifyingand negotiating.

By age 9, children should be able to:

l I CANwww.ican.org.uk/Secondary Talk

Useful links

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Liam is just five. He lives in a boisterous homewhere everyone shouts over the noise of the TVand the baby crying. His mum works part-timeand has enough to do sorting out clothes andfood without engaging in long conversations.“Downstairs – quick” and “Got your coat?” arethe sort of unstructured sentences Liam hearsevery day, and his literacy is suffering.

Jane Maloney, headteacher at MillbrookCommunity Primary School in Knowsley, knowsmany children like Liam. She has found thatsome four- and five-year-olds in her school onlyhave the language development of the averagethree-year-old. So her staff are using a pro-gramme called A Chance to Talk, run by TheCommunication Trust, I CAN and the EveryChild a Chance Trust, to help pupils to catchup. The programme supports speaking andlistening in the classroom and through targetedinterventions. Staff receive training to helpidentify children and to run a 10-weekprogramme of small-group work to improvelanguage and communication skills.

A trained teaching assistant (TA) runswithdrawal sessions for groups of four childrenwith delayed language, with link activities backto the classroom, designed to support the chil-dren who are struggling and which can benefitall children. In the initial pilot study, children

were making progress of around 18 monthsafter the 10-week programme. It also enablesstaff to identify those children who may needmore specialist intervention.

Staff in the schools involved have comment-ed positively, not just on changes in children’slanguage, but on their confidence and theirreadiness to learn and engage in activitieswith their peers.

At St Mark’s CofE Aided Primary School inStoke-on-Trent, inclusion leader Ann Stonefound a significant proportion of the 112 chil-dren on the special needs register had difficul-ties with speech, language and communication.The school has worked hard on communica-tion projects this year and where once staffused question and answer techniques, they arenow as likely to get a child to talk to a partner.

One of the most successful projects has beenSpirals, a circle-time activity where childrenlearn to make eye contact, smile, and greetothers. One girl with very little confidenceamazed her parents and teachers by acting ina class assembly in front of the whole schooland speaking audibly and clearly.

“The results have been excellent,” says MsStone. “When I looked at our current Year 6, 48per cent had been on the special needs registerat some stage of their school career. Now the

figure is down to just over 20 per cent.”In secondary school, speaking and listening

can be even more challenging. Children needhigher level language skills to meet thedemands of different subjects, and adolescentswith communication needs may be wronglyidentified as having behavioural difficulties.

Enhancing Language and Communicationin Secondary Schools (ELCISS) is being usedin Beal High School, Redbridge. TAs run a12-week programme for groups of four to sixchildren focusing on vocabulary and narrative.The aim is to boost language skills with across-curricular approach. One child whoentered the school with a reading age of eightleft KS3 with level 5 and is predicted to achieveB and C grades in his GCSEs.

Young people need to work on social commu-nication too. The inclusion advisory teachingservice in Bolton provides training on the local-ly developed Secondary Talk programme. Theoriginal focus was behaviour and generalemotional well-being, but it has also made adifference for children learning English as anadditional language and pupils who have state-ments for speech and language difficulties.Turton High School Media Arts College has runthe 10-week course where pupils work on id-ioms or body language, identify an object froma spoken description or retell a local newsstory. The school has since seen improvementsin vocabulary, behaviour and social skills.

Deb Nicholl-Holt, one of the creators ofBolton’s Secondary Talk programme, pointsout children are expected to learn throughlistening at least 60 per cent of the time inprimary school, but in secondary school thisincreases to 90 per cent. Hopefully, with initia-tives focused on improving language skills,children like Liam will not be left behind.Sal McKeown

Catching up

A language-rich environment is vital to ensure allchildren develop confidence and communication skills,and there is a range of targeted interventions schools canemploy to identify and support pupils who are behind

Begin to appreciatesarcasm, eg “My bestvase, broken – that wasreally clever”.

Use sophisticated wordsbut meaning might notalways be accurate, eg“We had to corporate toget the task done”.

Tell elaborate,entertaining storiesthat are full of detaileddescriptions.

Manage andorganise collaborativetasks.

Explain some rules ofgrammar and knowwhen a sentence is notgrammatically correct.

By age 11, children should be able to:

l A Chance to Talkwww.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/achancetotalk

l ELCISSwww.elciss.com

Useful links

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The 5 communicationbarriers

Understand instructionsthat don’t follow thesame order as words inthe sentence, eg beforeyou get your equipment,

decide who you areworking with and whatpositions you are playing.

Infer meaning, workingout information not givendirectly, eg she grabbedher coat and ran out of thedoor (she was in a hurry).

Understand thedifference between thestyle of talk used withfriends to that neededin the classroom.

Use sarcasm to interactwith peers and familiaradults.

By age 13/14, children should be able to:

Hello, what’s going on in 2011?HelloHello is the national year of communica-tion. It is run by The Communication Trust,an alliance of 40 voluntary organisations,with expertise in speech, language andcommunication, in partnership withCommunication Champion Jean Gross.

Hello is backed by the Department forEducation and Department of Health andsponsored by BT and Pearson Assessment.

Anita Kerwin-Nye, director of TheCommunication Trust, says: “As a formerteacher, I know that communicationdifficulties do not have the same profile inschools as dyslexia or autism. It is more

hidden and, in the worst cases, invisible.“Ultimately, this is about recognising chil-

dren’s needs and, while quality first teachingis fundamental, many children will also needspecialist support and interventions. Witheducational reforms taking place, it is vitalthese children do not become invisible again,which is why we are calling on all teachersto take part in Hello.”

Larry Stone, president of group publicand government affairs at BT, says:“Communication is key to our business.But it needs to be everyone’s business. Wedepend on people being able to talk, listenand connect with others.” Hello helps teachers

Schools will find plenty of inspiration onthe Hello website: fact files, classroomresources and stories.

You can read about Aspull Primary,Wigan, where pupils applied to be partof a communication team andundertake activities such as readingregularly to younger children.

In Southwark, schools ran drama-based language intervention groups,while Coventry primary schools tookpart in a “Zippy Lips” day, whenchildren had to communicate withoutspeech and discuss what that felt like.

Hello offers free resources such asMisunderstood, an easy-to-read guideto speech, language and communicationneeds; Don’t Get me Wrong, whichexplains the issues further; What’sTypical Talk posters; and UniversallySpeaking “ages and stages” bookletsfor primary and secondary.

To support parents with familytalking activities, you can use ListenUp – a “fortune teller” game. Aresource to help school improvementplanning for language andcommunication will soon be on the site,with signposting to screening tools,interventions and whole-class schemes.

2I don’t understand wordsIncluding difficultiesunderstanding specificmeanings of words or longor complicated sentences.

I can’t get words outDifficulties with talking includespeech that is unclear, a stammeror difficulty talking in sentences.1

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Know when and why theydon’t understand and askfor help with what theyare struggling with, eg “Iunderstand you mix the

ingredients together, I’mjust not sure what theymean by ‘fold’”.

Be more skilful indiscussions and use arange of arguments topersuade others.

Understand well thewords that are used inquestions in exams andthe classroom.

Use a good range ofmore difficult words andphrases, eg exhausted,meandered, noxious,incessant.

By age 18, young people should be able to:

l Hello resourceswww.hello.org.uk/resources

l The Communication Trustwww.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

l The Speech, Language andCommunication Framework online toolwww.talkingpoint.org.uk/slcf

l Free BT resources to supportcommunication and collaboration skillswww.bt.com/learningandskills

l Information on children’s communicationwww.talkingpoint.org.uk

l The Royal College of Speech andLanguage Therapistswww.rcslt.org

Useful links

What is it?The Communication Champion and TheCommunication Trust, as part of Hello, areasking schools to choose one day when theyfocus on speaking and listening in everylesson for every child.

When is it?Wednesday 28 September is the target day,but schools can choose another date if thatsuits them better.

Don’t schools do speaking and listeninganyway?Yes, but it is often mixed in with reading andwriting. No Pens Day Wednesday is to be aday where children put down their pens anduse their ears and their voices.

Why is it needed?Language is central to teaching andlearning, but in poorer areas more than 50per cent of children are starting school withdelayed communication skills. Their speechmay be unclear, vocabulary is smaller,sentences are shorter and they are able tounderstand only simple instructions. Poorlanguage skills go hand in hand with poorliteracy. A child’s vocabulary at age five is avery strong indicator of the qualificationsthey will achieve at KS4 and beyond so themore schools can do to raise speech andlanguage levels, the better a child’s chanceof success in later life.

How can our school get involved?See http://bit.ly/NoPens to find moreinformation about the scheme. Fill in theonline form to receive a free activity packwith lesson plans, curriculum ideas,resources and information for parents.

The communication barriersBeing able to say what you want to sayand understand what other people aresaying is the most important skill weneed in life. Yet many people takecommunication for granted.

In the UK today, one million children(or two to three in every classroom) havespeech, language and communicationneeds. Each child’s difficulty will bedifferent – for some, it will have a hugeimpact; for others less so – but leftuntreated their difficulties will severelylimit their potential.

Above are some of the ways a childwith speech, language and communicationneeds will struggle.

Some children have languagedifficulties as their main or only difficulty– this is known as a specific language

impairment or SLI. Others havedifficulties with other conditions such asautism, Down’s syndrome or physicaldifficulties.

Some children will be able to usetheir voice to communicate, while somemay use other ways such as electroniccommunication aids, gestures and signs:alternative and augmentativecommunication (AAC).

The Communication Trust represents40 organisations with expertise across thefull range of speech, language andcommunication needs. Organisationsrange from the British StammeringAssociation to Afasic (which supportschildren and young people with SLI) andCommunication Matters – a UK-wideorganisation focused on AAC.www.talkingtrouble.info

No Pens DayWednesday

3 4 5I don’t know how tohave a conversationPerhaps through not listeningwell, interrupting too much orstruggling to join in with groupconversations.

I don’t have enough wordsSome children have speechthat is immature for their ageand have a limited vocabulary.

I have multiple barriersOften because these difficultiesare linked with other conditionssuch as autism, Down’ssyndrome or physical difficulties.

For those who prefer to communicatevia a keyboard rather than the spokenword, social media has expanded theirworld. Now the launch of a Facebook app tohelp young people aged 14-19 develop theircommunication skills could expand it backinto a vocal environment.

Young people like Chris Pike, 18, fromWarrington, Cheshire. Chris has Asperger’ssyndrome and finds it difficult to pick up onnuances in the spoken word. He explains:“It’s actually an incredibly complicatedthing, communication. You think it’s reallysimple, but actually a tiny change in the wayyou say a word can make a massivedifference to the meaning of a sentence.”

Using BT’s Talk Gym has helped himlearn more about himself, but also,importantly, how to deal with hisrelationships with his friends.

“It has certainly taught me somethings. It has made it easier for me tocommunicate with my friends. It hasmade me empathise with my friends abit more in certain situations... you

start to understand the hidden messagesbehind people’s communication.”

In the UK, 47 per cent of businesses inEngland claim that they find it difficult torecruit staff with an appropriate level of oralcommunication skills. Often, young people donot realise how vital good communicationsskills are until they enter the world of work.

Using the Talk Gym Facebook app, userscan check their “talk fitness” by answeringsix questions about themselves and then afriend or relative can answer the samequestions via Facebook. The answers appearanonymously in a graph and the app usesthe responses to assess the individual’scommunication ability. From this, the TalkGym user receives information on whycommunication skills are important and tipson being clear, listening, talking in groupsand being interviewed.

Talk Gym has been designed to supportspeaking and listening in the NationalCurriculum for England and Wales, theCross-Curricular skills in the NationalCurriculum for Northern Ireland and a

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The very social network Moving from school into the world ofemployment brings new communicationchallenges, and Moving On is a free resourcedesigned to help young people.

Part of the BT Learning & Skillsprogramme, Moving On has three onlinemodules that are linked to the curriculumand designed to help those aged 14-19 learnmore about themselves, the skills they willneed in life and work and how to developand show these when applying for jobs.Through a mixture of video, studentworksheets, audio clips, students can workthrough the resources and find out moreabout how to approach jobseeking and whatsort of jobs they would suit.

l BT’s Moving Onwww.bt.com/movingon

Moving On

number of strands in Scotland’s Curriculumfor Excellence.

Free teachers’ resources are available todownload to help teachers make the best useof the app, and this includes guidance onusing social media as a learning tool.www.bt.com/talkgym