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SANDRA MCKEEN (SANDRA.MCKEEN@FIFE.GOV.UK), TODDY LAWSON (TODDY. LAWSON@FIFE.GOV.UK), BERNADETTE BANNON (BERNADETTE.BANNON@FIFE. GOV.UK) AND RUTH WALLACE (RUTH.WALLACE@FIFE.GOV.UK) ARE SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPISTS WORKING WITH CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT IN TWO SPEECH AND LANGUAGE CLASSES AND THEIR LOCAL SCHOOLS IN FIFE. THEY ALSO PROVIDE ADVICE AND SUPPORT TO COMMUNITY THERAPISTS.
1. CUED ARTICULATION This set of hand cues, for 26 consonants and 23 vowel sounds, was developed by Jane Passy for teaching the individual sounds in a word. Each hand movement represents one sound and the cue gives clues as to how and wherethe sound is produced. Colour Coding is also used for the written letters that represent these sounds. It is an invaluable support for children with articulation and phonology difficulties as it provides additional visual and kinaesthetic feedback. It also supports teaching of phonics. Teachers find that using the cues not only helps children with specific language impairment, but it raises the sound awareness skills of everyone in the class. Passy, J. (1990) Cued Articulation. STASS Publications. 2. DE BONOS THINKING HATS The Six Thinking Hats is a quick, simple and powerful technique to improve thinking. It encourages pupils to recognise what type of thinking they are using, and to apply different types of thinking to the subject. We all use different types of thinking, usually without realising it. The White Hat is cold, neutral, and objective, so think about facts and figures. The Red Hat represents anger so listen to your emotions, your intuition. The Black Hat is gloomy and negative so think about why this will fail. The Yellow Hat is sunny and positive so be hopeful and optimistic. The Green Hat is grass, fertile and growing, so be creative and cultivate new ideas. The Blue Hat is the color of the sky. Take time to look from a higher and wider perspective. de Bono, E. (1985) Six Thinking Hats. See www.edwdebono.com/. 3. MENTAL PICTURES This strategy helps pupils to remember and sequence sounds correctly within words. It can also support word retrieval difficulties and vocabulary learning. It is particularly useful for pupils with poor auditory processing skills but strong visual skills. The pupil breaks the word up into syllables and creates either a mental picture or a drawing to represent each syllable for example, ass + kid for asked (picture of a donkey and a child!) 4. GRAMMATICAL COMPREHENSION AND USE We have found our modified Colourful Semantics approach (Colourful Grammar and Mr. Samich) extremely useful in developing the childrens oral and written use of grammar. We began at a very basic level to support the children to understand the concepts, using a coloured approach as a visual tool. We then developed the concept of a sandwich (nicknamed Mr Samich by the children), to visually illustrate and mark the components of a sentence. The two pieces of bread represent the beginning and end of a sentence. The filling represents each grammatical component (subject, verb, object, adverb, conjunction and preposition), as well as punctuation (commas, question marks and exclamation marks). We are now developing narrative using Mr. Samich and focusing on the use of conjunctions and prepositions in story writing. Bryan, A. (1997) Colourful Semantics. In Language Disorders in Children and adults: Psycholinguistic approaches to Therapy, ed. S. Chiat, J, Law & J. Marshall. London: Whurr. 5. INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS These phenomenal tools are used in many schools as replacements for traditional whiteboards or flipcharts. They provide ways to show our pupils anything that can be presented on a computers desktop (educational software, web sites). In addition, they allow us to create specific pupil / group lessons, which can provide an effective instructional strategy for pupils who benefit from repetition, who are visual learners and who are struggling with the mainstream curriculum. This fun and entertaining way of teaching allows the pupils to be active and successful participants in their learning. 6. ICT We use a wide range of computer programmes to support various aspects of the childrens learning. These include programmes to develop their phonological awareness and spelling skills (Earobics, Simon Sounds it Out), supports for writing (Write Out Loud, Co-Writer, Clicker 4), and maths (Number Shark). The children also have access to various internet based resources that can be used on the PCs or interactive whiteboards. We find Boardmaker invaluable as it allows us to produce everything from classroom signs and wall displays to visual timetables and symbols to support reading. The two classes have recently purchased Rapid Reading to support older children with their reading development and literacy skills. This uses speech recognition technology, so that the children can read the stories to the computer, which corrects them on their accuracy. Earobics www.earobics.com Simon Sounds it Out, Write Out Loud, Co-Writer www. donjohnston.com Clicker 4 www.cricksoft.com Number Shark www.wordshark.co.uk Boardmaker www.mayer-johnson.com/ Rapid Reading www.heinemann.co.uk 7. COMMUNICATION PASSPORTS Adapted from work by Sally Millar, we originally developed our communication passports for our Primary 7 children making the transition to secondary school. The purpose is to empower the child to explain to teachers and others about their language difficulties and the strategies and supports they need to learn. Having tried out a number of formats, we have found most children prefer a series of credit card sized cards, held together on a key ring. This is small and discreet and the individual pages can be easily changed and updated when necessary. Having received positive feedback from children, parents and teachers, we have started to develop them for all our children to use during the transition period from one primary school class to another and throughout the school year.

Millar, S. & Aitken, S. (2003) Personal Communication Passports Guidelines for Good Practice. Call Centre, Edinburgh. 8. THE CHILDS STORY The childs story allows us to gain information and insight into how the child is feeling in relation to their learning and emotional well-being and to support our clinical decision-making. We use a number of approaches to gather information social stories, our diary system, Talking Mats, communication passport, target sheets, personal learning plans and child centred plans. The Child Centred Plan focuses on gathering information in collaboration with our education colleagues and parents. We have several informal conversations with the child and ask them what they enjoy, what they find tricky and what social experiences they get pleasure from. This information is all linked to the childs home, class and their sending school. There are photographs of the child experiencing different aspects of their learning incorporated into the story, for example during art, maths, reading and drama. Every child within our classes receives a copy of their individual Story. The story is also shared with the sending school and parents at the childs review meetings and is used to set the childrens targets. Social Stories www.thegraycenter.org Talking Mats www.talkingmats.com 9. CARE AIMS The Malcomess Care Aims Model, designed to support practitioners to demonstrate evidence-based practice through systematic reflection, was adopted by our department in 2000. The main benefits are: a standardised way of capturing and communicating clinical reasoning a clear and comprehensive way of demonstrating clinical effectiveness a systematic way of supporting and demonstrating clinical reflection an ability to focus resources where they can make the most difference by being outcomes driven and not demand led a sound framework for managing caseloads and workloads a framework to support service design, planning and evaluation. This philosophy continually encourages us to ask the question WHY and to consider all aspects of the Clients story. www.careaims.com 10. INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIP We use a partnership and collaborative approach across the two classes to standardise most of our practice. For example, we are up-dating a document for the childs sending school staff, educational psychology and parents. Contents include information on specific language impairment and the speech and language class, explaining the responsibilities and role of each professional, the parents and the child, outreach, review meetings, transition from nursery to the class and from the class back to the childs sending school, transition to secondary schools, transport, in-service day, swimming and terminology. In addition we are producing information sheets on speech and language difficulties and support strategies. The class teachers and therapists also run advisory sessions together to community speech and language therapists to provide support from a therapy and educational point of view. We are auditing this service across Fife to support evidence-based practice.