Practitioner Training About Talk Boost KS 1 Small

Practitioner Training

About Talk Boost KS 1 Small group intervention Activities with groups of 3– 4 children, three times a week for 10 weeks 30– 40 minutes each session with a teacher/teaching assistant Measures of children’s language and communication before and after Talk Boost KS 1 Tracker and the Children’s attitude survey Children’s Activity Book Whole class activities for class teachers Linking small group activities to the class and supporting whole class speaking and listening skills Activities for children to take home and share with parents or carers 2

Course outline • Session 1 The importance of good speech, language and communication (SLC) skills • Session 2 Selecting children for Talk Boost KS 1 • Session 3 Using Talk Boost KS 1: Intervention Manual content and activities • Session 4 Teacher Manual, Children’s Activity Book, planning and questions 3

Warm-up activity Spend two minutes talking to the person next to you about your morning routine, from getting up to arriving at work: • How much of what you do depends on being able to use communication skills? • If you couldn’t communicate, what effect would that have? 4

Warm-up activity Now discuss: • Why do we communicate? • What skills do we need? • What would be the impact if we couldn’t communicate? 5

Session 1: The importance of good speech, language and communication (SLC) skills 6

Speech, language and communication Speech The sounds and sound combinations that are put together to make up words Language Understanding language (also known as comprehension or receptive language) Talking (also known as expressive language) Communication Gives us a way of sharing feelings and emotions – a tool for giving and receiving information 7

Why do children need speaking and listening skills? 8

In order to learn, children need language Speech sounds for reading and spelling Use words and sentences to put their thoughts into text Use their language to organise their thoughts: • explain • predict • problem solve • develop their understanding and thinking • clarify Without language, there can be no reading or writing, maths, science, history or geography 9

Speech, language and communication lotto • The lotto board is divided into examples of speech, language and communication • Listen to the examples and decide which category is which • Place the card on the board when you’ve decided – there’s one example of each 10

Speech, language and communication lotto 11

Communication breakdown activity • Work in groups of three • One person takes a sentence and tries to get the message across to the others • They can’t use the words in bold • The others can ask questions to clarify the message 12

Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) Speech difficulties, e. g. saying one sound instead of another Language difficulties, e. g. not using necessary words, or lack of understanding On their own or in any combination Communication difficulties, e. g. not looking or listening well. Interaction and communication is then impaired 13

SLCN fact or fiction activity 1. Children from economically deprived backgrounds are at considerable risk of language delay 2. SLCN is more common in boys than girls 3. By age 4 an average child would have experienced almost 45 million words 4. Children with weaker vocabularies are more likely to learn new words from incidental exposure than children with larger vocabularies 5. Young people who are slow to develop language are likely to be slow to develop reading skills and written language 6. Children do better if you make them work and talk together 14

Impact 15

Session 2: Selecting children for Talk Boost KS 1 16

Who is Talk Boost KS 1 for? Children with typical language levels Children with delayed language (40– 50% in some areas) Children with persistent SLCN (10%) Children with specific SLCN (5– 7%) 17

Who does best in the Talk Boost KS 1 intervention? 18

Criteria: children to be included in Talk Boost KS 1 Difficulties may impact on other areas of learning or socialising Difficulties may be due to a lack of opportunity or experience in the early years Children who have the potential to ‘catch up’ Children with English as an additional language (EAL) also benefit from Talk Boost KS 1 19

Criteria: children who will not benefit as much Developmental Language Disorder 20

Case study: discussion activity Jack is 5 years old and sits quietly and smiles, but seems to struggle with everything in school. He misses a lot of school for medical appointments, and he seems very ‘babyish’. The other children in his group try and help him with everything Taylor is 5 years old, and he loves playing outside and is really good at football. He loves maths but struggles with sitting still to listen to stories and answering questions. He makes mistakes naming objects and still uses ‘me’ in sentences, and he laughs loudly, distracting other children at worktime 21

Which children? 22

Assessment and monitoring The Talk Boost KS 1 Tracker is provided: • to help you select children for the intervention • to monitor the progress of the children after Talk Boost KS 1 Note that the Tracker is not designed as a whole class screening tool 23

Talk Boost KS 1 Tracker • Covers children’s language and communication skills in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 • For each year group the Tracker has five sections • The sections cover different aspects of language and communication 24

Talk Boost KS 1 Tracker • • • Understanding spoken language: children’s ability to understand what other people say Understanding and using vocabulary: children’s ability to understand, use and learn new words Sentences: children’s ability to talk using grammar appropriate to their age and put together sentences Storytelling and narrative: children’s ability to put together well ordered stories and accounts when talking Social interaction: children’s ability to listen, take turns in conversations and use their language to interact with others 25

Talk Boost KS 1 Tracker • Each answer is given a score of 1, 3 or 5 depending on how much detail the child gives or how accurate they are • There’s guidance on appropriate responses and how to score • You can complete the Score summary and use the online scoring tool to calculate the child’s level • The results are colour coded: RED, AMBER and GREEN 26

Tracker practice Understanding and using vocabulary: example responses of a child in Reception 1. Correctly pointed to ‘over’, ‘behind’, ‘pull’, ‘break’ and ‘next to’ 2. Correctly pointed to ‘dancing’ and ‘hiding’ 3. Named ‘knife’, ‘glass’, ‘banana’, ‘licking’, ‘chips’, ‘cakes’ and ‘toast’ 27

Scoring the Tracker • • Follow the guidance and use the online Tracker to get a numerical score and measure this against the child’s age: www. talkboostks 1 tracker. org. uk Children scoring in the AMBER bands will benefit from Talk Boost KS 1 Children in the RED band may need further support, liaison with parents and consideration for external referral Children in the GREEN band will not benefit particularly from Talk Boost KS 1 28

Session 3: Using Talk Boost KS 1: Intervention Manual content and activities 29

Supporting materials Introductory training Toolkit Talk Boost KS 1 Intervention Manual Children’s Activity Book Teacher Manual The Communication Cookbook 30

Talk Boost KS 1 Intervention Manual and Toolkit 31

Talk Boost KS 1: overall structure Talk Boost KS 1 breaks language and communication down into five component parts: • Attention and listening • Vocabulary • Building sentences • Telling stories • Conversations The 10 -week programme has a focus each week linked to these five component parts 32

Throughout Talk Boost KS 1 33

Five areas of language: activity • Attention and listening • Vocabulary • Building sentences • Telling stories • Conversations Consider each area: Think of one way each area is supported and developed in class 34

Key activities • There’s a key activity for each language area except for Conversations • This teaches the principles for that area of language • This is the activity that also needs to be carried out with the whole class 35

Teaching good listening Attention and listening Make listening an active and explicit process This means making key behaviours explicit: • Sitting still, looking and thinking Explicitly linking these behaviours to listening: • ‘You’re doing good sitting, Sam, and that’s good listening. ’ Provide children with strategies for good listening Lots of activities and practice for listening Give regular, ongoing and specific feedback ‘Catch’ children listening well and praise for exactly what they’re doing – all day, every day! 36

Vocabulary: principles • • • Vocabulary Teach meaning and phonic makeup Link to current knowledge to make it meaningful Use the words – repetition and practice in different contexts There’s a lot of research around teaching vocabulary. What works is to give children: • semantic information: what does the word mean? • phonic knowledge: how is the word made up? • meta skills: what do they know already? The tool used to teach this is Word magic. . . 37

Word magic template Vocabulary 38

Vocabulary: teaching using Word magic Vocabulary 1. Today’s new word is pineapple 2. Have you heard the word pineapple before? 3. What do you know about pineapples? Go through the template – describe it, what do we do with it? … etc 4. When you reach ‘anything else? ’, talk about the sounds in the word 5. Then it’s down to practice: • Put it in a sentence • Put it in a rhyme • Use it in the classroom • Write it for your word bank • Put it on the word wall • Use it on your topic table 39

Building sentences: principles Building sentences • • • Build a solid understanding as well as talking • Supporting both understanding and expressive language in practical ways • Adults modelling what they want to hear • Making children aware of their own language skills Target the right level and ‘scaffold’ from there Model and encourage longer sentences 40

Silly and sensible sentences Building sentences 41

Telling stories: principles Telling stories • Focus on the importance of day-to-day narratives and stories • Spoken stories and narratives come before written • Children need clear and explicit narrative structures to support these skills • We all tell stories throughout our day – it’s the basis of much of our communication • Many children struggle to organise their thoughts into a cohesive narrative • Giving children a clear narrative structure has been found to be effective for children with SLCN • This has also been found to be effective to support written narratives 42

Telling stories: teaching narrative Telling stories • First, teach the components of a story • Each story must have: – a person, a place, a time – activities or events – a conclusion • A good way to support this is to explicitly teach these components through story words 43

Story words Telling stories Story strips can be put on desks in the classroom to encourage structured narratives, both spoken and written 44

Conversations: principles • • • Conversations Focuses on verbal and non-verbal elements Share with children the importance and purpose of conversations Provide opportunities for conversations, both for social interaction and learning This is about practising and making use of language skills – for a purpose: • To get what you want • To make friends • To tell people how you feel • To explain, negotiate, clarify, put your point across This demonstrates to children how useful language and communication can be 45

Conversations: teaching Conversations 46

Session plan Each session will include: • Attention and listening • • • Vocabulary Building sentences OR Telling stories Conversations 47

Session plan example All sessions follow the principle of plan. . . do. . . review All encourage children to be aware of their own learning Each has the same structure, for example: • Attention and listening: Good listening • Vocabulary: Word magic • Telling stories: Group story • Conversations: Finding out 48

Children’s review It’s important they get the chance to feed back to someone At the end of each session children review what they have learned Who could this person be? 49

Session 4: Teacher Manual, Children’s Activity Book, planning and questions 50

Talk Boost KS 1 Teacher Manual Provides class teachers with: • The background to Talk Boost KS 1 • Information to select the right children and track their progress • Information to oversee the groups and support the teaching assistant in their role of organising and running the groups • Mandatory class activities each week in the classroom for the whole class 51

Classroom link activities for class teachers 52

Teacher Manual: quality and outcome measures Talk Boost KS 1 Tracker Children’s attitude survey Moderation guidelines 53

Reports • 20 15 before 10 after 5 0 JA LH JG JW • • Access the online scoring system from the website Add scores before and after Talk Boost KS 1 Use the online scoring system for both the Talk Boost KS 1 Tracker and the Children’s attitude survey 54

Children’s Activity Book 55

Next steps for you • What will you do now? – Timetable/planning – Whole class activities – TA/teacher links • List three actions to take place before Talk Boost KS 1 begins • List three actions to maintain throughout 56

A quick quiz to recap! 1. Who is Talk Boost KS 1 for? 2. How many children are in the groups? 3. How often do the groups run? 4. For how long? 5. How many weeks does Talk Boost KS 1 last? 6. What are the five areas of language? 7. Name one of the key principles for teaching each of the five areas 8. Can you name one key activity? 9. What is the main barrier for us? 10. How will we overcome it? 57

Any questions? 58

Course certificates and evaluation Please complete an evaluation of the Talk Boost KS 1 Practitioner Training course online at: www. icancharity. org. uk/validation When you do this you’ll be able to download a certificate. 59

Thank you Thanks for your attention Tutor name Title Date 60