Leanne Proctor Interviews a Primary School SENDCO about their school's use of Speech & Language Link

Recently Leanne Proctor , Assistant Psychologist interviewed Elm Tree Primary School’s SENDCO about their use of Speech & Language Link. Read below to find out how Elm Tree used the Infant and Junior Language Link packages to screen and support pupils with SLCN.

Q. Tell us a little about your school- how many children are roughly on roll?

A. We are a mainstream primary school, Early Years Foundation Stages (EYFS) to Year 6, with 266 pupils on roll.

Q. Are you using Infant and Junior Language Link across your school?

A. We assess all children in EYFS and KS1 and then use the Speech Link and Language Link intervention activities to help address the children’s identified gaps in receptive language. In KS2, we assess pupils where appropriate and intervene where needed.

Q. You are a continuing user with Speech Link (the speech sounds package) too – why did you continue to renew your licence?

A. Yes we are continuing to use Speech Link too and we are using it more within Lower KS2 this year as well. It is a great assessment tool to identify sounds that need to be worked on and gives us a programme that can be used straight away.

Q. Which year groups are you planning on screening this academic year?

A. Language Link – EYFS, Year 1, Year 2 and identified children in years 3-6.

Speech Link – EYFS, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3.

Q. Has the screening process flagged children to refer for SALT or for small group interventions?

A. Yes we have made SALT referrals based on assessments as we have more accurate information on the areas they struggle with and their scaled scores. ?The good thing is that the programme gives us weekly activities that can be worked on with the children to help them, whilst they await seeing the SALT.? It’s great that we can be doing something proactive that helps them in school while they are on the waiting list.

We have interventions running every day based on SALT’s recommendations.

Q. Why do you think other Suffolk schools should find out more about Speech Link and the packages they offer?

A.

·??????? An incredible assessment tool – clear identification of gaps that need to be worked on.

·??????? Tracking tool to assess how each intervention goes and if children have closed the gap.

·??????? End of unit assessments after each set of interventions.

·??????? Supports referrals for neurodiverse children, EHCPs, SALT etc.

·??????? Great to see the progress children have made.

Q. Finally- do you have a success story to share about a pupil where Infant Language Link/Junior Language Link impacted them positively, such as you noticed increased social skills/ confidence?

A. We had two children in EYFS who in September 2023 were assessed and marked as having? ?severe language and communication needs (scaled score 53 and 75). We followed the recommended interventions and the plans that accompanied them. They had a language intervention once a week. We also used their score and assessment information to put a referral in for SALT, which was accepted straight away for both children.

As the year progressed, we noticed that Child A was becoming more talkative within the classroom. Previously, she had been very quiet and engaged with few people. Her confidence grew as the year went on and this meant we were then able to assess her speech as well. She developed some great friendships and engaged in lessons, helping her to make small steps of progress academically as well. We reassessed at the end of the year, and she had a scaled score of 95 and was appropriate for age for her language.

Child B also had significant speech gaps, and it was a struggle to understand him. He was having speech interventions as well. At the beginning of the year, he was quite rough and physical with other children, and had to be spoken to regularly. As the year progressed, he became less physical and his confidence in sharing information and discussing things that had happened which led to him being physical was incredible. As his understanding of language improved, he became more confident in finding ways of communicating with us and understanding what was happening. When he was reassessed at the end of the year, he had a scaled score of 102 and was appropriate for his age in language.