The pupils that come to St John’s have very delayed speech and language skills, which require a special school placement. A variety of S< provision is in place to suit a variety of needs. The type and level of provision is determined from assessment. Input can be individual 15 minute sessions from one to five times a week. Group sessions run covering Functional Language for older students and Social Use of Language for a variety of age groups. This provision is set up depending on the population’s need at the time.
Intensive individual time with an experienced S< is important for the majority of the pupils in St John’s to give them time to develop areas of need within language, speech intelligibility and listening that are particular to them. It is a time when the pupil can rehearse, learn new skills and reinforce developing skills with confidence. They can learn at their own rate. The needs of this population require the skills and training of a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist to assess, monitor progress and work with the individual pupil. S< seeks actively to link with class teachers, parents and care staff to ensure an integrated approach to speech and language learning where common goals can be shared.
We aim to:
- Provide an appropriate level of S.L.T. to each child who requires it.
- Help each child reach his/her potential for good spoken language by developing
- conversational skills
- listening skills
- lip-reading skills
- social skills
- empathy towards other speakers
- strategies to help the other speaker/listener
- flexibility of function of language
- skills at both the suprasegmental and segmental levels
- ability to use language functionally out of school.
Evaluation of Progress
The department has a broad range of standardised assessments, which are used at least annually to assess progress. There are frequent informal assessments being carried out throughout the year to monitor progress in a particular area being targeted. Assessment is used to inform therapy and set new targets termly. Within the pupil population there are some with speech and language needs over and above those just associated with deafness. These needs include motor speech difficulties such as dysarthria, Specific Language Impairment, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, and Developmental Coordination Difficulties including dyspraxia. These specific needs on top of deafness require skilled intervention to ensure progress is made. Many of the pupils have cochlear implants Those implanted late require support to maximise the device as a support for language learning and listening.
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