1. Junior Leaders

2. Speech pathology at St Gabriel’s
Introduction of self
Raise hands if there is an SP working at your school Or
If you have worked with an SP before

3. Speech pathology at St Gabriel’s
Work collaboratively and consultatively with teaching staff at St Gabriel’s to support students’ communication including:
Expressive Language
Receptive Language
Social Skills
Alternative and/or Augmentative Communication (AAC)
Supporting communication based projects within the school (e.g. Wellbeing Program and providing professional development
Engaging parent community (through newsletter, engaging with private SPs)

4. How do I support teachers to differentiate?
Special educators already draw an a range of communication strategies, in my role I can enhance this by:
Contributing to whole school projects so that all teachers have skills in a particular area to support a range of students (e.g. staff PD around AAC, contributing to the Wellbeing Program)
Working with a teacher to support a small group (e.g. Literacy group, Social Skills activity)
Working with a teacher to support an individual student (e.g. assessing/providing intervention for a student with complex communication needs, liaising with external speech pathologists)

5. Example - Differentiating for expressive language
“I would like my class to share their news from the weekend.”

6. Example - Differentiating for expressive language
“I would like my class to be able to share news from the weekend.”
Student will independently present their news verbally, including imperative information (WH). Extend student by using a higher level language skills such as reasoning/predicting/summarising.
Student will present their news verbally, using a WH visual scaffold prepared earlier by staff or parents/carers.
Student will present their news visually and may use an AAC device (e.g. Proloquo2go on iPad) to provide extra information.
These more general strategies come from whole school PD that we have done (e.g. NESA approved course), or term focus like we do at St Edmund’s, or more teacher collaboration/individualised support – especially for AAC users

7. Example - Differentiating for receptive language
“I would like my class to understand our guided reader.”

8. Example - Differentiating for receptive language
“I would like my class to understand our guided reader.”
Student will listen to the story and look at the pictures. When asked a comprehension question, the student may independently refer to the relevant part of the story or answer independently. Extend the student by asking a high level comprehension question, such as predicting or reasoning.
Student will listen to the story and look at the pictures. The student benefits from the teacher using a slower reading pace and multiple repetitions of the book. The student may also benefit from acting out parts of the story.
Student will focus on the characters in the story. The student may benefit from visuals or toys representing these characters and matching these during reading. They may also benefit from role play.
Similarly, these strategies may have come from a whole school project (e.g. YARC/Blank’s at St Ed’s) or a collaborative effort

9. Example - Differentiating for social skills
“I would like my class to be able to play a board game together.”

10. Example - Differentiating for social skills
“I would like my class to be able to play a board game together.”
Students will independently initiate game and engage in play and conversation. Support students to problem solve any disagreements, possibly using Comic Strip Conversations (Carol Gray).
Students may benefit from some support to initiate a game, and may require some scaffolding for turn taking.
Students may benefit from parallel play, to work towards playing with another student.

11. Speech pathologists in mainstream primary schools
Speech pathologists are currently employed by schools in ACT, SA, Vic, Tas, WA and QLD
However, this is not common in NSW. Efforts to change this include the SPA Resource Kit
Kit to encourage schools and principals to employ speech pathologists. Also a great resource for speech pathologists in terms of best practice. Will briefly summarise in the next few slides.
Personally, this approach is so effective because you are changing the student’s school environment so that they are developing their communication skills across the day/week, instead of 1:1 therapy which may be one hour per week or fortnight.
This is especially true for students w special need.
Also the importance of communication (next slide).

12. SPA Resource Kit – Impact of communication needs
The curriculum is reliant on oral language skills.
Oral language is a predictor for reading skills (decoding and comprehension).
Difficulties with social skills impact on students’ ability to form and maintain friendships at school. It can also place students at higher risk of bullying and experiencing less enjoyment at school.
Difficulties with communication linked to behavioural disorders.
Both oral language and reading skills impact academic success which in turn impacts on vocational outcomes.
Social skills can also impact vocational outcomes – major predictor.
These skills are especially important to consider in Years 5 and 6, when students are about to transition to high school. It is important that these skills are strengthen because the gap b/w students w communication difficulty and w/o communication difficulties typically grows in high school.
Study in in 2013 by Monash University that 50% of Australian children in juvenile detention have a communication or language disorder – related to ABI, FASD, ASD
“Kids with the most amount of language impairment have the least amount of insight,"

13. SPA Resource Kit – Best practice (RtI)
Empirical evidence around RtI (Response to Intervention). The uses whole school data and systems to make decisions about intensity of services.
RTI is a model that contains the features of best practice around working in schools – incorporating inclusive education (whole systems, whole person, positive school communities; professionals working collaboratively; environmental change; using tiered intervention and monitoring systems.

14. SPA Resource Kit – Best practice (RtI)
Tier 1: Encouraging inclusive education through supporting/training teaching staff (e.g. team teaching, developing a whole school resource, implementing screening/assessment tools)
Tier 2: Targeting specific skills amongst small groups of students using structured intervention (e.g. working with a small group of students on PA)
Tier 3: Intensive, individualised support for students (e.g. assessment, applying for funding, attending PP meeting, individual programming)

15. SPA Resource Kit – The positive impacts
Embedding communication at a universal level leads to achievement (e.g. whole school focus on good listening leading to improved results in English).
Skilled and confident staff can make a positive impact, helping students to engage with learning.
Linking communication and the curriculum can support students to access the curriculum.
Allowing for functional goal setting, including friendships and building independence.

16. SPA Resource Kit – The positive impacts
Supporting students to develop strategies in order to cope with language difficulties.
Opportunities for specialist intervention where difficulties are severe and complex.
Support with transition times.
Involving the student in decision making.

17. Food for thought
If your school already employs a speech pathologist, what else could you be working together on? And at what level?
If some of your students work with private speech pathologists, how else could you work with them?
If not, do you think your school would benefit from engaging a speech pathologist?