My working life...

This blog is about me and the work I do.

I am an independent speech and language therapist working in mainstream primary and secondary schools.

I love my job.

In primary schools I work as a general SaLT: I work with teachers to help them differentiate for individual SEN pupils in their class, as well as ensuring that their lessons are accessible to all children. I heard an interesting analogy the other day: a while ago travelling by bus in London was incredibly difficult for people with a visual impairment. So Transport for London brought in a system that ensured that the name of a stop is announced as the bus reached it. It is now easier for people with a visual impairment to get off at the correct stop. A side effect of this is that travelling by bus is easier for everyone now, not only for those with visual difficulties: everyone can get off at the correct stop without having to look outside and try to recognise familiar landmarks. So by differentiating for those in need, bus travel has been made more accessible for all. I like to think that the help that I provide to teachers in ensuring that their lessons are accessible to children with speech and language needs benefits all students in the class.

In addition to working with teachers, I train TAs to run language groups concentrating on the basics such as sequencing, recalling and relating recent events, describing unusual objects from a 'feely bag', following and giving instructions, etc.

I also work 1:1 with students, targeting the difficulties that have been brought to light by assessment.

In secondary schools I mainly run group sessions for those with language and literacy difficulties.

I screen students for language difficulties and literacy difficulties. If I find any difficulties I then delve deeper to see if there are any underlying causes for their difficulties, e.g. phonological awareness, processing speed, phonological memory.

Once I have built up a language and literacy profile of the student I then put him / her (usually him!) into a group with others with a similar profile. For example, if a student exhibits poor spelling and reading comprehension difficulties with processing speed and phonological awareness difficulties, he would go into a group with others exhibiting similar struggles. I then carry out intervention to improve phonological awareness and processing speed, whilst demonstrating how these improved skills should be utilised to improve spelling and reading comprehension. I also provide strategies to help students with poor reading comprehension, e.g. how to identify an unknown word, how to work out what it means, how to 'attack' a text, how to use prior knowledge and inference and how to answer questions using clues in the text.

The results I achieve are excellent even if I do say so myself! Many students move from 'below average' or significantly below average' to 'within the average range'.

This practice has been called 'innovative' by Ofsted, and when observed by an Ofsted inspector my lesson was rated 'outstanding'. Needless to say I am proud of this accolade.

I also work with teachers in the English department to help them ensure that their lessons are accessible to all.

I have written all of this to provide some background before I talk about the training I attended recently titled 'The 8 Causes of Reading Difficulty'.

When I heard about the training I was very excited as I always feel that I can do more to help students: there is always more to learn. Whilst I specialise in literacy and language problems, it would be naive of me to think that there is nothing else I could do to enable students to achieve their full potential.

I will provide a critique of the training soon, in my next post.