SEND Outreach Service- Developmental Language Disorder Team

In our team there are:

• specialist speech and language teachers who have extra training to help children with speech and language
• speech and language therapists who help children to communicate the best they can
• specialist learning support assistants who work together with children on tasks which help their speech or language skills
• educational psychologists who have extra training about how children develop and the school system

1. First, some of us will meet and talk to the student's teachers and grown ups to find out what is going well and what is tricky at school
2. Next, some of us will come and meet the student and do some activities. This is to find out how they are feeling at school and what could help to make it even better. One of us will come and observe the student in class.
3. Using all of this information, we will make a plan about how to help the student learn and feel even better. We will meet and talk to teachers and grown ups again about what we learned.
4. If we think it will be helpful, a learning support assistant will come to work with the student a few times every week for up to 25 weeks. At the end of this work, we will meet again to think about what happens next.

The Team look at the referral documentation and decide whether or not the child might benefit from their involvement. If it is considered that the child’s difficulties do meet the Team criteria, then their name goes on a waiting list.

Team assessment takes half a term and consists of the following steps:

• Parents and school staff are invited to attend a Welcome Meeting in school where the Team’s involvement is explained and the child’s strengths and needs discussed
• One teacher and one Speech and Language Therapist will assess the child in school. An Educational Psychologist may also be consulted if deemed appropriate.
• A joint report is written
• A Feedback Meeting is held at which the DLD Team findings are shared and the next steps explained
• If appropriate, intensive intervention will be offered

A programme of work is put together, tailored to the specific needs of the child. A Team LSA, or occasionally a Team therapist or teacher, will implement this in school.

The programme will be revised frequently and the child’s progress monitored by a Speech and Language Therapist.

Parents are encouraged to come into school and watch a session or two. School staff are also included in sessions to build knowledge and skills, and so targets can be practised and generalised in school.

During and/or towards the end of the intervention, a review will be held to talk about future plans.

It is hoped that as a result of DLD Team involvement, most children will remain successfully included in their mainstream school.

A very small number of children may require a longer and more intensive level of support. The DLD Team may recommend that these children are considered for an Education, Health and Care Plan needs assessment to describe their needs and future provision. This may involve consideration for a place at one of the city’s Additionally Resourced Provisions (ARPs) for Speech and Language.