Speech
Speech
At Leda ESC we support students’ speech and language skills acquisition with an individualised weekly program that caters to each child’s needs. As an Independent Public School we re-profiled our staffing and have been able to employ a Speech Therapist. Our Therapist undertakes individualised assessments with our students and then tailors plans to suit their needs. We include several components in our Speech and Language Program:
•‘Articulation’ - “the way we pronounce our words”. The way in which we use our lips and tongue to produce sounds. Our work focuses on producing sounds correctly and may involve re-training the mouth muscles and correct placement of the tongue.
•Phonological Awareness’ - the ability to identify, discriminate and manipulate sounds/words in spoken and written language. Our work involves many activities to learn single and blended sounds and to identify, separate and blend these sounds in rimes, words and sentences both spoken and written.
•‘Pragmatics’ - the use and functions of language for communication. It includes verbal and non-verbal messages. Our work involves practising aspects of social interaction, the knowledge and use of conversation rules; what, where, when and how we say things. Knowing why we choose what to say and how to say things so as not to offend or give the wrong impression.
•‘Semantics’ - understanding the meaning of words and how they are correctly used in sentences. Our work involves expanding the child’s knowledge and use of describing words and concept words to tell about size, colour and location. It also focuses on telling about similarities and differences in objects and understanding the finer meanings of words, for example when used in a joke.
•‘Oral Text’ - being able to tell and then write a story in a correct sequence. Our work includes activities to help children to organise their story into correct sequence, to include important aspects of the story such as, Who, What, When, Where and Why. It also involves activities to help children to expand their text by adding better descriptions of characters, settings and feelings.
•‘Comprehension’ - the skill which enables children to understand language and their world. Our work includes activities to help children learn to listen for key information and to accurately follow instructions. It teaches them to predict what might happen in a given situation. It helps them to find direct information or to infer ideas that may not be actually written in words.