Vicky Bland at Oaklands School, discusses the way that school, parents and speech and language therapists have worked together to utilise and develop communication strategies and the impact that this has had.

Communication is key

All of our unique pupils have speech, language and communication as their primary special educational need, therefore, Communication, Interaction & Social Skills (CISS) are at the heart of everything that we do as a school to support our pupils’ development. Indeed, so central are these areas of learning that it could be argued that every session should be an opportunity to teach and practice communication skills. 

At Oaklands, it is our mission to embrace the unique interests, strengths and ‘ways of being’ of our children, whilst also enabling them to develop highly effective communication, interaction & social skills. Therefore, we are committed to offering learning opportunities that entice children to widen their focus of attention and be drawn into the wider world.  As a school, we continue to develop our expertise in teaching communication, interaction and social skills by drawing on research, such as by Murray, Lesser & Dawson and work on cognitive load and brain processing. 

Research shows that involving parents and carers in their children’s learning is the most important factor in enabling some children to do well, regardless of background.
“Parental engagement is a powerful lever for raising achievement in schools.  When parents and teachers work together to improve learning, the gain in achievement are significant”.
Do Parents Know They Matter (Harris and Goodall – University of Warwick 2007)
Working alongside parents and the Speech and Language team is also vital to ensuring our curriculum promotes good progress for every child. 

Developing Communication at Oaklands

Ethan joined Oaklands in September 2021 and was pre-verbal, using PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) at Phase 3 and the occasional vocal sounds.  Mum reported that Ethan used to get extremely frustrated, that he was unable to communicate and would hurt others and self-harm, so PECS had been introduced at an early age.  During his first year at Oaklands, Ethan moved quickly through the stages of PECS and onto using a communication book.  There were lots of opportunities for parents and school to work collaboratively, sharing information, resources, progress and challenges through parent’s evenings and regular communications. 

At Oaklands we run a range of parent workshops where staff share strategies that are used within school and then provide resources that can be used at home in the same way as at school.  It is also a key opportunity for parents to meet others in similar situations, chat and have the opportunity to share ideas and experiences.

During Summer 2022, EATS (Electronic Assistive Technology Service) recommended that Ethan move onto using a digital communication device and he was therefore given a tablet with the Proloquo2go app installed. Over the summer he began to use the talker at home and then brought it to school for the start of the 2022-23 academic year. His class teacher was given training by the EATS team in how to facilitate him to use his talker regularly across the curriculum. 

Ethan is given opportunities to communicate using his talker throughout the day, for example during interaction staff sit with him and model asking for toys. Ethan learnt how to do this independently. During circle time, instead of having a morning book (a book that enables pupils to have an active part in circle time and develop early reading and communication skills) he contributes by responding to questions or making observations using his talker. In lessons throughout the day he is given opportunities to contribute using his talker and he takes it home with him at the end of every day.  His class teachers, the school Communication Lead and Ethan’s mum continue to meet regularly to talk about what’s going well, the progress he is making and next steps.

We work closely with our speech therapists and have this term recruited two of our Teaching Assistants to take on the role of communication facilitators for a day a week each.  Working closely with the therapists their main roles are:

• Running one or two weekly communication groups for the powered device users in school 
• Carrying out individual Therapy Programmes with students 
• Supporting class staff to implement individual powered and paper-based communication in class 
• Supporting with the planning of trips to incorporate students’ communication goals which in turn support students’ increased independence using communication aids
• Collaborating with parents to develop the use of the communication aids at home

Ethan is part of a communication group made up of a number of pupils who all use their own powered devices, and he is now using his device for a wider range of purposes. The group has not only developed his confidence in using the device but has also supported Ethan to develop his social communication skills with his peers.

What is the impact?

Ethan is now extremely skilled at using his talker and can respond to questions, ask questions himself and regularly, spontaneously comments using it. Ethan is now able to use verbal speech to communicate things he would usually use his talker for and more. He is spontaneously commenting on lots of things, including the weather “look, it’s raining”, saying ‘good morning’ to familiar staff and using their names correctly, telling other students to “be quiet” using their name if they are being loud, saying “oopsie” when the teacher dropped something in class, and even making jokes. He is extremely confident in speaking now and this is his main method of communication. He still takes his talker everywhere with him and uses it when he needs to. 

Mum reported that Ethan is mostly speaking at home and speaks lots, including using sarcasm like “erm, I don’t think so” when mum asks him to do something. There are times he is not understood, but this tends to be that mum doesn’t know what he is talking about when he is requesting a particular TV programme by naming a song that’s in it and mum doesn’t know what he means, rather than his speech being unclear. During these times he will look for his talker as another way of making himself understood. Mum is extremely pleased with his progress, as we are at school.  Ethan’s mum, and the collaborative approach between home and school, have been pivotal in enabling the amount of progress that he has made.

As a school we are continuing to review and refine the strategies that we use to support children to develop their communication skills.  Ethan’s progress has been amazing and he moved through the stages with ease. However, we have found that the jump between PECS and a communication book can be too big for some pupils and so we are developing smaller steps to support these pupils.