The Speech and Language Therapy Team

Ellen is Rowhill Schools Speech and Language Therapist, and she is based in school two days a week.

Ellen is also supported by two Speech and Language Therapy Assistants

What is Speech and Language Therapy?

A Speech and Language Therapist offers specialist advice, assessment and intervention for children who have speech, language and communication needs.

Speech and Language Therapists often work as part of a team to support children who have difficulty with any aspect of their communication, including:

• Attention and listening
• Understanding
• Expressive Language / talking
• Speech sounds
• Interacting with others
• Social communication
• Problem solving and negotiating
• Fluency

How does Speech and Language Therapy work at Rowhill?

The Speech and Language Therapy Team at Rowhill work in partnership with school staff and parents to develop pupils’ speech, language and communication skills. This includes providing training, advice and strategies to staff, delivering specialist assessment and interventions with pupils, and formulating and integrating targets into pupils’ daily curriculum. This also involves working within the classroom and supporting school staff to develop strategies to support pupils’ communication and interaction across the school day, along with maximising their access to learning.

Interventions

The type of Speech and Language intervention that your child receives will depend on each pupil’s individual needs, and may change over time. Intervention may be classroom based, group, or 1:1, and may focus on:

• Listening and attention skills
• Play skills
• Social communication skills
• Understanding of language
• Expressive language
• Speech sound development
• Fluency
• Social interaction
• Social understanding
• Emotional Regulation

L E G O ® Based Therapy

Lego-based therapy groups run regularly at Rowhill School, supported by the Speech and Language Therapy Team.

Lego-Based therapy aims to support development of social interaction and communication skills in children, especially those with ASC or related social communication difficulties.

The children engage in collaborative LEGO brick building activities and other projects, tailored to their skill level. The team of pupils work together to assemble the project with an emphasis on verbal and non-verbal communication, task focus, collaborative problem solving, sharing and turn-taking.

ZONES of Regulation

Rowhill implements a whole-school approach to supporting pupils to develop their emotional regulation skills. This is supported by the ‘Zones of Regulation’ curriculum, which helps pupils to recognise how they are feeling, to learn how to communicate this and to develop strategies to regulate their feelings and behaviour.

The Zones of Regulation supports pupils to develop understanding of facial expressions, perspective about how others react to their behaviours and insight into what triggers their behaviours. It aims to support pupils to develop individualised ‘toolkits’ of calming and alerting strategies and to ultimately enable them to become independent in regulating their emotions in response to their environment.

How to refer

If you have concerns regarding a pupil's speech, language or communication needs, you can request to speak with the Speech and Language Therapist, via the class teacher or the school office. 

If a referral to the Speech and Language Therapy team is required, a referral form will be completed by the pupil's teacher, and a consent form will be sent home to be completed by parents/carers.