Language group

Our language group helps children who struggle with understanding language and expressing themselves, to develop the skills needed to increase their understanding of what’s being said and to be able to express themselves more effectively. Our speech and language therapists deliver therapy in small groups using fun and encouraging activities that are suited to child’s age and development level.

Our speech and language therapists will initially identify what aspects of language the child is struggling with, and what level of difficulty the child is experiencing, and then implement strategies to improve their skills to age appropriate level. Activities such as word maps are used to help children learn new words associated with everyday items to help improve expressive and receptive vocabulary skills. This increases the child’s ability to express themselves more effectively and further their understanding about concepts.

Our speech and language therapists aim to improve the language skills of all the children attending our group. Our aims include:

• To improve children’s understanding and comprehension of verbal and written language through developing the different aspects of language.
• To increase expressive language skills both written and verbal to enhance the child’s ability to express themselves effectively.

These aims will be reached in an engaging and fun environment, through the use of a variety of activities that are suitable for the child’s age. Activities will be carried out in a group setting of 6 children. A group therapy session is 2 hours long.

This group is suitable for children who difficulty with any of the following:

• Children who struggle to understand verbal or written language.
• Children who struggle express themselves effectively.
• Children who have a reduced vocabulary.
• Children who don’t understand instructions.
• Children who speak in single words or short phrases.
• Children who struggle to understand concepts such as colour, size, textures.
• Children who struggle with understanding or expressing sentences of different complexities.
• Children who struggle with tense or plural forms in either or both expression and comprehension.

Children attending the group can be of any age from pre-school to school aged children; however children within a group should preferably not be more than one school year apart.

Our language group will include a mixture of adult led activities and games to increase the child’s language skills in both expression and comprehension. Activities will work on the different aspects of language such as vocabulary, sentence structure, word formation, narrative and understanding of information carrying words (ICW). Groups will be led by a qualified speech and language therapist, and implemented over a 6 week period. Each child will receive a full individual report and certificate on completion of the language group.

Our language group creates the opportunity for children to develop their understanding and expression of language in a safe and supporting manner. After the therapy group children can show:

• Increased understanding of verbal and written comprehension.

• Increased ability in children to express themselves more effectively.
• Increased understanding of classroom language.
• Better access to the school curriculum.
• Increase in social communication.
• Increased confidence levels.
• A safe environment to practice newly learnt language skills.

Our speech and language therapists run language groups throughout the school year. Children will leave the group with better language skills making it easier for them to communicate and build relationships with both adults and their peers.

If you are interested in finding out more information about our language groups, please email office@sltforkids.co.uk or call us on 0330 088 2298.