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The Prep Phonological Awareness Program gives students structured and explicit practice with specific phonological awareness skills. The program will provide students with a solid foundation of sound awareness skills upon which they can build their literacy knowledge.
The program may also be used with Grade 1 and 2 students who are at risk of literacy difficulties.
Program Structure
The program is delivered to students over sixteen sessions. The sessions may be run once or twice per week depending upon the school timetable. The program can be implemented with individual students, small groups or as a whole class.
The program targets the following skills:
- Mouth movements for sounds
- Identifying initial / medial / final sounds
- Blending sounds to identify words
- Segmenting words into sounds
- Sound - letter links
Each session includes:
- The introduction of focus sounds and corresponding letters
- Mouth movements for focus sounds
- Identifying sounds in word position
- Blending sounds to identify words
- Segmenting words into sounds
The manual includes:
- Pre / post-test to measure student progress
- Detailed instructions to introduce each activity
- Prompts to use if students have difficulty with a specific skill
- Resources for all activities (colour resources on CD)
Program Requirements
The associated course Implementing the Prep Phonological Awareness Program provides the training and resources required to begin the program in your school.
The Literacy Enhancement Activity Program supports students between Prep and Grade 6 who are experiencing difficulties with literacy development. Some students require intensive practice with literacy skills and their learning is best supported in small group teaching. The LEAP program has been designed for groups of up to four students to allow explicit instruction and modelling of key skills and specific, immediate feedback.
Each LEAP program has been designed to target specific literacy and language skills that are essential for learning in the classroom. The LEAP programs lead students sequentially through skills, with students required to reach a specific skill level before moving to the next skill.
Regular practice with key skills is essential for students with language and learning difficulties. To provide the best possible learning outcomes, LEAP programs are designed to be delivered intensively over three sessions per week.
Education Support Officers or Literacy Support Teachers act as instructors with the support and supervision of a class teacher.
Program Structure
The four programs within LEAP and the skills targeted are:
Oral Language & Literacy Program (Prep - Grade 2)
Active listening behaviours, following instructions, vocabulary, concept knowledge, sentence structure, asking and answering questions.
Phonological Awareness Program (Grade 1 onwards)
Syllables, rhyme, segmenting, blending, reading and writing with word families.
Narrative Writing Program (Grade 3 onwards)
Story planner, descriptive language, time sequence words, dialogue, editing.
Reading Comprehension Program (Grade 4 onwards)
Main idea, facts and details, sequencing, vocabulary, inferencing.
Program Requirements
The associated course Implementing the LEAP Program provides the training and resources required to begin the program in your school.
The Visualising for Comprehension program helps students develop oral language and comprehension skills. Students learn to visualise, or use imagery, to build a mental picture of the information they are listening to or reading. This visualisation of information helps students remember details and integrate information to support their comprehension. In describing their image, students practice their spoken language skills.
The program is particularly effective with students who have language and learning difficulties, but can also be implemented as a whole class approach to teaching comprehension.
Program Structure
Students practice visualising and describing imagery beginning with pictures. As their visualisation skills develop, students practice with increasing amounts of text. The program targets the following specific skill levels:
- Visualising and describing pictures
- Visualising and describing words with picture support
- Visualising and describing words
- Visualising and summarising sentences and paragraphs
Each practice session includes the following:
- Introducing / reinforcing the concept of visualising
- Visualising and describing at the appropriate skill level
- Use of structure words (e.g. colour, size, action) to support descriptions
- Questioning and feedback from the instructor
The manual includes:
- Detailed instructions to introduce and provide feedback for each activity
- Prompts to use if students have difficulty visualising or describing
- Resources for all activities
The program can be implemented with individual students, small groups or a whole class.
Program Requirements
The course Implementing the Visualising for Comprehension Program gives Teachers and Education Support Officers the training and resources required to implement a Visualising for Comprehension program in their school.
The Social Skills Transition to Secondary program provides students with information about changes to expect as they move to secondary school. Students have the opportunity to discuss their expectations, talk about concerns and practice social skills.
The program is designed for students with social skill difficulties and is particularly effective with students on the autism spectrum or who have language and learning difficulties.
Program Structure
The program has four themes, with several practice sessions within each theme. The sessions may be run once or twice per week as the school timetable allows. The program is designed to be used with a small group of students.
The program targets the following areas that are often challenging for students with poor social skills:
- Environment changes (classrooms, lockers, older students)
- Friendships (making friends, maintaining friends, types of friends, changing friendships)
- Teachers (teaching styles, asking for help, clarifying)
- Language (slang, joking vs. bullying, outside language vs. classroom language)
Each session includes the following:
- Introducing and explaining the theme
- Brainstorming feelings, ideas and situations
- Social scripts for role play
- Feedback and discussion
- Home / class practice activities
The manual includes:
- Detailed instructions to introduce each activity and facilitate discussion
- Social scripts for role play practice
Program Requirements
The associated course Implementing the Social Skills Transition to Secondary Program gives education staff the training and resources required to implement the program in their school.
The Communicate Speech Therapy Assistant program helps schools provide regular, consistent therapy services to students with speech and language difficulties. The STA program supports Speech Pathologists, who often have very large therapy caseloads, to deliver an effective school-based therapy service.
The STA program trains Speech Therapy Assistants to deliver therapy programs under the supervision of a Speech Pathologist. Students receive three therapy sessions per week, which results in more rapid progress towards speech-language goals. Speech Pathologists also benefit from an easier to manage caseload.
The program is successfully running in hundreds of primary schools in Victoria and over a thousand Education Support Officers have been trained as therapy assistants.
Program Structure
The Speech Pathologist performs an assessment of the student and prepares an Individual Therapy Plan. The therapy plan is demonstrated to the Speech Therapy Assistant (STA). The STA carries out the program three times a week in thirty minute sessions.
The Speech Pathologist regularly observes a session to provide support and guidance to the assistant. Student progress is recorded using Therapy Outcome Measures which give the Speech Pathologist a clear view of progress made and allows adjustment of the therapy plan if required.
At the end of each term, the Speech Pathologist reviews the student’s progress and prepares a report. The report is proved to teachers and parents.
Program Requirements
The course The STA Program for Assistants gives Education Support Officers the training required to deliver therapy programs as Speech Therapy Assistants.
The STA Program for Speech Pathologists provides speech pathologists with the information and forms required to supervise a therapy assistant.
Communicate has a range of language / literacy programs available:
The Prep Phonological Awareness Program gives students practice with the phonological awareness skills upon which they can build their literacy.
The Literacy Enhancement Activity Program (LEAP) support students who are experiencing difficulties with literacy development.
Visualising for Comprehension helps students develop oral language and comprehension skills.
The Social Skills Transition to Secondary Program is designed to support students who have social skill difficulties (particularly those on the autism spectrum or who have language / learning difficulties) as they move to secondary school.
The Speech Therapy Assistant Program (STA) helps schools provide regular, consistent therapy services to students with speech and language difficulties.
The Social Skills for School Program is designed for Prep to Grade 2 students who require structured teaching of social skills.
The Social Skills for School program helps students develop an understanding of common school situations (e.g. no-one to play with), encourages verbal reasoning and problem-solving skills and helps students understand different points of view.
The program has been developed for Prep to Grade 2 students who require structured teaching of social skills.
Program Structure
- Understanding of different social scenarios that can occur at school
- Problem-solving to resolve issues
- Using language effectively with teachers and peers
- Identification of emotions
- The introduction of the visual schedule. As each activity is completed, the relevant picture is placed on the finish line
- Discussion of a social situation scenario and possible choices to resolve the problem
- Identification of the emotions of each person in the scenario
- Personalised social story / script to be role-played
Program Requirements
The course The STA Program - Social Skills for School gives Education Support Officers the training and resources required to implement this program with the assistance of their school speech pathologist. Participants must have previously completed the Speech Therapy Assistant training course.