Our Training

Training

We offer a range of online and face to face training workshops within the Children’s Speech and Language Therapy services for parents/carers and educational settings to access in order to gain a better understanding of a child’s speech, language and communication needs and how to provide further support.

Many of these training workshops are part of our core service offer and there is no cost for families and settings working with a child to access these. The Speech and Language Therapist working with a child may make a referral to one of the listed training workshops that they feel a child’s family and key staff at their educational setting would benefit from accessing.

Some of these training workshops are also part of our traded services offer. Please see below for further information.

Training workshops as part of our core service offer.

Attention and Listening

Criteria - Support for children with attention and listening difficulties that are impacting on the development of their speech, language and communication.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers

Length of session/format - 1.5 hours (online).

Building communication workshop

This parent(s)/ carer(s) only workshop currently runs as a remote offer for 1-1 ½ hours. The session aims to:

- Consider what skills need to be in place for a child to be an effective communicator.

- Discuss the important characteristics of daily routines and how these can support the development of speech, language and social interaction skills.

- Share strategies that parents/ carers can use in their everyday routines to support their child’s understanding of spoken language, expressive communication and social interaction skills too.

Following attendance at the workshop the families are added to the list for a follow up phone call with the specialist nursery nurse team.

Please note that a version for settings is in development.

Colourful Semantics

Criteria - The Colourful Semantics workshops aims to to upskill parent/carers/school staff so that they are able to use the Colourful Semantics approach to support their child/young person in Reception and KS1 with the development of their understanding of questions, vocabulary, and sentence structure.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers

Length of session/format - 1.5 hours (online).

Cost if traded - £210 per setting - max 15 attendees

Contrastive Pairs

Criteria - A training package that comprises: a PowerPoint session with follow-up, written guidance and resources, focusing on 5 key sounds - /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /s/ at CVC level.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers

Length of session/format - 1-1.5 hours (online).

Early Bird/Early Bird Plus

Criteria - National Autistic Society (NAS) licenced programmes for parents/carers and settings to support children with autism.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers

Length of session/format - mixture of face to face and online sessions (between 6 to 8 sessions depending on the format)

Useful Link - www.autism.org

Introducing Visual Supports to help your child develop their understanding

Criteria - The Visuals workshop is for those who are supporting children who would benefit from structured use of visual systems/strategies due to difficulties arising from any/all areas of their speech, language and communication.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers.

This session aims to provide you with an understanding of -

why it is so important to introduce visual supports (eg objects / photos/ pictures) to help your child with their understanding and use of spoken word.
how/where to begin
using ‘objects of reference’ (when an object carries meaning)
using ‘photos of reference’ (when a photo carries meaning)
using “first, and then” 2 step sequence board
how/when to move from objects to photos

Length of session/format - 1.5 hours (online).

Cost if traded - £55 per person (unless funded by Shropshire Local Authority as part of the preferred provider programme)

Makaton - Taster

Criteria - The Makaton Taster provides a short introduction into what Makaton is and who uses it. Participants will learn approximately 40 Makaton signs and symbols.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers

Length of session/format - 1-1.5 hours (online).

Useful link - www.makaton.org

School Aged Narrative

Criteria - The Narrative workshop aims to share skills so that parent/carer/school staff can support children/young people in Reception/KS1 and KS2 with the development of all aspects of their oral narrative abilities.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers

Length of session/format - 2 hours (online).

Supporting children with Cleft Lip and Palate in school

Criteria - Will be offered for settings where a child with Cleft speech difficulties has joined.

Who is it for - Education setting

Length of session/format - 1.5 hours (online).

Useful Link - www.clapa.com

Teach Speech

Criteria - This Teach Speech workshop is for parents/carers/staff supporting children/young people with some minor articulation difficulties using a specific sound/s within their everyday talking. The workshops aims to upskill those working with a child/young person to help them develop clearer speech.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers.

Length of sessions/format - 2 hours (online).

Understanding Spoken Language - Information Carrying Words (ICW)

Criteria - The ICW workshop aims to provide skills so that those who are supporting children can develop the child's understanding from a single to a 4 key word level

Who is it for - Education setting and parents/carers

Length of session/format - 1.5 - 2 hours (online).

Verbal Memory for Communication

Criteria - The Memory training workshop aims to provide parents/carers/school staff with practical strategies to support verbal memory skills for communication, and access to the school curriculum for children/young people in KS2/KS3 and KS4.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers

Length of session/format - 2.5 hours (online).

Verbal Reasoning

Criteria - The course aims to provide an understanding of Blank's Four Levels of Questioning to support children with the development of their verbal reasoning skills.

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers.

Length of session/format - 1 - 1.5 hours (online).

Cost if traded - £210 per setting (max 15 attendees). Duration = 1.5 hours

Vocabulary and Concepts. Package 1 - Early Years. Package 2 - School Aged.

Criteria - The vocabulary and concepts workshop share skills so that parent/carers and education staff can support children/young people with the development of all aspects of their vocabulary and concept learning.

Package 1 - Early Years (for those supporting children aged up to 5, and for older children depending on their language levels).

Package 2 - School Aged (for those supporting children aged 5 up until the end of KS2, and for older children/young people depending on their language levels).

Who is it for - Education settings and parents/carers.

Length of session/format - 1.5 - 2 hours (online).

Cost if traded - £210 per setting (max 15 attendees).

Useful link - www.thinkingtalking.co.uk/word-aware