Speechies are all the talk
Building language … educational speech pathologist Sue Radovich at work with Miranda Public students.
By BEN WYLD "This story first appeared in Side by Side - the newspaper for NSW public schools".
At Miranda Public School, students have learnt that good sentence structure begins by making a picture in their heads. For a group of Year 2 students, a classroom discussion about jungles evoked vivid descriptions of “growling lions” prowling their dark, leafy habitat. Miranda Public assistant principal Sue Orlovich said the increasing complexity of the students’ sentences and improved oral communication was the result of an innovative partnership with Educational Speech Pathology and Therapy Services – a Sydney-based private practice that arms teachers with stronger intervention strategies for students with language-based learning diffi culties. Practice manager Sue Radovich said the service was the only practice of its kind to contract to schools and be supported by the University of Sydney’s speech pathology clinical education program. The program, which typically runs for a day each week over two school terms, sees Ms Radovich and a team of final-year speech pathology university students – known by students as “speechies” – working in school classrooms. Ms Radovich said the program helped to develop students’ receptive and expressive orallanguage skills, phonemic awareness and social and literacy skills. The tasks, built around each classroom’s theme and text type focus, were highly visual and involved physical activity. “This multisensory approach provides greater retention ofvocabulary and … a consistent method for children to learn about language,” she said. Ms Radovich said a key aspect of the program was the “actionbased learning” that occurred for the teachers in their classroom. “[The program] provides unique intervention opportunities because the … speech team working in the classroom [provides] modelling for teachers,” she said. “It empowers teachers to better understand the needs of students with language-based learning diffi culties, to identify students and make appropriate referrals and to critically examine their own language uses while teaching so that optimal modelling, reinforcement and scaffolding of language can occur.” Ms Orlovich said the program at Miranda Public School,funded by the Rotary Club of Miranda, had helped the school towards achieving its 2009 target for improving overall literacy achievement. The program had also provided teachers with a common approach to instruction, she said.“This consistency has resulted in enhanced learning and strong reinforcement of positive listening behaviours,”
For info contact Sue Radovich, E:
speechie@ezylink.net.au T: 0410 504 030.