Talk Boost Training (Fully Booked)

Event Title

Talk Boost Training

Focus Area

Literacy

Commissioned By

Anne Thirkell

Date of event

Wednesday 18th September and Wednesday 25th September 2019

(Twilight sessions) Both dates must be attended

Time of event

4pm – 6pm

Venue

Marischal College

Target Personnel

P1 and P2 teachers, Pupils Support Assistants

Maximum no of participants

20

Minimum no of participants

8

Course Content/Objectives

Talk Boost is a targeted intervention that narrows the gap between 4-7 year olds with language delay and their peers. It is a 10-week programme delivered by trained PSAs that can boost a child’s communication by up to 18 months. This has been shown to have an impact on progress in reading – 90% of children with delayed language met or exceeded progress in reading after Talk Boost. Talk Boost helps children with delayed language development who would not usually qualify for specialist help but are not thriving at school because of a speech and language need. For more information about Talk Boost, please see: http://www.talkingpoint.org.uk/resources/talk-boost

This twilight has been timed so that staff can run the intervention during session 2019/20. To run the programme in school, a P1/P2 teacher and a PSA need to work together directly. Therefore, the training is for either a “new Talk Boost pair” (P1/P2 teacher and PSA), or a “new Talk Boost” PSA who will be working with an already trained Talk Boost P1 teacher, or a “new Talk Boost” P1/P2 teacher who will be working directly with an already trained Talk Boost PSA.

All the schools that have already participated in the training have a Talk Boost starter pack and additional resources (including learning plans, all activities made into games and the toys and resources needed to complete the programme). Please bring your Teachers Manual and Intervention Manual along to the twilight sessions.

While the intervention is targeted at specific pupils at any one time, there are clear benefits from the increased knowledge and skills that the training and direct intervention provides. This will benefit all pupils in the class. The group intervention approach, which will form the basis of the training sessions, will cover five areas: attention and listening, vocabulary, building sentences, telling stories and conversations.

Outcomes sought

Teachers and Pupil Support Assistants will have the opportunity to become familiar with resources and the approach of Talk Boost and to build confidence in delivering to pupils.

How does it link to the standards

2.1 Professional Knowledge and Understanding

2.2 Professional Skills and Abilities Teachers

Project Team (everyone involved in the project/programme/CPD event)

Brigid Stephenson (Speech & Language Therapy)

Anne Thirkell (Education)

Scope (Time/cost/quality)

£20 for a participant book (ordered by Marischal College and paid for by the school)

£10 to cover running costs