ELCISS

(Enhancing Language and Communication in Secondary Schools)

This exciting research project, which started in October 2006, and is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, aims to enhance language and communication in secondary school children with primary language and communication impairment through two intervention programmes: narrative/storytelling and vocabulary enrichment.

The project explores the prevalence and nature of language impairment in secondary school children in two outer London boroughs: Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham.

It investigates the effectiveness of two speech and language therapy interventions (narrative/storytelling and vocabulary enrichment) in improving language and communication in secondary school-aged children with significant language and communication impairments. The adolescent population is significantly under-researched and under-serviced.

The study investigates the effectiveness of each therapy and their combination and examines which specific aspects of language are improved. It employs outcome measures from the child, school, parent and staff perspective. The interventions are pedagogically sound in targeting key skills of the National Curriculum: storytelling and vocabulary.

The therapy will be delivered by teaching assistants under the supervision of speech and language therapists thereby using a collaboration of school staff and therapists. There will be four treatment groups each receiving eighteen hours of therapy: a narrative group, a vocabulary group, a group getting both treatments and a delayed treatment group which will act as a control group.

The specialist support programmes will take place in small groups in the school environment. The project also incorporates a range of different levels of training of school staff in enhancing language and communication in language-impaired students. The training will include strategies in differentiating the National Curriculum to meet the needs of students with language difficulties.

The project is managed by Dr Victoria Joffe, senior lecturer in developmental speech and language impairments from the Department of Language and Communication Science at City University in collaboration with Ms Nita Madhani, speech and language therapy manager from Redbridge PCT.