Therapy

Therapy procedure: Three interventions will be provided: narrative and vocabulary enrichment.  The therapy will be delivered by TAs who will be trained and supervised by the researchers over four days. One TA from each school will conduct the therapy.

The TAs will have four days of intensive training to include an introduction to language and communication, language impairment, and the two interventions. Each TA will receive a full teaching pack containing session by session guidelines, general teaching principles, photocopiable resources, and progress recording sheets.

Ongoing weekly support will also be available. Weekly meetings will enable TAs to seek advice, exchange ideas, ask questions and share experiences. Visits to the schools during the administration of the therapy will be made by members of the research team.

The therapy will take place in schools in groups of between 2-6 students three times per week over a 6-week period with each session lasting for approximately 50 minutes. Therapy for groups A, B and C will take place during period E and for group D during period G. Participants will be given 18 hours of intervention.

1. Narrative therapy
   This therapy incorporates the understanding and telling of stories with a focus on story structure and story description. It introduces the students to storytelling: the basic components of a story (character, place, time, episodes, initiating events, actions, climax, and outcomes, moral) and story structure (beginning, middle, and end) through the use of a story planner.
   
   Students will be supported in using paralinguistic features to make their stories more interesting and will be required to answer questions about the stories and critically evaluate them. Students will learn about different narrative genres and will learn to understand the importance of sequencing and story coherence.
   
   Emphasis will also be placed on the importance of listening and signs of active listening will be highlighted. Students will gain practice in retelling stories and making up novel stories from materials from the National Curriculum, sequence cards, objects and materials brought in by the students themselves.
2. Vocabulary Enrichment therapy
   This therapy involves the teaching of key concepts and vocabulary through word associations, mind mapping and word-building. Topic areas relevant to this age group will be used including current affairs, famous people, employment-seeking, exam preparation and the media. Specific vocabulary items from the National Curriculum will be targeted including geography, history and science.
   
   The students will be encouraged to categorise new vocabulary into related groups through the use of brainstorming and word webs to help them remember new words more easily. The students will be encouraged to use synonyms, antonyms, multiple meanings, definitions and categorisation and classification games to explore word meanings and boundaries. They will be encouraged to use a variety of strategies to learn new words, including the use of the dictionary.
3. Narrative and Vocabulary Enrichment therapy
   This therapy involves a combination of both therapy approaches for the same period of time.

Study Timeline: