Speech and Language Therapy
Our approach:
Speech and Language Therapy at Future Horizons aims to provide holistic and purposeful assessment, advice and intervention for students. Our Speech and Language Therapist works closely with teaching staff, support staff and families to create tailored strategies that promote students’ confidence, independence and functional communication skills.
A range of universal communication strategies are also used across the College, with a view to embedding communication support throughout the curriculum and integrating it into all learning opportunities. A high priority is placed on building and maintaining relationships, in order to best support learning and communication outcomes for students.
Strategies we use:
Intensive Interaction
- Intensive Interaction is a person-centred, relationship-focused communication approach that supports the learning and social needs of people of all ages. It is a highly personalised and responsive approach that prioritises connection and relationship-building as the basis to all learning and communication.
On Body Signing
- On Body Signs are a set of physical cues that are used consistently on a person's body to provide them with information about an upcoming event/activity. The approach is multi-sensory, tapping into the Tactile Sense to give individuals additional sensory feedback and in person experiences that support learning. On Body Signs provide a meaningful way to access sign-supported communication for people with profound and multiple learning needs (including visual impairment).
Talking Mats
- Talking Mats is a visual communication approach that supports individuals with communication difficulties to communicate effectively about topics that matter to them. Talking Mats helps individuals to express their personal views and opinions.
Choose Board
- A Choose Board is a visual way of displaying available choices to a person with communication needs. They are created to support a person at their level of understanding. A Choose Board represents motivating items in order to support the expression of requests and choices. It helps to develop a person's independence in meeting their own needs through clearer self-expression.
Comic Strip Conversations
- Comic Strip Conversations are designed to illustrate and simplify conversations and situations using simple line drawings. For example, they show the things that are actually said in a situation, how people involved may be feeling and what people’s intentions and thoughts may be. They are particularly helpful for individuals who need support to develop their social understanding, including understanding the feelings and perspectives of others.
Makaton
- Makaton is a communication system that uses a combination of signs, symbols and speech to support communication. Many of the signs are adopted from British Sign Language but designed to support individuals who have communication difficulties including people with learning disabilities.
Social Stories
- A Social Story is a story that shares social information with a person in an accessible way, respectful of their different perspective and interpretation of the social world. It is written in a specific way according to ten defining characteristics (the Social Story criteria) which guide it to be meaningful, safe, patient, non-judgemental and reassuring. Social Stories describe anything and everything in life. A Social Story’s aim is to improve the child or adult’s understanding by simply sharing social information. With improved social understanding clarity and predictability is established and anxiety is diminished"- National Autistic Society.