Time to Talk: Implementing Outstanding Practice in Speech, Language and Communication

Time to Talk provides a powerful and accessible resource for practitioners working to improve children’s language and communication skills. Showcasing effective approaches in schools and settings across the country from the early years through primary and secondary education, it summarises research on what helps children and young people develop good communication skills, and highlights the importance of key factors: a place to talk, a reason to talk and support for talk.

This timely second edition has been fully updated to reflect Pupil Premium, curriculum, assessment and special needs reforms, and can be used by individual practitioners as well as supporting a whole-school or setting approach to spoken language.

It includes:

• whole-class approaches to developing all children and young people’s speaking and listening skills;
• ‘catch-up’ strategies for those with limited language;
• ways of differentiating the curriculum for those with difficulties;
• ways in which settings and schools can develop an effective partnership with specialists to help children with more severe needs;
• models schools can use to commission their own speech and language therapy services;
• examples of good practice in supporting parents/carers to develop their children’s language skills; and
• answers to practitioners’ most frequently asked questions about speech and language.

Now in full-colour, this practical and engaging book is for all who are concerned about how to help children and young people with limited language and communication skills – school leaders, teachers, early-years practitioners, and the speech and language therapists they work with.

Jean Gross CBE was formerly the government’s Communication Champion for children. She has led many national initiatives aimed at improving children and young people’s life chances, including the National Strategies’ work on inclusion, SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning), and the Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts programmes. She is the author of numerous articles and best-selling books on children’s issues, including Beating Bureaucracy in Special Educational Needs (3rd edition, David Fulton).