Junior Language Link – Targeting hidden language difficulties

Assessment & Identification

Language difficulties change over time and children can become experts at hiding them. Are they being disruptive because they are unable to self-regulate or are they struggling to understand classroom instructions? Can they score well in a reading test without understanding what they are reading?  Do they use their knowledge of how the world works to make inferences and read between the lines or do they only see the literal answers?  The Junior Language Link standardised assessment allows you to quickly identify where any language breakdowns are occurring.

Universal screening is recommended in year 3 with additional tracking of any student where intervention was recommended. Our instant assessment reports will point you at suitable class and group interventions and highlight where specialist advice is needed.

To find out how our assessment was developed, download our technical report.

This assessment was standardised working with The University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre

Intervention

Junior Language Link provides a wide range of planned and resourced interventions for a graduated approach to supporting children with speech and language needs.  Our universal high quality teaching strategies and classroom resources enable teachers to support speech and language development across the whole class.

For those who need a more targeted approach our 13 different planned and fully resourced language groups allow the support staff to provide tailored interventions. Each session has clear objectives, target vocabulary and precise instructions for delivery enabling even inexperienced staff to run effective groups. As students prepare to move to secondary education our later language groups focus on transition skills.

For children who need a little bit extra following a group or a more individualised programme of learning, our supplementary teaching plans allow teachers and support staff to offer intensive focussed support in the classroom.

In-Package Training and Support

The annual subscription includes our online training for staff. Delivered in a series of accessible user guides, the Infant Language Link course will walk staff through every aspect of using the package from set up to administering the assessment and running interventions, as well as interpreting reports and measuring progress. There are lots of on page how to guides and our friendly Speech & Language Link Help Desk team are only a phone call or email way.

Our speech and language therapy team delivers regular webinar overviews offering your staff the chance to ask our experts questions. They are also available for support throughout your subscription via our Help Desk.

Data & Measuring Progress

Junior Language Link has built-in progress measures enabling you to track the impact of intervention on each of your students’ language skills and their access to classroom learning.  Use our engagement ratings to set language targets and use our tracking sheets to objectively track children’s progress across intervention group sessions.

Our instant reporting feature provides you with individual student reports as well as class and year reports.  Teachers use the class reports to see at a glance, the language level for each of their students supporting planning and delivery of high-quality inclusive teaching as well as transition planning.

Spread the Word pack

When you subscribe for the first time to Junior Language Link, our Spread the Word pack will be posted out to help you kick-start your whole-school approach to SLCN. It is packed with posters, stickers and resources to use across your school.

If you are just getting started with your whole school approach we recommend using the audit tool included with this pack. This tool’s questionnaires allow you to audit your teachers’ and TAs’ levels of knowledge and skills in supporting students with SLCN. By the end of the audit, you will have individual and overall scores for three areas: Knowledge, Communication and Environment and will be provided with a tailored action plan to help you to develop your staff’s skills and your whole school approach to SLCN.

Link Community members can use our speech and language audit before purchase.

Using Junior Language Link with multilingual children

Junior Language Link can be easily adapted for use with multilingual children. The standardised assessment will show how well your students are understanding English in comparison to English speaking children of the same age. For children who are just beginning to learn English the assessment will identify areas for development.

Our reports and provision maps clearly show where a child is identified as an English learner, allowing progress to be tracked across terms and years.

We always recommend that students new to English work alongside children who can provide good models of language to aid language acquisition. All our language groups and supplementary teaching plans can be used with groups or individual children to encourage the development of spoken and social use of English.