VersaLearn

Course Aim

The STA Program - Social Skills for Schools gives Education Support Officers the training and resources needed to successfully deliver the Social Skills for School program.

Course Outline

• Discussion of autism spectrum disorder and specific social skill difficulties
• How to use visual schedules to structure the session and manage behaviour
• Explanation and practise with the social scenarios presented in the program
• How to write a personalised social story to target specific social situations / skills
• Explanation of how to monitor progress using the Therapy Outcome Measures graph

All the resources required to implement the program are contained in the manual provided including:

• Talk About School workbook (Black Sheep Press)
• Emotions photos
• Social stories / social scripts
• Visual schedule cards to help structure the session
• Individual Therapy Plan

Course Designed For

Education Support Officers who have completed the STA Program for Assistants

Duration

One day

Booking

Currently scheduled courses can be booked online via our online booking system. If you can not find a suitable course on the online system, please contact us. Many of our courses are scheduled based on demand.

Training can be delivered at Communicate in Narre Warren, Melbourne or at your school. Discounts are available for schools who host our training sessions, so please contact us if you can provide a venue.

Oral language is fundamental to all areas of thinking and learning in the curriculum. Much of what students learn is through oral language – talking, listening, observing, and interacting with others.

Course Aim

The Oral Language for Learning workshop outlines strategies that teachers can easily incorporate into their classroom curriculum to create a language-rich environment for learning.

Course Outline

• Oral language skills (listening, vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar, intent)
• Oral language use in informal discussions, accountable talk and formal presentations
• Balancing teacher talk and student talk
• Strategies to develop:
  • Purposeful listening
  • Academic vocabulary
  • Complex sentence structure
  • Complex grammar
• Mini-lessons to target discussion and presentation skills:
  • How to disagree without using put-downs
  • How to use personal connections to support your point of view
  • How to help your fellow group members participate in the discussion
  • Posture, voice, facial expression, gesture use for presentations
• Assessing oral language:
  • Checklists
  • Rubrics

Course Designed For

Teachers and Education Support Officers

Duration

Two hours.

Cost

$95 per person

Booking

Currently scheduled courses can be booked online via our online booking system. If you can not find a suitable course on the online system, please contact us. Many of our courses are scheduled based on demand.

Training can be delivered at Communicate in Narre Warren, Melbourne or at your school. Discounts are available for schools who host our training sessions, so please contact us if you can provide a venue.

The Phonological Awareness Program:Foundation gives students structured and explicit practice with specific phonological awareness skills. The program will provide students with a solid foundation of sound awareness skills upon which they can build their literacy knowledge.

Program Structure

The program is delivered to students over twelve sessions. The sessions may be run several times per week depending upon the school timetable. The program can be implemented with individual students, small groups or as a whole class.

The program targets the following skills:

• Mouth movements for sounds
• Identifying initial / medial / final sounds
• Blending sounds to identify words
• Segmenting words into sounds
• Sound - letter links

Each session includes:

• The introduction of focus sounds and corresponding letters
• Mouth movements for focus sounds
• Identifying sounds in word position
• Blending sounds to identify words
• Segmenting words into syllables and sounds

The manual includes:

• Pre / post-test to measure student progress
• Detailed instructions to introduce each activity
• Prompts to use if students have difficulty with a specific skill
• Resources for all activities

The program includes an extension of a further eight weeks of phonological awareness skills to continue to develop your students' skills in this area.