Language Based Programming
What is a language-based learning disability?
Difficulties with understanding and use of language.
Oral language: speaking and listening
Written language: reading and writing
Students can have difficulties with one of these components or multiple components and the severity can vary.
At Learning Prep, we provide small groups, social-emotional support, and a slower pace of instruction. But this is not enough for our students to learn. We provide individualized, language-based teaching across all contexts. This includes individualizing, to target the specific areas of need (listening, speaking, reading, writing), even within the same class.
While language-based programming is utilized throughout all classes, Speech & Language provides an important supplemental support for our students to target the student's needs around those 4 areas of language.
Here is what language-based programming looks like at LPS:
How we support students for Writing:
In Speech & Language, we work on:
- Compound and complex sentences
- Identifying type of writing prompt and breaking it down
- Practice brainstorming
- Vocabulary
- Grammar and syntax
Classroom strategies used:
- Directly break apart a writing prompt
- Pre-writing (Thinking Maps)
- Link different text structures to different transition words
- Consistent editing checklists and expectations
- Let students write uninterrupted. No editing or feedback until their thoughts are out on paper
How we support students for Listening:
In Speech & Language, we work on:
- Comprehending oral information of increasing length and complexity
- Types of questions
- Visualization
Classroom strategies used:
- Repeat in different words
- Focus on preferential seating
- Listen without burden of simultaneous note-taking
- Visualization
- Increased wait time
- Decrease length and complexity of spoken words and instructions
How we support students for Speaking:
In Speech & Language, we work on:
- Sequencing of narratives
- Word-retrieval and vocabulary
- Main idea and salient details
- WH questions
Classroom strategies used:
- Give advance notice of the question
- Provide sentence starters for discussions
- Increased wait time
- Vocabulary development/word-finding support
- Cues for word retrieval
How we support students for Reading:
In Speech & Language, we work on:
- Context clues
- Evidence
- Identifying main idea
- Concrete and inferential questions
- Vocabulary
Classroom strategies used:
- Separate decoding from comprehension - focus on one at a time.
- Pre-reading strategies
- Note-taking (2 Column Notes)
- Visualization