Language Land has been developed over the past seven years through funding by Newcastle-Under-Lyme NHS PCT and Staffordshire LEA, to provide a complete programme to improve the speech and language skills of children in Primary and nursery education.

Designed to be used by both Speech and Language Therapists and Teachers, it takes two differing approaches: -

For therapists, it provides a detailed training package to support nursery & class teachers in adjusting their teaching practice through demonstrated language lessons, and to achieve collaborative practice.
For teachers, it is a complete language resource which provides modified lesson plans for children with speech, language and communication needs that can be incorporated into existing class planning.

Activities can be integrated into Circle Time or timetabled as a ‘stand-alone’ lesson, and target:

• General interaction/social skills
  
• Good listening
  
• Sound awareness skills
  
• Vocabulary
  
• Comprehension
  
• Narrative skills
  

Language Land has been used extensively throughout Staffordshire LEA and has achieved excellent outcomes (see RCSLT Bulletin May 2003 ‘Let’s go to Language land’ Angela Wright).

Small Talk Language groups

Our groups use the principles and aims from Language Land to create fun sessions with puppets, games, songs, stories and pretend play designed to develop children’s speech, language and communication. Fun with a function!!

Session plans

The sessions surround a magical journey on a magic carpet to Language Land. Once there they meet a puppet called Jack, find a magic sack, a magic tree and complete a magic jigsaw. Each part is designed to promote a specific skill

• The puppet: good attention & listening
  
• The sack: good listening and phonological awareness essentialfor speech development
  
• The tree: Vocabulary & expressive language skills
  
• The jigsaw: narrative skills.