Staff at St.Andrews International School 107 Campus are the first in Thailand to complete training on the UK-accredited Elklan Let’s Talk 5-11s course.
The 23 learners, made up of teaching assistants and learning support staff, explored why some children find it challenging to understand what is said to them and why some children may find it difficult to talk. Over seven weeks, attendees developed a variety of practical ideas to help children listen, understand and speak and how to apply these within their classroom settings.
Hayley Thomas, our Speech Therapist and Head of Therapy Centre, said: “Teaching assistants and learning support assistants are so important for promoting inclusion. Our training will empower them to develop language and communication in the classroom, give them the confidence to try new ideas, and know that what they are doing is best practice. Every week, learners on the course have come to me with a ‘light bulb’ moment from seeing the positive impact the course has had on their communication and interaction with students and on the students themselves.”
A learning support assistant who attended the course said: “I’ve really enjoyed the Elklan course and our tutor is great as she makes it fun to learn. I have found this course very useful as it gives you lots of ideas to use in the classroom and it helps you reflect on and improve your own practices. I’m so glad I enrolled on the course.”
The topics covered in the training included:
- What is Communication?
- Understanding what’s going on when we talk to each other.
- Improving interaction and conversation.
- Improving listening and understanding.
- Learning new words and talking in full sentences.
- Learning how to ask appropriate questions and share books.
- Helping children whose speech is hard to understand.
Steps wants to thank all learners at St Andrews International School 107 campus for taking this important step towards making their classrooms more inclusive.
If you’re interested in having Elklan training for TAs at your school, you can find out more on our training for schools page.
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