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Introducing Talk Boost
Proven intervention programmes enabling educators to support pupils with speech and language challenges
The benefits of our Talk Boost interventions
Narrow the gap
Helps children with their speaking and understanding, enabling many to catch up with their peers.
Use in the classroom
An all-in-one speaking and understanding solution that can be used by trained school staff.
Track pupils’ progress
Identify, monitor and track children’s progress before and after, with the new online tracker.
Use time and time again
Designed to be sustainable so you can deliver Talk Boost multiple times to new groups of children.
Great use of Pupil Premium
Demonstrates the effective use of your Pupil Premium allocation.
Meet Ofsted standards
Great example for Ofsted of how your school supports pupils in this vital area of learning.
Children’s education has been severely disrupted by Covid and the lockdowns it has involved
Our Talk Boost interventions, can help children improve their speaking and understanding, with almost two thirds catching up with their peers after just eight to ten weeks.
"The Talk Boost approach helps children to develop not only their understanding and use of language, but also other important skills like attention and listening and turn-taking, which can help ease them back into the school environment."
Jacky Wragg, SENCo, Essex
Our Talk Boost programmes
All of our Talk Boost interventions can also be used to demonstrate to Ofsted how you are focusing on developing staff skills.
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What is Talk Boost?
Talk Boost are targeted interventions for children who need help with talking and understanding words to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. Differentiated for children between the ages of 3-10 years, the programme aims to accelerate children’s progress in language and communication by an average of six months, after a nine-week intervention.
In addition, all of our Talk Boost interventions can also be used to demonstrate to Ofsted how you are focusing on developing staff skills.
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Parents and Talk Boost
If your child has been enrolled on to a Talk Boost programme and you would like to find out some further information about Talk Boost and how to support your child to complete the activities, please click here.
If you are a setting and would like to share information about Talk Boost with your parents, please find our Talk Boost letter here.
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Why is Talk Boost needed?
A report showed that up to a third of children are struggling to engage with schoolwork and children from the poorest families have been left behind classmates. Along with the lack of opportunity to socialise during lockdown, this could have serious effects not only on children’s speech and language development but also their emotional wellbeing.
This is something the Government is trying to address with a £1bn catch-up fund as children head back to school. A statement from Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for School Standards, states that the COVID 19 "catch-up premium can be used by schools to develop and deliver tailored solutions where necessary ... towards vulnerable groups including pupils with SEND, and ... to pay for interventions they think are needed for them to catch-up (for example, additional speech and language therapy)." Following this, the Government have announced COVID-19 catch-up premium provisional allocations here.
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How Talk Boost will help your children pick up where they left off before lockdown
A well-known and popular resource, the Boosts are being delivered in 1000’s of settings around the country and cover age ranges 3-10 years. Delivered in 3 sessions a week for 8-10 weeks, Talk Boost interventions are proven to help children with delayed language boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers.
The Talk Boost approach supports children to work in groups to develop their speech, language and communication and will boost not only those core skills, but also support their social interactions with other children. The structured, differentiated approach with an emphasis on underlying skills for learning and social emotional development can help ease children back into the school environment.
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What is the impact of Talk Boost?
Early Talk Boost:
72% of children reached expected levels in understanding words and sentences (compared to 28% before)
Talk Boost KS1:
81% of children reached expected levels in their ability to talk in sentences (compared to 33% before)
Talk Boost KS2:
Nearly 60% of children reached expected levels in working with others and having conversations (compared to 20% before)
View more detailed impacts, here.
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How can I track pupils’ progress?
We have developed a brand-new Programme trackers (speechandlanguage.org.uk) tool for Talk Boost. Our tracker will help you identify which children would benefit the most from Talk Boost and show their progress before and after the intervention. The new tracker will provide a better user experience, enhanced reporting, and the option for organisations to get aggregate data from multiple schools.
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How much does Talk Boost cost?
The Intervention Pack costs £550.00 and the cost of training is set individually by our licensed tutors. If you are a small setting you might wish to consider grouping your staff together with other settings for the training and sharing the costs between yourselves.
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How do I purchase the Talk Boost interventions?
You can purchase all of our Talk Boost interventions through our online shop here. Alternatively you can place your order directly with a member of our specialised team at info@speechandlanguage.org.uk or 020 7843 2515.
How can I find out more about Talk Boost?
Simply get in touch with a member of our specialised team who will be happy to answer any questions. You can do so by emailing info@speechandlanguage.org.uk or calling 020 7843 2515.