About See and Learn Speech

See and Learn Speech is an evidence-based teaching programme that aims to improve the speech development of children with Down syndrome and other children with similar difficulties.

See and Learn Speech is designed to teach young children to hear and produce speech sounds (phonemes), to hear the differences between sounds (discrimination), to develop their speech sound system (phonology), and to produce clear speech. It can also help children to identify sounds in words (phonological awareness) which is important for reading.

Evidence-based

See and Learn Speech is based on what is understood about how typically developing children learn to say words and what we know about the speech difficulties of children with Down syndrome. Speech and language development are inextricably linked and improving speech skills should benefit word and sentence learning and using spoken language to communicate.

Structured

See and Learn Speech offers a structured approach to support speech development, working in small steps towards clearer speech production and practising skills including:

• becoming familiar with speech sounds - storing sounds in the memory system
• discriminating between speech sounds - hearing the differences between sounds
• producing speech sounds - individual sounds and simple combinations
• saying words - saying words that begin with a particular sound
• saying more complex words and phrases - saying words that have one, two, three and four syllables and putting words together

See and Learn Speech currently includes six consecutive steps. Each step focuses on the development of specific speech skills through a series of activities. The activities are intended to complement the many speech development opportunities that occur naturally throughout a child's day.

Designed to help children with Down syndrome

See and Learn Speech is designed to support speech development for babies and children with Down syndrome from 6 months of age to primary/elementary school years. See and Learn Speech may also be helpful for other children with similar speech, language and learning needs.

For home, school and therapy

See and Learn programmes contain step-by-step instructions, resources and all the information needed to understand and implement them. They are designed to be easy for parents to use at home to provide regular support to their child.

See and Learn programmes are also suitable for use by educators in early intervention services, nurseries, preschools or schools, and by speech and language therapists.

Steps

See and Learn Speech currently includes six steps. Subsequent steps build on the skills learned in previously completed steps.

Step 1 - Speech Sounds

See and Learn Speech Sounds is designed to help children with Down syndrome to become familiar with the component sounds of speech (phonemes). It includes activities to practise listening to speech sounds, identifying the differences between sounds, and producing individual sounds (for example, [p], [b], [d]).

See and Learn Speech Sounds is designed to develop foundational speech skills and is suitable for use with children with Down syndrome from 6 months of age.

Step 2 - Combining Sounds

See and Learn Combining Sounds is designed to help children with Down syndrome practise putting consonant and vowel sounds together (for example, [baa], [moo], [key], [pea]).

See and Learn Combining Sounds builds on the skills taught in See and Learn Speech Sounds and is suitable for use with children with Down syndrome who are beginning to produce consonant sounds in imitation and in babble (from 9 to 12 months), and older children who are starting to combine sounds.

Step 3 - Saying Words 1

See and Learn Saying Words 1 is designed to help children with Down syndrome to say words and improve the accuracy of their word productions. It includes activities to practise eight sets of spoken words. Each set contains one or two syllable words starting with one of eight speech sounds that develop early in typical development as there is evidence that many of the first words children attempt to say begin with sounds they can make.

See and Learn Saying Words 1 builds on the skills taught in See and Learn Speech Sounds and See and Learn Combining Sounds and is suitable for children with Down syndrome who are able to produce any of the initial consonant sounds [b], [d], [m], [p], [y], [n], [w] or [h]).

Step 4 - Saying Words 2

See and Learn Saying Words 2 is designed to help children with Down syndrome to say words and improve the accuracy of their word productions. It includes activities to practise seven sets of one, two or three syllable words with initial sounds that typically develop following those introduced in See and Learn Saying Words 1.

See and Learn Saying Words 2 builds on the skills taught in the previous three See and Learn Speech steps and is suitable for children with Down syndrome who are able to produce any of the initial consonant sounds [t], [k], [g], [v], [ch], [r] or [f].

Step 5 - Saying Words 3

See and Learn Saying Words 3 is designed to help children with Down syndrome to say words and improve the accuracy of their word productions. It includes activities to practise six sets of one or two syllable words beginning with sounds that typically develop following those introduced in See and Learn Saying Words 2.

See and Learn Saying Words 3 builds on the skills taught in the previous four See and Learn Speech steps and is suitable for children with Down syndrome who are able to produce any of the initial consonant sounds [sh], [th], [s], [z], [l], or [j].

Step 6 - Longer Words

See and Learn Longer Words is designed to help children with Down syndrome to hear syllables in words and to say longer, multi-syllable words and phrases. It includes activities to practise the production of longer words and short phrases.

See and Learn Longer Words builds on the skills taught in the previous five See and Learn Speech steps and is suitable for children with Down syndrome who can produce some one and two syllable words.

Supporting older children

See and Learn Speech is designed to support speech development for young children from the first year of life. However, the same activities can be worked through with older children to help improve their speech production.

Older children may be able to use their letter sound knowledge and reading abilities to help them with the activities.

Working with other See and Learn programmes

We recommend that the See and Learn Language and Reading programme and the See and Learn Speech programme are used alongside each other as both speech and language development begin in the first year of life and develop together.

The activities in See and Learn Speech focus on helping children to say words clearly. Once they can do this, and therefore have developed better control over their phonology (speech sound system), we would like them to be able to produce early phrases and sentences clearly. Most children with Down syndrome find this difficult and speak less clearly when combining words.

Reading activities can provide valuable support for practising spoken language. Many children, including those with Down syndrome, speak more clearly when they read. We recommend that, as they learn to read, children are encouraged to read aloud every day.

The phrases and sentences in the See and Learn Language and Reading programme can be used to practise combining words, and include words from the See and Learn Speech programme. The phrases and sentences follow developmental language order, starting with early two 'key word' sentences and progressing to longer sentences. You can help your child to say them in imitation if they are not yet reading.