Language and Learning

I’ve been very fortunate to sit in and absorb some of the Kathryn Thorburn bank of knowledge as I’ve been completing the Tier 3 Toolkit with my employee and colleague Merrin. This enables me to keep up with current research and ensure we have evidence based resources for the clinic while Merrin can take the practical tips and tricks to share and support other clinicians during supervision. I love it that we walk away with instant tools we can apply. #Language #Literacy #Learning #Tier3Interventions #SpeechPathology #ResourcesGalore Image description- heading in purple ‘T3T 2025’ underneath this a subheading ‘Scaffolding Instruction: Practical Application. Beneath this is a list of the course content on the left and in a yellow box on the right the dates the course live sessions are run each month.

The first week of school for some, and the first full week of school for others. A great time to plan out professional development for 2025 to help your budgets stretch as far as they can and I’m here to help. If you’re feeling comfortable with word level reading intervention and want to expand your skills to reading comprehension and writing then the Tier 3 Toolkit Membership may be exactly what you need. You’ll find a deep dive [typically 4 x 1 hour on demand sessions] exploring All things Assessment [Universal Screening, Curriculum Based & Standardised tools] to help you determine what is the best fit for the clients you work with. Understanding Intervention - Exploring many of the commercial resources for instruction and intervention at Tier 1, 2, 3 Working Beyond Phonics - A deep dive into the What Works Clearing House document ‘Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4 - 9 2024 Focus on Academic Language - Reading Comprehension - Writing [Sentence | Paragraph | Extended response with a Text Structure focus] - SSD | CAS & Phonics - Reading Fluency - Spelling The 2025 focus is on Instructional Scaffolding and how to practically implement intervention in the areas of Academic Language, Reading Comprehension & Writing across the curriculum with a little bit of Mathematics Learning Difficulties and Language added to the mix as well. It is not structured as a course but rather a library allowing you to access what you need when you need it and as a way to help you can access 30 min 1:1 Q&A sessions when you need it with 4 different time slots available every week. [Yes this can count as Professional Supervision for SPA Renewal Purposes] To help stretch your PD Budget further - Use the code - back2school - to access a 20% discount on Yearly Membership Access [Save $99] valid until February 9th 2025 [Midnight AEDT - NSW Time] All prices are in Australian Dollars [$AUD] https://lnkd.in/grFVbCTr If you would prefer to pay on invoice or have multiple members of your team interested and want details on group pricing please send me an email kathryn@languageandlearning.com.au

If you’re at the ASHA American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Conference in Seattle this Saturday 7/12/24 - keep a look out for the 🇦🇺 Dr Natalie Munro, Dr Simon Herd & Mrs Sharlene Herd presenting about NELI - Nuffield Early Language Intervention in Australia. Natalie Munro Dr. Simon Herd Nathan Hill Sharlene Herd NELI - Nuffield Early Language Intervention Pearson K-12 Pearson

Happy World Teachers Day!! [as celebrated in Australia 🇦🇺]

Yesterday the staff from Hunter Christian School , Mrs Sharlene Herd, Kindergarten Teacher and Nathan Hill, Head of Primary School presented the amazing results of NELI [Nuffield Early Language Intervention] over the last 2 years when using the Whole Class NELI program AND the Tier 2 intervention NELI program at the 2024 Education Research Symposium held at ACU. They shared how it was implemented the classroom, the response of the kids, the curriculum alignment to the new K-2 English Syllabus and the results of the Language Screen Data for two separate cohorts of Kindergarten Students in their first year of formal education in NSW. The final report will be available soon & if you’re going the ASHA Conference in Seattle in December, keep a look out for their presentation! Huge congratulations to the HunterNELI project team [Dr Nat Munro, Dr Simon Herd, Mr Nathan Hill, Mrs Sharlene Herd, Mrs Ally Marklew, Mrs Kathryn Thorburn] and enormous thanks to AISNSW & the Evidence Institute for their funding & support. If you’re wanting to implement Language Screen and NELI [Whole Class & Intervention] you can find out more from Pearson Australia at the link below or reach out to the school. https://lnkd.in/g-WMhN_t

To continue a BTS look at Language and Learning for Birthday Month 🧁 I thought I'd share the story behind the Logo. Logos are notoriously difficult to develop however after much through and consideration, I was delighted with the latest rebrand that occurred a few years back. Read on and you'll understand why. Language and Learning was founded in 2014 by Kathryn Thorburn. The name came from the recognition of the the interrelated relationship between language and learning for student success at school and beyond. This inter-related nature is represented by the choice of the ampersand [&] as part of the logo. The use of the ampersand as logo is significant as & was formerly the 27th letter of the alphabet and the only glyph that doesn't represent a speech sound. In order to read and write effectively students must learn to understand how spoken language is represented as written language and knowledge of the the glyphs representing speech sounds is an essential skill. The incorporation of the comma [,] as an element of the logo indicates that there may be many other factors impacting the Language and Learning skills for students. Kathryn's area of interest is to support student success for all students and she delights in the challenge of problem solving the impact of learning difficulties, attention, executive function & working memory, disability, rare disease and complex medical conditions on student success. #LanguageAndLearning

⁉️Did you know⁉️ Language and Learning started in October 2014 as a mobile speech pathology private practice just before my eldest started school. At the time, I’d finished up in my Learning Support Co-originator role K-12, 12 months earlier and then completed a speech pathology role with HNE Kids Rehab and job-shared the Education Officer [Developmental Disabilities] in my local Catholic Schools office. In true Kathryn fashion, soon after I started Language and Learning, I also stepped back into a new Education-Rehabilitation Liaison role with HNE PBIRT team working on a project to support kids with mild - moderate head injuries back to mainstream school. Over the past 10 years the way I’ve worked has morphed from completely mobile to mobile + clinic rooms, to solely clinic rooms and now 100% Telehealth. Of course in 2019 I stepped back into a Preschool - 12 Director of Learning Engagement Role overseeing Literacy, Numeracy, Learning Support & GATS. During this time the opportunity to contribute to the new NSW English Syllabus for K-2 and 3 - 6 arose. Since 2018 I’ve been providing online PD and professional coaching and now since 2023, Language & Learning offers a very small Telehealth Service plus online PD & professional coaching / supervision to Speech Pathologists & Schools to support the effective translation of research into practice. So ….. ✅ I’m a NESA accredited Teacher in NSW with a Masters in Special Ed & have worked K-12 since 2007 and K-6 since 2002. ✅ I’m a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist [MSPA] who had 17 years of experience before entering private practice ✅ I’ve been implementing Science of Reading / Writing / Learning research into schools since 2011/2012 where we replaced PM readers with Decodable readers and implemented MiniLit as a mainstream program [in the days before InitialLit] and added Reading Mastery / Spelling Mastery / Corrective Reading / Spelling Through Morphographs. ✅ I’ve been the classroom teacher across K-12, implemented change as the school executive & been the Speech Pathologist providing intervene and consultation support. Which logo do you remember? ⬇️

Dr Valerie Muter has just released the two books below for Parents and Teachers ⬇️ My copies have arrived in recent weeks! 📚 Dr Muter was Clinical Neuropsychologist at Great Ormond St Hospital London and has conducted much research alongside Professors Maggie Snowling & Charles Hulme. Back in 2023, I ran a free Book study working through Dr Muter’s first book ‘Understanding and Supporting Children with Literacy Difficulties: An Evidence-Based Guide for Practitioners’ this is still available to access at the link below: https://lnkd.in/gt_yGDaU

#HunterNELI Project 2023/2024 In case you missed it - the mid project report is available here ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/g73YYpmF