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School-based Speech Therapy Service

Background

  • Oral language is a tool for communication and learning. It is also the foundation of reading and writing. Early identification and timely support for students with speech and language impairment (SLI) will facilitate the enhancement of their speech and language abilities, enabling them to develop communication, learning and social abilities more effectively.
  • As announced by the Chief Executive in the 2018 Policy Address, starting from the 2019/20 school year, the Education Bureau (EDB) has created school-based speech therapist (SBST) posts in the public sector ordinary secondary and primary schools by phases to allow schools to form clusters to employ SBSTs for the implementation of the Enhanced School-based Speech Therapy Service (SBSTS) to enhance the support for students with SLI.
  • For the public sector ordinary secondary and primary schools which have not yet implemented the Enhanced SBSTS, they could continue to utilise the Learning Support Grant and the Enhanced Speech Therapy Grant respectively to procure SBSTS. 

 

Features 

  • School-based support plan: Targeting the actual needs of schools and students and being in line with policies, measures and culture of schools to design and implement the SBSTS.
  • Curriculum-related support strategies: Focusing on content that is student-centred and in line with the content of school-based curriculum to train students to overcome SLI, develop language ability and achieve learning goals.
  • Enhanced home-school cooperation: According to the needs of students, utilising resources flexibly and adopting diversified strategies to enhance home-school cooperation, helping students to develop language ability and facilitating whole-person education.

 

Scope

  • Prevention aims at preventing the speech and language problems of students from becoming SLI, for example:
    • enhancing the understanding of teachers and parents about speech and language problems (e.g. talks, pamphlets and board display)
    • strengthening the ability of teachers to identify students with speech and language problems (e.g. professional development for teachers, training and case consultation)
    • improving the skills of teachers and parents in facilitating language development of students (e.g. teacher/ parent workshops and co-planning with teachers)
    • organising a variety of activities to create a language-rich environment to facilitate language development and learning of students
  • Remediation aims at improving the speech and language abilities of students with SLI, for example:
    • assessment and diagnosis
    • individual/ group therapy
    • in-class support (e.g. classroom observation and co-teaching)
    • collaboration with school personnel (e.g. teachers, educational psychologists, student counselors and/or school social workers) in providing intervention services or remedial programmes for students with SLI 
  • Enhancement aims at enhancing the speech and language abilities of all students in the school, for example:
    • arranging and planning language learning enhancement activities and programmes
    • collaborating with subject teachers to match language strategies with teaching elements and integrate them into classroom learning
    • sharing strategies for enhancing the language skills of students

 

Circular and guidelines

 

Enquiry 

For enquiries, please contact the EDB Speech Therapy Service Section on 3698 3790. 


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