Communication support framework – band 3 targeted provision

What is the communication support framework?

The communication support framework is a framework developed by the speech and language therapy service in Sheffield Children’s Hospital. It is based on the Communication At The Heart of the School framework (CATHS).

The communication support framework includes 6 banded levels that describe the communication skills that a child may have or be developing, and relevant recommendations for that level of development.

What does band 3 communication level mean?

A child developing at band 3 presents with the communication skills typical of a child aged 18 months old to 2 years old. Children at this stage are developing their ability to label, request and describe things they can see in their environment. Early grammar skills are also beginning to emerge.

What can I do to support my child at this level?

Universal strategies to support all children at this developmental level.

• Use language that labels and describes what you can see in the ‘here and now’.

What if my child needs more help?

Children with specialist educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with communication developing at band 3 level may be referred to as a child who is developing their language at Blank level 2 or a Language Level A (naming and describing), or a SCERTS Language Partner. They may have been described as a Gestalt language processor.

You should use the ideas that are in the universal strategy links above.

You should also implement more targeted approaches, for example:

• Use blank level 2 strategies 
• Use communication mats
• Teach vocabulary through sharing books 
• Use sentence makers 
• Use sentence builders and reinforce the wh- questions such as what, who, what doing, what like, linked to the word type. Use symbols to build a sentence and then model question and answer, such as “what is the girl doing… she’s climbing!”. This can be done with generic pictures, videos, photos of themselves or people they know doing activities.
• Play category games, for example, feely bag or treasure hunt to teach nouns and concepts such as ‘blue ball’, ‘small book’ and concept questions like ‘what is it like?’
  • use real objects or pictures and focus on matching such as category, colour, size, function.
  • support your child to group them, for example, “let’s put all the food in this bag and all of the animals in the box”, “let’s find all of the red ones”)
  • support your child to link them, for example, “which one goes with …?”
  • support your child to identify function, for example, “which one can you eat?”, “which one can you clean with?”
• If your child has been described as a Gestalt language processor, general advice

Your child’s school should also implement targeted language interventions:

• Pre-teaching vocabulary groups should be in place as a rolling intervention.
• Pre-teach vocabulary (nouns, verbs, concepts, location words)
• Word Aware or concept cat

In addition to the above, you should implement the targeted language intervention using:

• Language enrichment activity programme (LEAP) you may have an appropriate level to start the intervention from the screening tool. If not, please screen using the LEAP programme.

If the above recommendations are in place, and you feel that your child may require specialist support, you can:

• Discuss a referral to the speech and language therapy service with your child’s SENCO, using our specialist service referral criteria