As with pizza, there is a standard base that needs to be used. Firstly, equipping the adult delivering the intervention is essential. In his report in 2009, Sir Jim Rose wrote to the Secretary of State that interventions need to be implemented thoroughly, by well trained, knowledgable staff. Of course, it’s more cost effective for already stretched schools to find interventions with which they can “pick up and run”. Indeed, these work for many children. However, for those with severe and persistent difficulties the training given to the adult delivering the intervention is paramount, as also evidenced by the Education Endowment Foundation in 2018, and in “What Works”. In ICT interventions, Lavan and Talcott evidence the importance of the mediation a skilled adult, who “is essential to ensure technologically driven schemes meet children’s needs. Time needs to be allocated effectively so that the diagnostic tools of programmes can be used for each child appropriately.” Even in a digital age, where we have been forcibly taught by Covid 19 how much we can achieve virtually, our best resource is our adults. Let’s invest in them!
The second requirement for our pizza base is the use of multi-sensory methods for teaching and learning, which is relevant in all Key Stages. This can involve speaking, doing, using colour, tactile resources, voice recorders, active games, movement and touch. Usually this requires more planning time, which again is costly, but the investment in these methods can be the difference between success and failure for learners whose needs are specific and severe.
The third aspect of our pizza base for Spld intervention is over-learning; built in, regular opportunities for consolidation and reinforcement of teaching points already covered. It is so tempting to rush through and forget to cover taught material again, again and again; especially when we feel the pressure to accelerate progress. However without this essential base element the pizza is very likely to disintegrate.
Planning for success is the base’s fourth essential ingredient. This is where precision teaching methods come in. High quality intervention for learners with persistent literacy difficulties focuses the majority of its time on what the learners can already do, to build in opportunities for success, and it only introduces a few new elements of learning each time, which are targeted and planned in advance. The fifth key requirement for our base is structure.“What Works” concludes that schemes need a “little and often”, systematic and structured scheme of intervention.
Now for the toppings. Anchovies, anyone? The sixth vital component for the basis of high quality Spld intervention is personalisation. Those with severe and persistent difficulties are highly likely to be unresponsive to an intervention unless it targets what they individually need, and every child’s targets will be different. It’s always worth investing time in assessing before teaching, to ascertain exactly what the learner needs to be taught, and tweaking your intervention accordingly. High quality interventions provide a baseline lesson plan with all the key ingredients built in, on which the practitioner can add the personalised toppings.
Of course, the proof is in the eating. We won’t know if the pizza is any good until we try it. It’s the same with interventions; we cannot be sure of any effectiveness without measuring its impact. This can be done in a variety of ways; termly repeated assessments, teacher, pupil and parent evaluations, work scrutiny and observation in class. Just as a pizza is wasted if we don’t eat it, an intervention can be an expensive waste of time and energy if we forget to measure its impact.
Dominoes, here I come (other brands are available).
