Speech Therapy Strategies Teachers Can Use in the Classroom

New to this topic? Start with our companion article: Teachers and Speech Pathologists: Why This Partnership Matters | Brisbane

Walk into any Australian primary classroom and you'll likely find three or four students with identified speech, language or literacy needs — plus a few more who haven't been picked up yet. That's a lot of children to juggle, and teachers do it every day while also teaching maths, writing, HASS and everything else on the curriculum. The good news is that many of the strategies that make the biggest difference for these students are small, cheap and easy to fold into what you're already doing.

This article is a practical guide to some of the most effective strategies you can use in the classroom to support students with speech, language, literacy, and social communication needs. These are strategies that benefit all learners, not just those on a speech pathologist's caseload. For the bigger-picture case for teacher-SLP collaboration, see our companion piece: Teachers and Speech Pathologists: Why This Partnership Matters.

Visual Supports

If there's one strategy that tops every speech pathologist's list, it's visual supports. Children with language difficulties often struggle to process and remember spoken information. Visuals give them something concrete to refer back to, and they're one of the most effective ways to reduce cognitive load during a busy lesson.

What this often looks like in practice:

• Visual timetables and schedules — displayed on the board and updated throughout the day
• Visual instructions — for multi-step tasks, numbered written or picture-based steps alongside verbal instructions
• Key vocabulary displays — when introducing a new topic, the important words on the wall with pictures and simple definitions

You don't need fancy resources. A quick sketch on the whiteboard, a sticky note, or a printed checklist can be just as effective as a polished poster. Across many years working alongside classroom teachers, what I've learned is that the small, unglamorous adjustments — the seat near the front, the visual schedule, the moment of pre-teaching before the lesson — are the ones that quietly change a child's school day.

Pre-Teaching Vocabulary

One of the most impactful things you can do for students with language needs is pre-teach the key vocabulary for a new topic before you start teaching it. Children with language difficulties often fall behind not because they can't understand the concepts, but because they don't know the words.

What pre-teaching often looks like:

• Identifying a handful of key words for the topic — the ones students absolutely need to understand the content
• Introducing them before the lesson, ideally a day or two earlier (even 10 minutes before helps), with simple explanations and a picture or object where possible
• Revisiting the words throughout the unit — repetition is essential

This is especially helpful for curriculum-specific vocabulary (like "evaporation," "democracy," or "algorithm") that students may not encounter outside school.

Modifying Instructions

The way instructions are given can make or break a lesson for a child with language difficulties. A few simple modifications that make a big difference:

• Shorten and simplify — instead of "What I'd like you to do is get out your maths books, turn to page 42, and start working on the problems in section B," breaking it into steps: "Get your maths book... Turn to page 42... Start on section B." (We unpack this in more detail in helping children follow directions.)
• Check understanding — asking the child to tell you what they need to do, rather than asking "Do you understand?" (many children may say yes regardless)
• Pair verbal with visual — writing key instructions on the board as you say them

Narrative Scaffolding

Many children with language difficulties struggle with narrative skills — telling stories, recounting events, and explaining processes in a logical order. These skills are critical for both spoken and written language across the curriculum.

What helps in the classroom:

• Story maps — a simple visual framework (who, where, when, what happened, what happened next, how did it end) helps students plan and tell stories
• Modelling narrative language — "First... then... after that... finally..." gives students the linking words they need
• Extending and expanding — when a student gives a brief response, gentle prompts like "Tell me more about that" or "What happened next?" go a long way

Supporting Social Communication

For students who find social interaction challenging — whether they're autistic, have social communication differences, or are simply still developing these skills — the classroom can be overwhelming. A few things that often help:

• Teaching social expectations explicitly — the "hidden rules" of the classroom aren't obvious to every student. Explaining them clearly and visually makes a real difference.
• Preparing for transitions and changes — advance notice of changes to routine, and visual supports to show what's coming
• Respecting different communication styles — not all children will make eye contact, speak up in class, or engage in small talk. That's okay.

Working Effectively with a Visiting Speech Pathologist

If a speech pathologist visits your school to work with students, a few things make the partnership work well:

• Sharing your observations — you see the child in ways the speech pathologist can't. Your insights about how a child communicates in class are incredibly valuable. Teachers I've worked alongside frequently tell me things in a two-minute corridor chat that completely reshape my therapy plan.
• Asking for specific strategies — don't be shy about asking "What can I do in the classroom to support this child's goals?"
• Implementing shared strategies consistently — if the speech pathologist suggests a visual support or a specific prompt, using it regularly in class helps the child generalise their skills.

Every Teacher Is a Communication Partner

You don't need to be a speech pathologist to make a real difference for children with communication needs. The strategies in this article are good teaching practice — they support all learners, and they're especially powerful for students who are working on speech and language goals.

The strategies in this article are backed by research on classroom language support. Ebbels and colleagues (2019) found that training school staff in language-supporting strategies led to measurable improvements for children with developmental language disorder — reinforcing the idea that teachers are a vital part of the therapy team.

If you're a parent wondering how to connect your child's school and therapist, or a teacher wanting to know more about supporting a specific student, let's chat.

Alexandra Bouwmeester is a Senior Speech Pathologist (MSPA, CPSP) with over 14 years' school-based experience. She offers mobile speech pathology to families across Brisbane's south side and Logan.

References

• Ebbels, S. H., McCartney, E., Slonims, V., Dockrell, J. E., & Norbury, C. F. (2019). Evidence-based pathways to intervention for children with language disorders. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 54(1), 3–19.
• Starling, J., Munro, N., Togher, L., & Arciuli, J. (2012). Training secondary school teachers in instructional language modification techniques to support adolescents with language impairment: A randomised controlled trial. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 43(4), 474–495.
• Snow, P. C. (2016). Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture: Language is literacy is language — Positioning speech-language pathology in education policy, practice, paradigms and polemics. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18(3), 216–228.