Speech sound difficulties are becoming an increasingly familiar challenge in early years classrooms, leaving many teachers wondering how best to support children who struggle to be understood. In Speech Sound Interventions, experienced Speech and Language Therapists Liz Spooner and Jacqui Woodcock offer a practical, classroom-friendly solution, with 30 structured, easy-to-deliver sessions designed to build confidence, clarity and strong phonics foundations.
Created with busy teachers in mind, this accessible resource bridges the gap between specialist support and everyday classroom practice, helping schools deliver targeted interventions even without regular access to a therapist. We spoke to Liz and Jacqui about spotting the signs early, supporting mixed-ability groups and why strong speaking and listening skills are the key to unlocking reading success.
Speech sound difficulties are increasingly common in early years classrooms — what are the key signs teachers should be looking out for?
- Talking that is difficult to understand.
- Children who are able to copy sounds in phonics that they don’t use when talking
- Children who are not yet using all the sounds expected for their age. The book has a guide of when sounds typically develop and when to refer.
Your book offers 30 structured sessions — how did you design these to be manageable within a busy school day?
The approach can be delivered flexibly – longer weekly sessions or short twice weekly sessions. The activities support phonics so could be delivered within a phonics lesson before moving onto letters and sounds tasks
Many schools don’t have regular access to a Speech and Language Therapist — how does this resource help bridge that gap?
Intervention is designed to target the phonological processing skills that children need for accurate speech sound use. Children with different speech sound difficulties can be grouped together to maximise impact. It will help children waiting to be seen by a therapist and children who are already having support. It can also be used as part of the graduated response as soon as difficulties are identified before deciding whether onward referral is needed.
How can teachers confidently deliver speech sound interventions without specialist training?
Each session plan has explicit instructions on how to deliver an activity, the resources you need (all of which are in the book) and how to differentiate each task both to reduce and increase challenge for different group members.
How do these interventions fit alongside existing programmes used in schools?
Children who find it difficult to segment and blend sounds will be helped by these activities. Intervention focuses on listening for and saying sounds rather than written tasks so it can complement different phonics programmes used in schools.
What does an effective small-group intervention session look like in practice?
Fun! Opportunities for all children to participate in structured incremental activities so all children can make progress and experience success.
For teachers working with mixed-ability groups, how can sessions be adapted to support different levels of need?
You can include children who are working at different levels for different skills. Each activity has step-up and step-down suggestions to help teaching staff differentiate effectively. The step up is provided so children who are confident with an activity can make quick progress within a session. The step down ensures children who need additional support can still access each activity and experience some success.
What are some quick wins or simple strategies teachers can implement immediately to support speech sound development?
- Consider background noise and reduce it whenever possible when working on speech sounds or phonics.
- Let children hear new words in isolation first before giving the meaning.
- Make sure children can see your face clearly.
- Model the correct production of a word back to children straight away so they hear how it should sound.
How can practitioners track progress and know that interventions are making a real difference?
The two biggest indicators of progress are:
- Are the children able to access each week’s activities, with differentiation if needed? The activities are designed to be incremental and build systematically on previous skills to make secure and sustained progress.
- Are children becoming easier for others to understand? For the majority of young children with speech sound difficulties, systematic practice in discriminating speech sounds will have a positive impact on how accurately they store and say words.
In your experience, what are the most common barriers to effective speech sound support in schools?
- Noisy learning environments.
- Children whose poor listening impacts on their ability to access learning tasks.
- Teaching assistant time available to provide targeted support and staff having the confidence to know where to start. This approach is helpful as it provides a plan that will be of benefit to all children and groups them to make the best use of staff time.
How important is the link between speaking, listening and early reading success?
One of our favourite quotes is ‘Reading and writing float upon a sea of talk’. Oracy is the essential foundation for literacy. Research shows a direct link between children who have speaking and listening difficulties when starting school and those who go on to develop difficulties with literacy so early intervention is key.
Finally, what impact do you hope this resource will have for teachers and the children they support?
This is a practical resource written by therapists who work with teaching staff every day to help children with speech sound difficulties make progress. The plans and resources reduce planning and preparation time for teaching staff and make effective targeted speech sound support accessible for school.
Speech and Sound Interventions by Liz Spooner and Jacqui Woodcock is out now, published by Bloomsbury
