Supporting generalisation (Part 2): Teaching strategies

In Part 1 of this blog series – https://secondaryschoolslt.com/2026/08/02/supporting-generalisation-part-1-challenges-and-solutions/ – I talked about the challenge of getting the skills we teach in our Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) sessions to “carry over” to real-life contexts.

I suggested some ideas for supporting generalisation, such as involving teaching staff, using more naturalistic activities as well as content drawn directly from the curriculum. In this post, I will talk about how using a learning-strategies approach can encourage older students to apply what they have learnt outside your sessions.

Teaching strategies vs teaching skills

In describing this approach, it helps to distinguish between teaching a strategy, and teaching knowledge or a particular skill. In a basic skills approach, the facilitator focuses on teaching abilities and knowledge just above the student’s current level. So we might teach them how to use the irregular past tense in short sentences, how to use the conjunction “otherwise”, or some words related to their physics topic of electricity.

A learning-strategies approach, on the other hand, involves teaching cognitive tools and techniques to support our students’ ability to understand, organise and apply new information better across a range of situations (Larson and McKinley, 2003, Paul and Norbury, 2012).

So, rather than teaching our students specific words, we may teach the strategies of morphological analysis and contextual abstraction to allow them to work out the meanings of new words for themselves. Or we may teach them how to ask for help when they don’t understand.

In a nutshell, a basic skills approach teaches students what to learn, whilst a learning-strategies approach teaches them how to learn. Whilst a basic skills approach tends to be used more with younger children, in recent years, it has become increasingly common for researchers (e.g. Nelson, 1998, Larson and McKinley, 2003, Paul and Norbury, 2012) to recommend teaching strategies to older students.

Why strategies?

A learning-strategies approach does require a certain level of maturity and metacognitive ability that many younger children do not possess (Paul and Norbury, 2012). Older students also have less time to “catch up” before school ends. Using a basic skills approach alone is unlikely to help them bridge this gap (Larson and McKinley, 2003).

But by teaching them strategies we are giving them the tools to improve their own learning and support their journey towards independence (Paul and Norbury, 2012). Teaching strategies is also recommended for those who are likely to have lifelong deficits, rather than trying to “fix” their language.

Most of us develop a range of strategies to make our lives easier as adults. For instance, we might make a shopping list, take notes, repeat our new pin code in our heads, or visualise the scenes of our new novel. But for students with language disorders this does not always come automatically and strategies need to be taught (Nelson, 1998, Paul and Norbury, 2012).

Personally speaking, I tend to use a combined skills and strategies approach. Many of my students have been able to make progress with basic skills, and some of the younger, or lower level ones do not yet have the cognitive maturity to support strategy use. But wherever possible I try to include them within the intervention plan.

Since strategies are intended to be used across a range of situations and settings beyond the therapy room, by their very nature, they support generalisation. Consistent strategy use may even lead to improved language abilities in the long run.

For instance, if a student uses the strategies of morphological analysis and contextual abstraction to help them figure out the meanings of new words they encounter, this not only helps them to resolve any immediate comprehension difficulties, but it may also help them to build their lexicons over time.

How to teach strategies that “carry over”

When we teach strategies, we need to do more than explain how to use them. If students are going to have a realistic chance of applying them to their daily lives then they also need to understand why and when to use them.

They will need to be able to choose the most appropriate strategy to use in a given situation, as well as reflect on what went wrong if it did not work, and make an alternative plan. Larson and McKinley (2003) recommend spending a few minutes at the beginning of every session discussing any strategies you’ve been working on.

I regularly ask my student to tell me about times when they used their strategies during lessons, at home or with friends. We talk about how particular strategies helped them and what might have happened if they hadn’t used them. Or, if they felt a certain strategy didn’t work, then why not? What were the obstacles that stood in the way? What could they try next time?

Having these kinds of metacognitive discussions on a regular basis helps to reinforce the message that the ultimate aim of SALT sessions is for our students to apply what they have learned to their lives outside therapy (Larson and McKinley, 2003). Since doing this, I have noticed a significant improvement in my students’ strategy use.

Successes

And, although it’s wonderful to know my students are applying the strategies I teach to support their learning at school, I’m sometimes even happier when they share times of using them in their personal lives. One student with a passion for acting related how he used his visualisation strategy to put himself in the shoes of his character and picture the scene he would be acting in.

Another student used the memory strategy of rehearsal to help his mum with the shopping by remembering her PIN code, whilst a third used the same strategy to order pizza by memorising the six digit code sent to his mobile phone. When you see students making strategies their own, they are on their way to supporting their own learning.

What next?

If you’d like to read more about how meta cognitive skills can support successful strategy use and independent learning, please check out Part 3 of my series – Coming soon!

Notes

Larson, V.L. and McKinley, N.L. (2003) Communication solutions for older students. Thinking Pub. 

Nelson, N. W. (1998) Childhood Language Disorders in Context: Infancy Through Adolescence. 2nd edn. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Paul, R. and Norbury, C. (2012) Language Disorders from Infancy Through Adolescence: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Communicating. 4th edn. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.