Hastening slowly on classroom-based conversational skills teaching: A commentary on Abbot-Smith et al., 2023

The focus of classroom instructional time continues to be debated among educators, policy makers, academics and health professionals such as speech-language therapists. In this commentary, we emphasise the importance of reserving precious instructional time for developing children's biologically secondary skills such as reading, writing and spelling. We argue that maintaining a focus on these core curriculum areas is critical. We advise against committing Tier 1 classroom time to conversational skills at the current time, due to the paucity of research evidence to support this. We propose an alternative model for including conversational skills in classroom practice, through the application of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, and in particular, Response to Intervention.

Automated summary

The debate over the focus of classroom instructional time continues among educators, policy makers, academics, and health professionals. This commentary emphasizes the importance of prioritizing children's biologically secondary skills, such as reading, writing, and spelling, and advises against dedicating primary classroom time to conversational skills due to limited research evidence. An alternative model for incorporating conversational skills into classroom practice, through the use of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and Response to Intervention, is proposed.