Admissions
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Enrollment Criteria
Ensuring We Meet Your Child's Needs Effectively
At The Talk Shop, we have specific criteria for enrollment to ensure we can meet your child’s needs effectively. Children must be between 3 and 6 years old, with cognitive skills within the average range, and they should be independently mobile. The core issue for each child should be speech, language, and communication difficulties, with the ability or potential to use oral language as their primary mode of communication.
Group Readiness & Learning Independence
They must also benefit from group instruction without needing an individual facilitator and be able to work independently on some tasks. While one-on-one facilitation is available for certain challenges, we do not accept children who require constant one-on-one support. Additionally, children must not be disruptive in group settings and should be able to learn in this environment. They must be able to follow a predominantly mainstream curriculum, though modifications may be made in terms of pace or content. Toilet training is not a requirement for enrollment.
Admission Selection
Following an initial interview with the parents, children undergo a play-based screening assessment to determine whether they are suitable candidates for admission to the Talk Shop. The screening assessments are done during the August school holidays and parents are notified via email if their application has been successful.
Trial Period
Children being considered for acceptance into either our Grade 00 or Grade R programme may be asked to attend a weeks trial at The Talk Shop in the third term following the play-based screening assessments. We do our utmost to ensure that this is an appropriate placement for all the children at the school and a possible trial will allow us to make the decision more easily and alternatively, make an appropriate referral for a more suitable placement.