This paper examines the effects of a long-term intervention study aimed at assessing the effects of structured peer-communication and story re-telling tasks on the communication skills and aspects of academic achievement of a group of children with moderate learning difficulties. The intervention programme was designed to support the use of self-regulatory strategies within a communicative context and through story re-telling. By improving children's language and communication abilities we expected to facilitate self-regulatory skills, which would be reflected in enhanced communication and educational performance. Preliminary analyses of the effects of the programme indicate that when gains are made in communication these gains are accompanied by improvements in other performance measures. The implications of the study for educational practice are considered.