Speech, Language

and

Communication Needs SLCN

LSS

Speech, Language and

Communication needs are one aspect of

SEND

(Special Educational Needs and

Disability)

Learning Objectives

To understand what is meant by the term SLCN

To understand the impact of SLCN for pupils

To link your knowledge of SLCN to your teaching

practice

The Speech and Language Team

Specialist Speech and Language Teacher Sarah Arjun

Language Support Service

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist Marie Newton

Sussex Community NHS Trust

Our Roles SALT (NHS): Speech and language therapy is

concerned with the management of disorders of speech, language,

communication and swallowing in children and adults.

Specialist Teacher (LEA): we give teachers and teaching assistants training and advice

about meeting pupils’ speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)

Our roles

Termly meeting in school with Senco (Special Educational Needs Coordinator)

Interdisciplinary working: Liaise with other professionals i.e. Teachers,

Educational Psychologist, Caseworkers, Paediatricians, School Nurses, Ots, Police and Court Liaison Service…

Working with parents: meetings, training, reports, phone calls

Levels of support and Professional Jargon

Some terminology… Receptive Language The ability to understand what is said,

including understanding of spoken words (vocabulary/ semantics), sentences (grammar), instructions and stories (narrative)

Expressive Language The ability to express self in spoken language including words (vocabulary/ word finding), sentences (syntax/ grammar) and story telling (narrative)

Social communication The ability to communicate effectively in social situations (pragmatics)

Speech The ability to discriminate between and/ or use speech sounds

Dysfluency Stammering or stuttering where sounds and/ or words are repeated or may be difficult to produce without effort

Why focus on SLCN ?

SLCN

fact or fiction?

Taken from ICAN Talkboost training - 2012

10% of all young people have Speech, Language and Communication Needs

5-7% of all young people have SLCN as a primary difficulty

Children with weaker vocabularies are more likely to learn new words from

incidental exposure than children with larger vocabulary

At least 50% of young people with behaviour/emotional and social difficulties

have undiagnosed SLCN

Most teachers are confident in their ability to teach speaking and

listening skills

Children from economically deprived backgrounds are at considerable risks

of language delays

Rouse Theoretical Model

At first glance...

Charlie is in your Year 2 class

Using Rouse’s theoretical framework of

Knowing/Doing/Believing:

What do you know about Charlie’s speech and

language skills?

What would you do to support him?

Do you believe you can support his language

developement?

Give your notes to the person sitting next to you who has to put

them away until the end of the seminar.

The Communication Chain Have an idea of meaning to be conveyed

Find the right words (semantics/ word finding)

Put the words in a grammatical sentence-

right order, tense, word endings, pronouns etc

Select the right sounds (phonology)

Co-ordinate instructions to lips, jaw, tongue and vocal cords

Say the words aloud (articulation)

Understand the meaning – literal and non-literal

Understand sentence structure (grammar/ syntax)

Understand words (semantics)

Remember what is said in the right order (auditory sequential memory)

Hear

Understand non-verbal communication- body language, facial expression, tone of voice

Listen/ attend

Self-monitor INPUT OUTPUT

PROCESSING

Discriminate between sounds

Typical Language and Communication Development

https://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/media/1590/primary_milestone_poster_-_final.pdf

The development of speech, language and communication

• Primary Milestones poster

• Talking Point website-

Progress Checker

www.talkingpoint.org.uk

Internal and External factors

What are the causes of SLC difficulties?

Factors outside child Lack of stimulation Poor language models Position in family Emotional abuse Impoverished speech and language skills Transient difficulty- likely to catch up with language stimulation.

Factors within child Some children have their

primary difficulty with speech/ language with no

other impairment-known as or SLI (Specific Language Impairment) or language

disorder

Part of more generalised learning difficulties or

another condition such as: hearing impairment/ ASC/ Down’s syndrome/ ADHD/

Cerebral palsy (a secondary SLC difficulty)

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (0-25) • Statutory in schools since September 2014 • Based on principles of inclusion in mainstream

education for all children • Focus of reforms is on high quality teaching and

learning for all pupils • Class and subject teachers have a greater role in the

initial information and gathering process for potential SEN

Assess/Plan/Do/Review

Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years

Ref: DFE-00205-2013 PDF, 3.23MB, 292 pages

A quick word about EAL

Bilingualism Multilingualism

Speaking more than one language does not create a speech,

language difficulty. BUT

You can be multilingual and have speech and language needs!

http://www.londonsigbilingualism.co.uk/pdf/englishadd.pdf

Ghoom passage - activity

If they didn’t want to ghoom there was no choice but to give the man the chimmage. After an exciting afternoon they emerged and were delighted to find a shebeen. When they went in there was no spanaria to talk about their exploits.

Dr Marysia Nash March 2012

What's the impact?

30

If a child has a communication problem, this can lead to:

• Increased levels of anxiety and frustration • Impaired development of emotional literacy

and potential mental health issues • Reading and writing difficulties • Problems with social interactions

ALL of the above can lead on to: • Behavioural difficulties (particularly if the

communication problem is unrecognised), school exclusions.. youth justice system

31

If you ask a child to do something and they don’t do it, it could be because:

• They didn’t hear.

• Too much else is going on inside their head.

• They don’t want to.

• Their attention is elsewhere.

• They didn’t understand what you said.

• They don’t know how to tell you they don’t understand.

What can you do?

Receptive Language

• Get their Attention

• Minimise distractions

• Give time

• Chunk

• Concepts – everyday words

• Show what you mean

• Talk it through

• Reinforce and Recap

Expressive Language

• Accept and encourage

• Provide key words

• Recap

• Model and Scaffold

• Feedback

• Teach new words

• Use visuals

• Build the sequence

Speech

• Respond to what the child says not how he says it

• Listen carefully to them and praise verbal contributions

• It’s ok to say you don’t understand.

• Use the context to support understanding of what they are

saying

• Do not correct directly but provide a model for the child: i.e. if she says ‘I need my toat’, you can say: ‘Your need your coat, your coat is on the peg’.

• It takes a long time to change well established habits, think

small steps at a time!

• Be aware of the increased risk of the child having difficulties in

learning to read and spell

• Give them time to revise phonological awareness activities

Social Language

• Be aware

• Explicit rules

• Support interests and friendships

• Explain sayings

• Manage attention

• Provide feedback on behaviour

• Different situations

Making Mistakes is OK Key Messages: • Mistakes can be positive – a chance to grow • It takes two for communication to breakdown Strategies: • Model “its ok to ask for help” • Help them to recognise the reasons they don’t

understand; – they don’t understand a word – they didn’t listen – they can’t remember

Further Reading: Time to talk- Jean Gross

Time to Talk: Implementing outstanding practice in speech, language and communication (David Fulton / Nasen)

Paperback– 21 May 2013

Useful websites

• www.ican.org

• www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

• http://www.afasicengland.org.uk/

• www.talkingpoint.org.uk

• www.blacksheeppress.co.uk

Glossary of Terms

SLCN: Speech , Language and

Communication Difficulties

SLI-Specific Language Impairment- when

there is a disparity between receptive and

expressive language skills and cognitive

skills(non verbal skills)

Non-verbal communication-How we

communicate non-verbally e.g. using gestures

Attention and Listening-The ability to

engage and focus on what is being asked and

on the task at hand.

Auditory Memory-The ability to be able to

retain instructions immediately after the

instruction has been given and remember

what is said in the right sequential order.

Receptive’ Language: understanding

spoken language

Expressive Language : using spoken

language

Grammar-The structure of language and the

words we use e.g. verb tense, word order,

word endings

Semantics- The ‘meaning’ of words that we

use

Speech/phonology -The sounds we process

and use for articulation.

Social Skills- The non-verbal skills we

understand and use , i.e. body language,

rate, intonation, conversation skills including

the ability to have and repair conversations.