This document provides information about speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and the roles of professionals who support students with SLCN. It defines terms like receptive language, expressive language, and social communication. Signs of different types of SLCN are outlined. The impact of unidentified SLCN on educational achievement, behavior, and future outcomes is described. Strategies teachers can use to support students with receptive, expressive, speech and social language needs are suggested. The importance of allowing mistakes and providing feedback is emphasized.

1. Speech, Language
and
Communication Needs
SLCN
LSS

2. Speech, Language and
Communication needs
are one aspect of
SEND
(Special Educational Needs and
Disability)

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. Levels of support and Professional Jargon

8. 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

9. Why focus on SLCN ?

10. Educational
achievement
Behaviour/vulnerability
Mental health
Employability
Criminality Disadvantage Cycle
•Vocabulary at 5 is a
powerful predictor of
GCSE achievement
•2/3 of 7-14 year olds
with serious behaviour
problems have
language impairment
40% of 7 to 14 year olds
referred to child
psychiatric services had a
language impairment that
had never been identified
47% of employers say
they can’t recruit staff
with the communication
skills they need
65% of young people in
young offender institutions
have communication
difficulties
Children from low income
families lag behind high
income counterparts by
sixteen months in
vocabulary at school entry

11. Meet Charlie

12. Rouse Theoretical Model

13. 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?

14. 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-monitorINPUT OUTPUT
PROCESSING
Discriminate
between sounds

15. Possible indicators …
She’s silly &
disruptive in
lessons
He always does
the wrong thing
He copies
all the time
She’s always
last to start
He doesn’t
know what to
do because he
Doesn't listen
He never
listens

16. Signs of receptive language difficulty
• Poor listening skills
• Child who appears to have listened but
doesn’t know what to do
• Distractible in groups
• Switching off during teacher input
• Not following instructions
• Not understanding more abstract words
and ideas
• Echoing teacher
• Watching others to see what to do

17. Signs of expressive language
difficulty
• Reluctance to talk
• Substituting or missing words out
• Leaving off grammatical word endings
• Lack of descriptive language
• Easily muddled when talking
• Difficulties explaining events outside the ‘here and
now’
• Needs examples to generate ideas

18. Signs of speech sound difficulty
• Missing out sounds
• Substituting sounds
• Missing out syllables
• Difficult to understand out of context
• Reluctance to talk
• Use of gestures

19. Signs of social communication
difficulty
• Appearing over familiar or aloof
• Not following unwritten rules of social situations
• Literal interpretation
• Rigidity
• Needing to ‘switch off’
• Repetitive questions or topics
• Calling out or interrupting
• Not taking turns
• Getting on better with younger children
• Over-precise

20. Typical Language and
Communication Development
https://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/media/1590/primary_milestone_poster_-_final.pdf

21. The development of speech,
language and communication
• Primary Milestones poster
• Talking Point website-
Progress Checker
www.talkingpoint.org.uk

23. Internal and External
factors

24. 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)

25. 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

26. 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

27. What's the impact?

28. 28
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

29. 29
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.

30. What can you do?

31. Receptive Language
• Get their Attention
• Minimise distractions
• Give time
• Chunk
• Concepts – everyday words
• Show what you mean
• Talk it through
• Reinforce and Recap

32. Expressive Language
• Accept and encourage
• Provide key words
• Recap
• Model and Scaffold
• Feedback
• Teach new words
• Use visuals
• Build the sequence

33. 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

34. Social Language
• Be aware
• Explicit rules
• Support interests and friendships
• Explain sayings
• Manage attention
• Provide feedback on behaviour
• Different situations

35. 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

36. Meet Charlie again
Reflect on your earlier ideas- is there anything
you would do differently?

37. Any questions?

38. 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

39. Useful websites
• www.ican.org
• www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk
• http://www.afasicengland.org.uk/
• www.talkingpoint.org.uk
• www.blacksheeppress.co.uk

40. 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.