This document provides information about speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN). It defines the roles of specialist speech and language therapists and teachers in supporting students with SLCN. It notes that approximately 10% of students have SLCN and 5-7% have them as a primary difficulty. The document discusses factors that can impact language development, both inside and outside of the child, and provides strategies teachers can use to support students with receptive language, expressive language, speech, and social language skills.

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

9. 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

10. Why focus on SLCN ?

11. SLCN
fact or fiction?
Taken from ICAN Talkboost training -
2012

12. 10% of all young people have
Speech, Language and
Communication Needs

13. 5-7% of all young people have SLCN as
a primary difficulty

14. Children with weaker vocabularies are
more likely to learn new words from
incidental exposure than children with
larger vocabulary

15. At least 50% of young people with
behaviour/emotional and social difficulties
have undiagnosed SLCN

16. Most teachers are confident in
their ability to teach speaking and
listening skills

17. Children from economically deprived
backgrounds are at considerable risks
of language delays

18. Rouse Theoretical Model

19. 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.

20. 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

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

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

24. Internal and External
factors

25. 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)

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. What's the impact?

30. 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. 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.

32. What can you do?

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

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

35. 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

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

37. 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

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.