Advanced training materials for autism; dyslexia; speech, language and communication; emotional, social and behavioural difficulties; moderate learning difficulties

Most adults working in primary schools will come into daily contact with pupils who have communication difficulties and, in your role as a specialist teacher, there is much you can do to support colleagues working with children with SLCN.

This unit covers the following:

• Those areas of communication which may be particularly problematic for primary-aged children with SLCN
• Effective strategies for developing pupils’ speech, language and communication skills in primary school
• The wider implications of SLCN for pupils’ outcomes
• Transition from primary to secondary school

While studying this unit, you will:

• Review a video clip to identify how quality first teaching strategies are used and how you could apply these strategies in your school.
• Observe a colleague’s lesson, noting anything that builds on the Every Child a Speaker strategies.
• Use the Speech, Language and Communication Framework (SLCF) to audit the training needs of staff in your school.

Upon completing this unit, you will:

• Be familiar with the research evidence on outcomes for primary school pupils with SLCN.
• Understand the difficulties that the transition from primary to secondary school may present for pupils with SLCN.
• Understand and be able to implement effective strategies for developing primary pupils’ speech, language, and communication skills.

Understanding and formulating spoken language

The impact of difficulties in understanding spoken language can be wide-ranging. Pupils’ experiences in school can include:

• Struggling to understand when a teacher gives them instructions or explains new concepts.
• Being unable to process the various phrases that are new to all children when they start primary school, many of which are open to literal interpretation, for example 'fold your arms' or 'break time'.
• Difficulties in processing information that has been given verbally, which may mean that pupils struggle to follow more than one instruction at a time.

Additionally, some pupils may not be able to formulate spoken language. Communication in school requires the following skills and abilities:

• Understanding the grammatical rules of sentence construction.
• Using the right words in the right order.
• Having age-appropriate levels of vocabulary; learning vocabulary has been identified as one of the most significant difficulties for pupils with SLCN.

Government initiatives have recognised the importance of paired and classroom talk among pupils to enhance learning. An inability to communicate efficiently means that some children with SLCN are missing vital learning opportunities.

If their language skills are not proficient enough to be used as a learning tool, children are in a position where they will fail some tasks before they've even begun. This is frustrating for the child and may have longer-term implications for their self-esteem and engagement with learning; it may also influence the way that they are perceived by their peers.

Processing and producing speech sounds

Pupils with SLCN may not be able to process the sounds that make up words. This means they struggle to:

• Identify which sounds come at the beginning of words.
• Break up words into their component parts.

These skills are essential for learning to read and spell, meaning that pupils with these types of SLCN are at risk of literacy difficulties. The Rose Report also highlights the importance of language, not just for literacy, but to enable a child to access the whole curriculum and for the child's development.

If the child's SLCN extends to an inability to produce speech sounds correctly, there may be an impact on his/her ability to be understood by others. This leads to difficulties in:

• Contributing to classroom discussions.
• Making their needs known.
• Sharing information about themselves.
• Answering questions.
• Joining in with conversations with peers.

Using language appropriately in different social contexts

SLCN can cause significant problems with social interaction. Children with SLCN may have problems identifying when and how to use language in different situations or with different people. They may also struggle to understand:

• Jokes or sarcasm
• Figurative language

This can result in reactions that can seem perverse, pedantic or unsympathetic and which will impact on their relationships with adults and other pupils.

Among children, talk and social interaction are key to social development and learning. It has been found that developing pragmatic language skills can help to prevent problems in a pupil's later educational performance (Anderson-Wood, L and Smith, BR, Working with Pragmatics, 1997).

Verbal reasoning is a fundamental skill for many elements of education. Using language effectively for academic functions requires pupils to be able to:

• Infer
• Debate
• Reason
• Predict
• Clarify a message

If a pupil's SLCN makes any of these skills difficult or even impossible, there will be a significant impact on their academic outcomes.