Speech, Language and Communication (including Autism) Team
The Speech, Language and Communication (including Autism) Team are a group of highly skilled and experienced teachers who are part of the Leaner Support Service in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
The team of teachers work in partnership with primary and secondary schools across RCT to support pupils with
- Speech and/or language difficulties
- Autism spectrum disorders, whether diagnosed or not
The SLCN team can offer schools support for individual pupils, groups of pupils or whole school. Schools access the support through a referral process; new referrals are discussed each week. Advice, support and guidance can be provided in Welsh and English.
About Speech, Language and Communication
Speech, language and communication underpin everything we do – making our needs known, expressing our likes and dislikes, interacting with others and building relationships.
We often take these skills for granted, but many children struggle to communicate. They have speech, language and communication needs or SLCN.
- Speech – how we articulate and combine sounds to say words
- Language – words and how words are combined to form sentences for us to underetsand and plan what to say
- Communication – how we use language to interact with people
A child with speech, language and communication needs:
- Might have difficulties talking
- They might struggle to say words or sentences
- They may not understand words that are being used, or the instructions they hear
- They may have difficulties knowing how to talk and listen to others in a conversation
Children may have just some or all of these difficulties; they are all very different.
Speech, language and communication are crucial for reading, learning in school, for socialising and making friends, and for understanding and controlling emotions or feelings. SLCN is often called a ‘hidden difficulty’. Many children with SLCN look just like other children and can be just as clever. This means that instead of communication difficulties people may see children struggling to learn to read, showing poor behaviour, having difficulties learning or socialising with others. Some children may become withdrawn or isolated. Their needs are often misinterpreted, misdiagnosed or missed altogether.
How can the school help my child?
All children are screened when they enter school, to find out if they have any speech, language or communication needs. Schools need to be communication friendly environments for children, this includes classrooms that:
- have resources linked to the developmental stage of the children
- promote children feely accessing resources and books
- are visually calm and clutter free
- are clearly labelled, with resources at eye level so children can easily access what they want
- enable children to engage in different play opportunities
- visual supports to help children understand the structure and sequence of the day
- designated areas for specific activities
- have a clear routine
- actively support pupils to transition from one activity to another
It is estimated that 5% of children enter school with a speech, language or communication difficulty. Some children have more severe or complex needs, school may refer to the Learner Support Service for advice and support in how best to meet a child’s needs. The child may also need to be referred to a speech and language therapist; the therapist is trained to assess and treat children with specific speech, language and communication problems to enable them to communicate to the best of their ability.
Children, young people, parents or carers should speak to the school initially if they have any questions about the learners' speech, language and communication skills.
Children and young people will be supported in different ways according to their needs within the classroom. They may need to work in small groups, sometimes with a teaching assistant to support needs or help identify need.
Ways to help your child learn to listen
- Make listening easier by turning off background noise.
- Try to model good listening! Turn to them and look at them. Give your child your full attention.
- When you talk, help your child to focus by using their name and encourage them to look at you.
- Use simple words and shorter sentences that your child can understand and remember.
- Slow your own speech slightly.
- Reduce the number of questions that you ask. This helps you to share the talking.
- Pause to allow plenty of time for your child to take in and think about what you have said.
- It may be helpful to repeat what you say to give your child another chance to take in your words.
- Check your child has understood by observing what they do, sometimes children may listen carefully but still find it hard to understand the message.
- Praise good listening even if this was for a short time.
Ways to help your child put words together to build sentences
- Let your child start the conversation!
- In general, avoid correcting your child, avoid finishing their sentences for them, avoid asking multiple questions and avoid asking them to say it again.
- Be encouraging and accept what your child says even when you’re not sure what he/she means.
- Repeat the child’s sentence back to him/her correctly so that he/she hears a good example or model.
- Talk about things in real situations and about things that your child may be interested in.
- Help your child sequence their thoughts and ideas in the here and now.
- This can be extended to remembering what has already happened and re-telling it.
- Instead of asking too many questions, offer an idea and share the talking.
- Retelling a short sequence will show your child how to tell you what’s happened, will help with telling stories and for older children, with writing a story.
- Talk with your child about what to do when he/she finds it difficult to explain something.
Ways to help your child to understand what you say
- Make it easier to listen by reducing background noise or finding a quiet corner to talk in.
- Use your child’s name and encourage your child to look at you.
- Slightly slow down your speech.
- Use pointing and gesture to add visual clues.
- Build in longer pauses when you speak to allow plenty of time for your child to take in and think about what you have said.
- Avoid using ‘before’ and ‘after’ These words can confuse a child as they can change the order of an instruction without changing the order of the words:
- Identify new or more complex words. Explain what abstract words mean.
- Make links between new words and ideas that your child already knows.
- Praise your child for asking or checking what a word means.
- Check your child has understood an instruction by observing what they do or asking them to repeat back to you, in their own words, what they need to do.
- Watch a favourite TV programme together. Talk about what happened and any words or expressions used that might need explaining. You can comment rather than ask questions.
Ways to help your child to interact with others
- Encourage looking and listening.
- Encourage and practice taking turns.
- Encourage a range of play.
- Encourage your child to put words together to help them join in conversations and talk to friends.
- Create opportunities for a conversation.
- Avoid asking lots of questions one after another.
- Give your child your undivided attention.
- Let your child choose what you can enjoy together.
- Offer lots of praise.
- Encourage opportunities for play with a friend and gradually with a small group of friends, supporting co-operation if needed.
- Draw a simple picture together of a social situation. Talk together about what each character is doing and how they are feeling. Talk about/draw what characters might do next.
The following websites/documents may be useful for more information:
About Autism
Autism (or autism spectrum disorder) is a lifelong developmental disorder which affects the way a person communicates with other people and relates to the world around them. More than one in 100 children have an autism spectrum disorder, this means there are children with an ASD in all schools, whether diagnosed or not.
Children are affected in different ways.
- Social communication – verbal and non-verbal communication such as gestures, tone of voice, facial expressions
- Social interaction – difficulties understanding social rules, behaviour and relationships
- Social imagination – difficulties seeing things from the perspective of other people, rigidity of thought, difficulty planning or coping with change
- Sensory issues – unusual responses to sound, smell, touch, taste and visual input
- Repetitive or obsessive behaviours and intense interests
This means that most children with an ASD:
- cannot easily make sense of sequences and events
- engage in repetitive activities
- may become distressed if a familiar routine changes
- may impose routines on others
- prefer sameness, and will often resist new experiences
- find it hard to work out what other people are going to do, and cannot make sense of why other people do what they do
- struggle to understand how their behaviour may affect others, may not understand social hierarchy
- struggle with imaginative play, pretending and creativity
- find it hard to make ‘free choices’
- will often pay particular attention to details and struggle to see the bigger picture
How will the school help my child?
Supporting children with social communication difficulties in the classroom is done by considering the children’s experience and making some simple changes. Schools’ good practice should include:
- A language rich environment which encourages language learning
- Clear, precise language reinforced with visual prompts
- Regular routines that are communicated to a child in a visual format
- Changes should be kept to a minimum
- Differentiation of information and explanations
- Modelling and teaching of social skills including Talkabout strategies
- Multi-sensory learning experiences and consideration of sensory differences
- Adapting conditions and teaching style to suit particular needs of pupils
- Elklan, WellComm, Language Link or other speech and language strategies
- Opportunities to work in small groups, sometimes with a teaching assistant to support needs or help identify need.
- Screening and monitoring of progress
- Discussion with parents and carers to get the most information possible, and using this information to inform planning and teaching
- Awareness of children who think ‘differently’ and exploration opportunities which enable them to succeed
How can I help my child?
- Create a child-centred space
- Get down to your child’s level
- Join in with your child’s chosen play activity
- Start with what your child likes to do
- Play with toys that use your imagination
- Don’t overload your child’s play space with toys
- Give lots of praise and encouragement
- Enjoy playing and having fun with your child!
The following websites may be useful for more information: