Spoken Language Difficulties

Practical Strategies and Activities for Teachers and Other Professionals

Lynn Stuart, Felicity Wright, Sue Grigor, Alison Howey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136607448
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Classroom Management

Intended as a practical approach to helping children who have spoken language difficulties because of general language delay or specific language impairment, this book contains ideas and activity sheets as well as structured guidance. Areas of language difficulty are identified, activities are suggested to meet these language needs and all this is supported by a developmental framework.

This book also provides advice on classroom management and grouping, in addition to a bank of individual targets for IEPs which are linked to the activities and strategies suggested within the book.

Suitable for non-specialists and specialists alike, many professionals find this book to be an invaluable resource, including mainstream teachers, teaching assistants, speech and language therapists working in schools, SENCOs, nursery nurses and special school teachers.

1	Receptive language difficulties

R1 Understanding in class

The understanding of language checklist (R2) should help to identify the pattern of strengths and weaknesses shown by a particular child. When you have a profile of the child’s understanding you can target particular areas as a focus for development. The table below provides a summary of where to look for materials to help the child following completion of the checklist on p.2.

Question no.	Response	Likely area of difficulty	Section
a–k	Yes	Understanding of vocabulary	RV
		Understanding of grammar	RG and EG
		Comprehension	RC
		Auditory memory	AM
		Attention and concentration	AL
l–p	No	Comprehension and thinking skills	RC

You may find that the child experiences difficulties understanding language in all settings. However, some settings can be more helpful than others for some children, particularly as they get older. Looking at how well a child copes, where and with whom, can allow you to pinpoint what is helpful to a child in one setting and attempt to provide these same elements in another.

Factors that contribute to the child doing better in some situations than others include:

• layout of classroom

• adjacent pupils

• opportunities for distraction, such as computers, windows and walkways

• length and appropriateness of teacher talk

• lesson structure

• classroom expectations regarding behaviour, group work, volume of work expected in class, how it is recorded, etc.

R2 Understanding of language checklist

Name of child:_________________________ D.o.B. __________________

School: ___________________ Teacher: _________________ Year group: _______________

Date: __________________ Compiled by: __________________________

R3 Following classroom instructions

Children have difficulty following classroom instructions for a variety of reasons. They may have attention difficulties which make it hard for them to resist distractions, centre their own thoughts and ideas and stay on task.

Some children appear to be in a world of their own and do not see the purpose of the instruction or realise that it applies to them. If the language used tends to require inference, understanding of non-literal language, the relating of new information to something learned earlier or understanding of verbal humour, then they are likely to misunderstand. They may also miss the main point and become distracted by peripheral details. Other children have a different pattern of behaviour suggesting difficulties in a specific area.

Follow the flow chart to see if there is a pattern to the child’s difficulties, the probable reason and the section that is aimed at helping the child overcome these problems.

RECEPTIVE VOCABULARY

RV1 Vocabulary development

A child usually develops the concept for something before he names it. For instance, until a child can sort objects according to colour, disregarding shape or function, he will not be able to learn colour names.

To build up a concept, a child will need many experiences in lots of different settings before he can start to recognise the essential qualities that must be present and which make up a particular concept. The experiences must be relevant. The amount of experience each child needs can vary tremendously.

Concept development is helped by the use of language. A child needs to be told words as he experiences what they mean, whether it is naming people and objects; doing actions; recognising abstract properties such as yellow, two, cross, smooth, circle, noisy; or relationships such as big, heavy, below, thin, equal.

A child is more likely to learn a word if there is a need for him to use it and it is relevant to him. This need can be very motivating and gives some point to him learning it and then using it.

When teaching vocabulary, keep your language very simple. The target words should be clear and obvious. The child must be able to understand any other words you use and also the sentence grammar (which should be only marginally more complex than the language he uses).

Teaching tips

• Keep language simple.

• Reduce other distractions.

• Use interesting material/equipment.

• Choose relevant and developmentally appropriate vocabulary items.

• Present the word in many different contexts.

• Do not persist too long – present little and often.

• Continue to reinforce words apparently understood.

• Reward appropriate responses.

RV2 Teaching vocabulary

General vocabulary

These are the three steps necessary to learn and use new words:

1. teacher uses the word

2. child understands the word

3. child uses the word.

General guidelines to bear in mind when teaching early vocabulary:

• teach in groups of children with a similar language level

• teach new vocabulary alongside familiar vocabulary

• keep the learning as active as possible – ‘handle’ nouns, ‘do’ verbs

• give time for the child to become familiar with new materials/objects/activities before starting teaching

• always work from concrete to abstract, i.e. follow the sequence: real object/imaginative play with real object/play with toys or models of real object/photograph and pictures/songs and stories

• generalise the context so when the child appears to understand the target word in one context, encourage him to use the word in other contexts, and with other people, including those at home (a home/school diary can be useful for this).

Topic vocabulary

Teach this following the general guidelines above.

• It is useful to pre-teach key vocabulary related to subject or topics.

• Check understanding of new words regularly.

• For younger children, illustrated word mats reinforce vocabulary and awareness of things which go together and how they are related.

• Older children benefit from learning key words from banks of topic vocabulary, compiled by subject coordinators in advance of teaching the topic.

• Children can make their own wordbooks of key words (including numeracy words) with their own definitions and illustrations.

Abstract vocabulary

These are words for things that cannot be physically experienced. These w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Section 1 Receptive language difficulties
• Section 2 Non-verbal difficulties
• Section 3 Expressive language difficulties
• Useful books and resources