Teaching Children with Speech and Language Difficulties

Deirdre Martin

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138165502
• eBook ISBN: 9781136622496
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First Published in 2000. Each publication in this series of books is concerned with approaches to intervention with children with specific needs in mainstream schools. This book is written particularly for newly qualified teachers who have not worked in mainstream classrooms with learners who have speech and language difficulties. Experienced teachers may also find it helpful if they are new to working with learners who have these difficulties. The ideas in the book are set in the inclusive context of a mainstream classroom, where children with different language learning needs are supported to access a broad and balanced curriculum.

Chapter 1

Introduction

This book is written particularly for newly qualified teachers who have not worked in mainstream classrooms with learners who have speech and language difficulties. Experienced teachers may also find it helpful if they are new to working with learners who have these difficulties. The ideas in the book are set in the inclusive context of a mainstream classroom, where children with different language learning needs are supported to access a broad and balanced curriculum. Inclusion is not only a geographical phenomenon, and teachers need to be supported in developing professional knowledge, understanding and skills in order to facilitate all children in the UK accessing a broad and balanced curriculum, wherever they are at school. Teachers in specialist provision may also find this book helpful.

The book aims to develop teachers’ knowledge and understanding about learners with speech and language difficulties and to offer skills and strategies for supporting this group of learners to access the curriculum. It also develops teachers’ knowledge and understanding about working with parents and other professionals in education and in health who are involved with learners who have speech and language difficulties.

Teachers who have not worked with children with speech and language difficulties before have said that they need a ‘language to talk about language and language difficulties’. This book explores ways of describing and talking about language. Sharing a ‘language to talk about language and language difficulties’ enables teachers to talk with other teachers and professionals about children who have speech and language difficulties. It is valuable for several purposes:

• it is a way into the jargon words and phrases used by other practitioners in the field;
• it is a way of understanding how practitioners in related fields think and talk about the subject and the difficulties;
• it can help to heighten learners’ and teachers’ awareness, and recognition, of areas of difficulty;
• it can enable teachers and other practitioners, such as speech and language therapists, psychologists, learning support assistants and Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), to share a common language for discussion of children’s needs.

When teachers and other practitioners share ‘a language to talk about language’ they can develop mutual understanding, appreciation of differing perspectives and collaborative work around language. Teachers are also in a position to talk about language with learners and to discuss explicitly the nature of speech and language, their difficulties and the strategies which will support them.

A final aim of the book is that, having been introduced to the field of learners who have speech and language difficulties, teachers and other professionals and parents can promote and support the development and implementation of a whole-school approach towards the inclusion of these learners into the wider curriculum and learning environment of the school. They may also be encouraged to study and explore more in this area.

Language Variation

There is a wide range of regional variations of English. We pronounce words differently often depending on where we live: how we say mug, bath or court, use words differently (donny/hand, canny/clever) and put words together differently.

The so-called standard form of speaking, such as the BBC news readers, where there is reduced or no regional variation, is called RP (Received Pronunciation). Written English is less affected by regional variations. There is a standard form of written English which is taught in school and used officially. From time to time difficulties in understanding arise between speakers of different regional variations, but these are not the focus of this book.

Developmental Variation

Most children and young people as they grow up show difficulties in speech, language and communication. For example, many three- and four-year-olds pass through a brief period of stammering, many children pronounce words incorrectly, particularly words that they have just come across, many chose the wrong word because it sounds similar to the one they need (e.g. interview/interval), many will start and re-start sentences and correct themselves. Many will misunderstand what is said to them, mishear what is said to them, and also not ‘do as they are told’. As peers and adults we accept all of these variations as part of growing up and developing language skills.

However, we become alert to some children and young people who show variations in understanding language and in expressing themselves because they are noticeably different from their peers. In many cases these variations result in breakdown in communication between the child and the person they are talking with. These variations are often perceived as difficulties because they persist and challenge the communication skills of the person who tries to communicate with the child or young person. Yet with appropriate strategies on the part of both parties, most children and young people with speech, language and communication difficulties can communicate effectively. This book aims to identify these difficulties and some appropriate approaches and strategies which can help learners in understanding and using language effectively.

Language as a Secondary Difficulty

There is a wider group of learners who may have difficulties developing speech, language and communication skills because their main (primary) difficulty is in a related area of learning, such as hearing impairment, physical impairment, more generalised cognitive and learning difficulties, emotional, social and behavioural difficulties, and those whose difficulties are on the autistic spectrum.

EAL Learners

Sometimes, learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL) are included with children and young people who have difficulties with language and communication. Often many of the same approaches and strategies for understanding and using language can be used to develop the English language of this group of learners. The important point to bear in mind is that EAL learners are usually competent users of other languages. They do not have difficulties understanding or using their other (home, first) language. They need help to develop English for immediate learning purposes and usually in the context of the curriculum.

Some EAL learners may have specific language and learning difficulties and the teacher needs to be alert to this possibility. It is important that teachers observe and record the learning of each EAL learner and differentiate the curriculum so that language learning and cognitive learning can be distinguished. Other aspects need to be distinguished such as the pace and style of learning of the EAL learner which may indicate other learning needs. Newly qualified teachers and teachers who are new to teaching EAL pupils need to be in touch with colleagues who are experienced in special needs and/or EAL teaching in order to understand and meet the diverse and complex needs of EAL learners with additional special educational needs. There are some helpful books in this area:

Hall, D. (1995) Assessing the Needs of Bilingual Pupils: Living in Two Languages, London: David Fulton Publishers.

Gravelle, M. (1996) Supporting Bilingual Learners in Schools. Stoke: Trentham Books.

Children with Primary Difficulties in Speech and Language

Children who have speech and language difficulties come from all socio-economic backgrounds. Three times as many boys as girls have communication difficulties. Delay in developing speech and language can be due to intermittent hearing loss or lack of stimulation in early life. More persistent speech and language difficulties may be linked to genetic factors, brain damage at birth, and syndromes, while for a great many the cause remains unknown (I CAN 1999).

Estimating the exact figure for the number of children with speech and language difficulties is hard, partly because studies have given this group of difficulties different labels, such as developmental aphasia, auditory agnosia, specific language impairment, language delay. Recently, figures have been obtained for children who have a primary difficulty with speech and language and referred to as having a specific speech and language difficulty (SSLD) (Dockrell and Lindsay 1998). In the United States, prevalence is estimated as 1:10 of school-aged children, while a recent study in Cambridgeshire reported that just under 7 per cent of three-year- olds have language difficulties. However, many children, about 40 per cent with language delay in the preschool period, catch up in their language development during the early school years. Yet, the majority (about 60 per cent) who had preschool language difficulties, continue to have language difficulties at ten years of age, and are likely to have them through secondary education and adulthood. In many cases the language difficulty may evolve and change, or the pupil may develop additional difficulties such as with social or literacy skills.

Translating these figures into likely numbers of children with speech and language difficulties in inclusive classrooms, I CAN (1999) suggests that there may be 1:8 children in nurseries, and 1:5 entering school with noticeable speech and language difficulties, which may drop slightly in junior and secondary classes. In junior and secondary classes with between 30 to 40 pupils, there may be about eight learners with speech and language difficulties.

Of concern is that a recent study showed that there are children in mainstream classes with language difficulties who have not been identified and may not be receiving the support services they need. They depend on the professional development of their teachers to identify, assess and support their speech and language needs for curriculum learning. Furthermore, while a high number of children are recognised as having literacy difficulties, their difficulties in vocabulary and grammatical comprehension are not noticed (Dockrell and Lindsay 1998).

Further Reading

You can read about this study in an article by Julie Dockrell and Geoff Lindsay, called ‘The ways in which speech and language difficulties impact on children’s access to the curriculum’, published in 1998 in Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Volume 14, Issue 2. The prevalence figures were cited from this article.

Conclusion

This book aims to raise teachers’ awareness, knowledge, skills and understanding about pupils in their mainstream classes who have a range of speech, language and literacy difficulties. At the end of this book you should be able to identify, informally evaluate and implement support strategies with pupils who have a communication difficulties.

Chapter 2

Understanding Speech and Language

Language is a broad category which includes receptive language (understanding) and expressive language across different components: speech sounds, words, sentences, meaning and use of language. Speech is a particular component of language and children can have speech difficulties alone or in combination with difficulties in other components. This chapter looks at the different components and requirements for developing speech and language and at different analogies for language which help us understand it better.

Prerequisites for Developing Speech and Language

Certain prerequisites contribute to the development of speech and language. A primary prerequisite is that children must want to communicate; without this motivation it is difficult for them to develop meaningful language. Healthy development of the brain and structures involved in speech, such as the mouth, are essential. Cognitive skills such as memory, attention and listening are very important. Short-term memory is needed in processing speech input and passing information to long-term memory where it is laid down as representations and schemas, to be retrieved later. Attention skills are important to prepare the system to be in a state of readiness for listening. Listening is noticing meaningful sounds (auditory perception) and discriminating between appropriate and inappropriate information and between similar sounding words (auditory discrimination). Hearing is important for the development of typical speech but hearing loss does not prevent the development of language. Alternative forms, such as signing, can develop. Finally, an important prerequisite for language is children’s ability to symbolise and represent reality through their own perspective, which is shown in pretend play with toys, and later in their drawing. Damage or disturbance in the development of prerequisites usually precipitates speech and language difficulties. Encouraging the development of these skills is always beneficial for speech and language development (Law 2000a).

Comprehension

Understanding spoken or written language is called verbal comprehension. Children from birth start to understand spoken language: their mother’s voice, their own name. It is difficult to estimate how much language children understand because comprehension is difficult to measure, but it is usually more developed than expressive language. Children who have expressive language difficulties also often have comprehension delay and difficulties which may be overlooked. Problems understanding language are often associated with difficulties in cognitive skills, such as difficulties in auditory processing and understanding fast-flowing speech, or they may have difficulties sequencing and recalling what they hear. Children with verbal comprehension difficulties often rely on their non-verbal comprehension skills. They understand the non-spoken clues in the context of language, such as pointing and looking at what we are talking about, laughing, facial expressions, and other people’s reactions to spoken language. Children can have difficulties understanding different components of language: discriminating between sounds, understanding different meanings of the same word, understanding different types of sentence structure, and understanding a ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Understanding speech and language
• Chapter 3: Understanding speech and language difficulties
• Chapter 4: Assessment in the classroom
• Chapter 5: Managing speech and language difficulties in the classroom
• Chapter 6: Whole-school approach to communication needs
• Appendix 1: Whole-class observation checklist
• Appendix 2: The AFASIC checklists: 4–5 years, 6–10 years
• References
• Index