Speech and Language Difficulties - School Information and Resources

 We develop and use these in combination. To assess and monitor progress we usually divide skills into four main areas:

• Receptive language
• Expressive Language
• Speech
• Social use of Language

Children might have difficulties in one or more of the following:

1. Receptive Language:

• Attention and listening
• Hearing and making sense of sounds in words
• Understanding the meaning of words and concepts
• Understanding structure and rules  (phonology- the rules that govern how sounds are combined to form words, syntax - the rules governing word -  order, and morphology- changes to words to support meaning, for example, adding "s" to indicate plural)
• Remembering (working auditory memory)

  
2. Expressive Language:

• Decide what you want to say
• Retrieve appropriate vocabulary
• Use appropriate grammatical markers and sentence structure
• Sequence and organise ideas - sentence and  narrative level

  
3. Speech

Speech is the verbal expression of language and includes:

• Select sounds( phonology)
• Send  instructions to speech muscles( mouth, throat and lungs) to create sounds
• Articulate sounds ( involves tongue, lips, hard/soft palates, larynx)
• Blending sounds together to formulate recognisable words
• Use of appropriate intonation, pitch, volume, tone and fluency

  
4. Social use of language

The way people understand and use language appropriately in different contexts

• Recognising and demonstrating appropriate :
  • Non-verbal communication skills ( e.g. body language, facial expression)
  • Paralinguistic skills  (intonation, pitch, volume, tone of voice)
  • Conversational skills
  • Asking for and giving information

The ability to communicate underpins social, emotional and educational development but SLCN can involve or be intrinsic to a wide range of difficulties which might involve:

• A primary or specific speech, language or communication difficulty which occurs when there are no other neurodevelopmental or social causes and is likely to be a long term need throughout secondary school
• A secondary need where difficulties occur in association with another difficulty, for example moderate learning or a sensory impairment
• Delayed speech, language and communication need.  The term delayed suggests that a pupil might "catch up", but if there are still delays at secondary school, the impact is likely to continue to affect all areas of development.