1. Key Facts How to identify SLCN How to help children with SLCN
About SLCN
Key Facts
How to identify SLCN
How to help children with SLCN

2. What is SLCN?
Speech
Language
Communication
Needs

3. Defining the Terms Speech Language Communication
In pairs or just ask for suggestions

4. The Language Development Pyramid
Speech Sounds
Talking
Understanding
Play
Attention and Listening
Pre-verbal and Early Interaction

5. Identifying SLCN This can be very difficult!
Some difficulties (typically speech) are more obvious than others
Language difficulties are very much a hidden disability – especially comprehension
Sometimes the more severe difficulties are more obvious, but not always…!
Most children do in fact talk!
Understanding particularly difficult to spot.
So many HL callers insist ‘he understands everything’

6. Red Flags in Younger Children
Early developmental problems
Child of 2 not talking at all, or only a few single words
Child of 2 – 3 who does not listen or respond to simple instructions
Child of 3 not putting words together
Close family members cannot understand a child of 3
Strangers cannot understand a child of 4

7. Possible Indicators in Older Children
Struggles to learn abstract concepts
Appears very quiet/shy
Uses simple words/short sentences
Can’t explain what words mean or understand that they often have more than one meaning – doesn’t ‘get’ jokes that ‘play on words’
Doesn’t follow complex instructions properly – might forget them, do only part or take time to respond
Only relevant if the child is unhappy/struggling at school/exhibiting difficult behaviour
Various checklists

8. Primary vs. Secondary SLCN
Secondary SLCN: Characteristic difficulties associated with another diagnosed condition e.g. Down Syndrome, ASD, Hearing Impairment etc.
N. B. It is possible to have other, unexplained SLCN in addition to secondary difficulties.
Primary SLCN: Difficulties for which there is no obvious cause/explanation, though children may have other specific learning difficulties with e.g. literacy, memory, attention, motor skills.

9. Initial Assessment
Help the Assessment Team to help you: Make notes in advance and take them along. Things to cover:
Child’s early history – so far as you know it -from pregnancy onwards
What the child can say or do
Anything the child cannot say or do that you would expect them to be capable of
Anything else you have noticed e.g. lack of or unusual responses to questions/does not join in with family conversations/games etc.

10. Help for SLCN
Children with SLCN can be helped but not necessarily cured. Professional help might mean (the right):
Speech and Language Therapy
Teaching/Specialist Teaching
Appropriate TA support
Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC): Signing; Speech Aids
Putting a child in a corridor with a TA full time is not appropriate!
Signing often a temporary aid

11. How you can Help Hard to give specific advice:
Every child is different
Age is a factor
Talk to your SLT, if you have one
Generally best to start with what the child can do and build on that
But we can give some general guidance.
Child says ‘car’, reply ‘yes a blue car’
Child says ‘I like this book’, try to draw them out, by asking what they like. Failing that, talk about what’s nice about it: lovely pictures/exciting story etc.

12. Helping Younger Children
Use simple games, books, activities
Simplify your language
Stress key words
Use visual support (objects/pictures, gesture, signs)
Careful use of ‘forced’ and simple ‘what/where/who’ questions
Avoid ‘drilling’ the child
Turn-taking games
Talk about pictures
Leave out words in well known stories and rhymes – does the child say them?
Simple Simon
Act out everyday activities: a tea party.
Toy microphones great for imitating the TV
Simplifying: not, ‘So this afternoon, we’ll go to Granny’s, then call in at the shops, and after that we can go to the park’. Try: lunch first, then Granny’s, then shops, then park’
Put the cup on the table
‘milk or juice’

13. Helping Older Children
Build language into everyday activities
Allow time for ‘processing’
Simplify instructions
Target your use of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ questions
(Pre-)learn and practise new vocabulary and sentence structures
Teach abstract concepts through experiences that demonstrate their meaning
Use multisensory approaches
Board games, TV programmes
Did you play football at school today?
Telling a story: first set the scene, then introduce the main character..etc. Cover: when/where/who/what(happened/how(did it end)
Abstract concepts: in/on, before/after, true/false
Multisensory: visual, tactile (handle animals/shapes etc. act out stories/events – in person or with figures)
Helping hand-outs/other info?

14. Afasic
A parent-led organisation representing the interests of children and young people with SLCN
Set up in 1968 as the Association for all Speech-Impaired Children
Website:
Helpline: or via the online enquiry form on the website