Children and families bill: is it good for our children with SLaC needs?

The Communication Trust yesterday welcomed the Children and Families Bill, 
highlighting that the proposed changes with the right implementation could positively impact on the 1 million children in the UK with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and their families. 

The Trust has welcomed the emphasis on joint commissioning of services, the introduction of Education, Health and Care Plans, giving parents more choice through personalised budgets, as well as through a local offer to parents of children with SEN, including those with SLCN. However, it has highlighted the challenges and difficulties in implementing these. 

Anne Fox, Director of The Communication Trust, says: "The Children and Families Bill and the good intentions enshrined within it are welcomed, the devil as always will be in the detail. The Trust is working with its consortium members and partners across the private and public sector to ensure these proposed changes make a positive difference to families. 
"We know that children and young people with SLCN are at risk of being under-identified and not having their needs met because of a postcode lottery of services. It is imperative that they do not lose out,particularly because their difficulties can be 'hidden' or because they slip through the gap between services with no-one taking responsibility. This is why joint commissioning is so vital for these children but legislating for the NHS, local authorities and schools to work together to commission services won't be a silver bullet." 

Linda Lascelles, Chief Executive of Afasic, says: "We welcome the government’s commitment to improving the SEN system. The proposals alone in this bill will not address the problem of waiting times or assist the children's workforce to access specialist support such as education psychologists, speech and language therapists or SEN advisory teachers." 

In the UK today, one in ten children have some form of SLCN that can affect them early, severely and for life. SLCN is the most common type of primary need  for pupils with SEN statements in maintained primary schools.  

As with any new legislation, we will have to wait and see what actually happens!

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S HEALTH OUTCOMES FORUM REPORT

The Communication Trust has welcomed recommendations from the Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum to improve health-related care for children and young people and address long-standing system issues.

The Forum launched by the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, included the Government's former Communication Champion, Jean Gross CBE. Last year, The Communication
Trust managed and delivered the National Year of Communication (Hello campaign) in partnership with Jean Gross. Cara Evans, Interim Director at The Communication Trust, said: “The Communication Trust is  particularly pleased the  Health Outcomes Forum report makes strong recommendations around more effective integration of health with education, social care and other local authority led services.

"Over 1 million children and young people in the UK today have some form of long term and
persistent speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). For too long these children have
fallen through the cracks of health and education, being passed from one agency to another, with
families stuck in the middle of local disputes.

"Improving joint commissioning of services for children and young people with SLCN is vital and we
need to take their views, and those of their families, firmly into account. The Trust wants to ensure
that children with SLCN and users of alternative and augmentative communication aids (AAC) are
supported to express their opinions on matters that directly affect their life chances.

“The Trust wholly endorses the recommendation that  all those working with children and young
people should possess the right knowledge and skills to support children and young people's
communication development and to be able to identify when they are struggling."

Julie Wagge, Director of Speech and Language Therapy Services at Symbol UK, one of the Trust’s
consortium members, said: “Getting it right for children and young people with SLCN relies heavily
on effective joint commissioning. An inherent difficulty has always been that the specialist resource -
speech and language therapists - sits within the NHS but the ultimate legal responsibility to provide
therapy sits with the local authority as the education provider.  "The care pathway for children with SLCN includes nursery-based provision and schools. Effective clinical outcomes rely heavily on the collaboration between practitioners, teachers, speech and language therapists (SLTs) and parents. Early and timely intervention is critical or we face great economic and societal costs down the line."

At the end of the National Year of Communication, Jean Gross CBE published her final report as the
Government's Communication Champion for children. It highlighted that joint commissioning is still
not taking place in seven out of ten local areas. The report can be downloaded from
www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/media/9683/nwm_final_jean_gross_two_years_on_report.pdf

Teachers, are you worried about the phonics check?

Communicating Phonics is a brand new free publication from The Communication Trust aimed at Key Stage 1 teachers Communicating Phonics is a guide to support teachers delivering and interpreting the phonics screening test to children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). The guide will help
teachers to deliver the test this June, but also has lots of useful tips and advice to support the overall literacy development of children with SLCN.

Why you should read it?
The phonics checklist, also known as the phonics test or phonics screen, is being administered to Year 1 children from June 2012. The Department for Education has supplied universal guidance for administering the checklist and for interpreting and responding to the results. There are, however, implications for many children with special educational needs (SEN) and particularly those with SLCN.
The term ‘speech, language and communication needs’ (SLCN) is used to describe a wide range of issues that make it difficult for children to communicate with others.

SLCN is the most common SEN identified by primary schools (26.5%) and is a feature of many other areas of SEN, such as hearing impairment, learning difficulties and autistic spectrum difficulties. SLCN is also the most common childhood disability: 10% of all children have SLCN as a long term need. Evidence also shows that in areas of social deprivation 50% of children may enter school with delayed language. SLCN is often under‐identified. This guide, put together with the expertise of nearly 50 of specialist organsiations, will support teachers in
delivering the test but also in overall literacy development of children with SLCN.


How is the guide structured?
Communicating Phonics provides a general overview of issues and then detailed information on 14 different types of SLCN, with a particular focus on the phonics test. It also gives details on how to interpret the outcomes of the test and support the literacy development of children with SLCN.

We know how busy teachers are so the guide has been organised so that teachers can dip in to get to the information they need. This includes:
- General principles
- A quick reference table
- Detailed information on particular SLCN, and how they relate to the test
- Links to a glossary of terms and resources on speech, language and communication
Download the guide at www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/phonics 

Speech, language and communication: are they special needs?

The Communication Trust, a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary organisations specialising in speech, language and communication, has welcomed today’s SEN Progress and Next Steps report from the Department of Education.
The Trust welcomes the drive towards joined up approaches and efforts to ease the journey for children with SEN and their families but has concerns about the effect of these changes on the 1 million children and young people in the UK with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

Wendy Lee, Professional Director for The Communication Trust, says: “Over the last five years, there has been a 58% increase in the number of children and young people with SLCN as a special educational need. Identification and support is crucial but traditionally the UK has had low recognition and awareness of SLCN.
“Changes in labelling, particularly around the diagnosis of behavioural, social and emotional problems, will need to be managed carefully. Parents and the children’s workforce often notice and recognise poor literacy or poor behaviour but may not notice the SLCN difficulty underneath such as poor understanding, vocabulary or conversational skills. We need to work hard to ensure that the ‘hidden’ difficulties of children with SLCN are identified early across all phases of education.

“When SLCN is not addressed, problems can manifest over the years affecting the individual, their family and wider society. Figures show that more than half of children excluded from school have an unidentified SLCN and in our youth justice system, 60% have SLCN, which has previously been undetected.”

The Communication Trust is working closely with the Government on how to support and identify SLCN and is pleased with the strong emphasis on this in the early years and with the focus on workforce development. Specifically, the Trust has:

•  Managed and delivered in partnership with Jean Gross, formerly Communication Champion for children, the National Year of Communication (Hello campaign) to raise awareness of children and young people’s communication development and how to recognise and support SLCN
• Worked to support children’s communication charity I CAN to deliver the Early Language Development Programme (ELDP)
• Developed with support from City & Guilds, a new Level 3 Award in Supporting Children and Young People's Speech Language and Communication for practitioners working with children and young people aged 0‐19 across education, health, youth justice and social care. With support from the Department for Education, the Trust has developed free resources to support the early identification of SLCN
• Developed for the first time a mandatory unit on speech, language and communication that is included in initial training for early years practitioners as part of the Level 3 Diploma for the Children and Young People’s workforce www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/qualifications
• Released in partnership with Jean Gross, formerly Communication Champion and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), Better Communication – outlining a range of approaches to commissioning around SLCN
•  Produced a booklet Let’s Talk about It aimed at increasing awareness of SLCN to teachers going through initial teacher training
• Recently launched a film aimed at raising awareness of recognising SLCN with youth justice and educators www.sentencetrouble.info/film

Wendy Lee continues: “As schools are given greater flexibility to determine their own policies and practices on SEN and the range of statutory information requirements are reduced, it is vital that schools are scrutinised by Ofsted and by Local Authorities on the services they provide, to ensure that the large numbers of children with mild and moderate SLCN are not overlooked. “The Trust is concerned that children with SEN risk getting left behind as the new NHS and schools architecture gets embedded. As personalised budgets come to the fore, parents will need extra support to ensure a joined up approach that meets their child’s needs across health, education and care.”

“As a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication, we understand intrinsically the unique role that the voluntary sector plays. We are pleased this has been championed in the report and look forward to continuing to work with the Government to improve the lives of children, young people and their families.”

Finding the ‘invisible’ voice of children with speech and language needs

Abigail Beverly

A group of experts in speech, language and communication has teamed up to create a book about the importance of listening to children with SLCN. Listening to Children and Young People with Speech, Language and Communication Needs, edited by Sue Roulstone and Sharynne McLeod, features chapters by many well-known experts in the field including The Communication Trust’s Professional Director Wendy Lee,
Hazel Roddam PhD, Chair of Council at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and Chris Markham PhD, a senior lecturer from University of Portsmouth.


Chapters have also been contributed by Abigail Beverly – a young person who grew up with speech and language difficulties and graduated from Central St Martin’s in London – and Robbie Simons, a student with Asperger’s Syndrome who took part in the Speech and Language Therapy Project.


It is widely known that there are great benefits to consulting children with speech, language and communication needs, but very little has previously been written about the challenges involved in the process.
The editors and authors of the book, published by J& R Press, have pledged to donate £1.50 from the sale of each book to Afasic, a charity which supports children with speech and language difficulties and their parents.


In the book, the authors look at:


• The voice of the children and young people with speech, language and
communication needs
• Insights from researchers, speech and language therapists, social workers, psychologists, teachers, advocates and parents
• A diversity of disciplines: health, education and social care
• A range of creative techniques and solutions for listening to children and young people
• Links to service implications.


Linda Lascelles, Chief Executive Officer at Afasic, said: “We’re delighted to have contributed to this book and that the authors have decided to give all the royalties to Afasic. This will go towards our work in helping children who have a speech and language impairment. Too often this group of children is invisible. If we are to understand what they want from services and how they can best be tailored to meet their needs, it is crucial for us to listen and consult with them.”

Sue Roulstone said “It has been a fantastic experience to collaborate with so many knowledgeable people. The book is full of their expertise in listening to the voices of those with speech, language and communication needs. Professor McLeod and I hope that the book provides a useful resource and stimulus to others who work with these children and young people.”


The book is available to order from publisher JR Press priced at £19.99 (not including postage and packing). To order a copy visit the website http://www.jrpress.co.uk/communication-needs.html

Help! Im worried about my child's school report

Many of our children will be receiving their school reports this week or next, so I have included this blog post from the great team at Talking Matters. As they report, there are many reasons why it might not be good including language and communication causes. Read the post and see if it rings any bells:

School reports are coming out at this time of year and sometimes the results are not what parents or children hoped they would be.  Here are some things that might help if you are concerned about your child’s results:

If your child is having difficulties with learning checking your child’s vision and hearing is a good place to start. Make sure your child is assessed by a professional experienced with testing children. Your GP or child health nurse may be able to recommend a good audiologist and optician in your area. For more information about hearing tests log into plus.talkingmatters.com.au and look under “hearing and listening”. Children with a history of ear infections are at a higher risk of learning difficulties. Even a slight hearing loss in one ear can have a significant effect on your child’s learning. Often these can be treated easily so it is important to have these checked.     

Whether your child has a problem with vision or sight or not the next step would be to look at the way your child learns. Even if your child has new glasses or their hearing problem treated they would benefit from further assessment.  There may be other difficulties effecting their learning, they may have developed gaps in their skills and knowledge because of the difficulties they have had and they may need help to catch up.  A child who is one year behind in their school work will have to learn twice as much as other children to catch up by the end of the next year. This is more likely to happen if a child has specialised help targeted directly at the skills they need to develop.

Reading, reading comprehension, spelling and written language are all language based tasks.  A language assessment from a speech pathologist will tell about your child’s ability to understand and use words, sentences, grammar and concepts to communicate; as well as their ability to understand how sounds and letters work when reading and writing.  They can let you know how your child compares to others of the same age; what areas your child needs help in; and how they can get this extra help. Speech pathologists can also help with social skillssuch as understanding and expressing feelings, making friends and communicating with others in social settings.    

If your child has difficulties with handwriting tasks such as forming letter shapes, writing on the lines, writing quickly or neatly without getting tired; an occupational therapy assessment may be useful. OT’s can also help children who have trouble sitting still, keeping on task and concentrating.

If your child is struggling across all areas of learning an intellectual assessment from an educational psychologist can be a good place to start to pin point areas of difficulty and recommend strategies for home and school. Educational psychologists usually do an assessment and make recommendations but don’t usually provide regular ongoing support for a child’s learning; so do ask them to recommend a suitable professional who can do some regular sessions with your child to develop their skills.

If your child is having difficulties with behaviour a child psychologist can be of help to work with you and your child to manage these difficulties and can also provide strategies for school. They will also let you know if further assessment is needed in relation to underlying causes for behavioural issues.  

For more information on learning, literacy and language check our website talkingmatters.com.au  You can also download articles, information and activities at plus.talkingmatters.com.au on a range of topics about children.

www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk

Hello to 2011 and greater awareness of speech, language and communication

Happy New Year and welcome to Hello, the National Year of Communication!

Hello, the 2011 national year of communication, is a campaign to increase understanding of how important it is for children and young people to develop good communication skills. In the 21st century, the ability to communicate - to say what you want to say and to understand what other people are saying - is fundamental. Speech, language and communication underpins everything we do in life. Babbling babies do not become talkative toddlers by chance. Communication is a skill that we learn and develop and is something we can all improve.

But did you know that in the UK today over 1 million children and young people have some form of speech, language and communication need? This is at least 2 or 3 children in every classroom – and that’s the children we know about.

Difficulties with communicating can affect children and young people severely and for life. In areas of poverty, over 50% of children start school with delayed language skills. This puts them at a huge disadvantage to their peers as they struggle to learn and make friends.

Hello aims to make communication for all children and young people a priority in homes and schools across the UK so that they can live life to the full.

Small Talk Speech and Language Therapy are supporting the campaign by offering a series of free training sessions which follow the monthly themes hi-lighted by the campaign. I feel that this is a fantastic opportunity to hi-light the importance of speech, language and communication. We all know about dyslexia now which is a problem with written language but the incidence of spoken language difficulties is as high or worse. The general public, however are mainly unaware of the importance of spoken language or the crisis we are facing as skills decline. 

We at Small Talk have been extremely concerned about the problems for a while which led me to create a series of pre-school groups, Smart Talkers Pre-SchoolCommunication Groups which are run throughout Staffordshire and beyond. These are designed to help address the issues involved such as attention, listening, auditory memory, phonological awareness etc and better prepare children for the demands at school.

For more information about the hello Campaign http://www.hello.org.uk or to register your interest in a free information session, contact Small Talk on 0844 704 5888 or enquiries@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk

Related articles

• Imagine Your World in Silence (osocio.org)