Bad behaviour? no, just a lack of awareness and understanding of SLCN

Many of the children I work with get in trouble because they have language and social communication difficulties which impact simple, everyday interactions. This is just a typical one from last week:

A lovely young lady I met recently, Ruby aged 12 years, was very upset to receive a detention for something that had happened in school. The teacher was one she knew but was a maths teacher, who was covering a science lesson. 

This is what Mr Jones, the teacher reported and says happened in lesson:

He'd asked the class to be quiet, Ruby 'decided to continue talking'. He asked her if she understood what he'd said, and she said, 'Yes,' but carried on talking. He became cross and told her to 'be quiet.' She was shocked and said, 'But it was quiet working and if you wanted the class to be silent, you should have said.' Mr Jones felt that Ruby was being difficult and disrespectful for no reason.  He discussed this with her, but due to her response he felt he was unable to get anywhere and had no option but to give a detention for her poor attitude.

Teacher who was normally in maths covered science		Ruby dislikes change and hadn’t been prepared
Teacher asked the class to be quiet	Ruby carried on talking	Ruby has a literal interpretation of language, so he didn’t say ‘silent’
Teacher probably looked at Ruby and pulled a face to indicate he wasn’t pleased	Ruby carried on talking	She can’t read facial expressions and would not be able to interpret his intentions
He asked her if she had understood	She said, 'Yes.'	In her mind she had got the right interpretation
He said, ‘I meant silence!’	She said, 'you didn't say that!'	She has difficulty with word definition and is sure she knows, whereas she might be slightly off or way off She also cannot read inference
She said, ' You should have said that then.'		Ruby has little understanding of the rules of modifying language to teachers. She doesn’t know it's rude
Teacher thought she was being disrespectful	As she would be if she was of typical social understanding and /or pragmatic ability	She hasn't got the language or pragmatic skills to interpret the situation
	Ruby wouldn't let the subject drop	She has a clear fairness rule/sense of justice which she thinks the teacher was being unfair as she didn’t understand
Teacher discussed it	Ruby didn’t give the response he expected	She doesn’t understand as she thinks she didn’t do anything wrong
Teacher would be upset with her and may be was possibly feeling a bit under-confident as he was not teaching his subject		She can’t put herself in others shoes/see their point of view

 That's not the worst one I heard this week either!

We need so much more awareness about language and social communication difficulties, it's NOT just children with ASD!

Please support the campaign to save the Communication Trust as they are working hard to help schools understand more see more here

Staffordshire Early Years SLCN Conference

Come and join us for our first annual Staffordshire SLCN Conference

Sat 16th April
The Conference CentreJohn Taylor High school Dunstall Rd, Barton-under-Needwood, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire DE13 8AZ

Registration - 9.30am

Selective mutism:  the way forwards Libby Hill is a consultant speech and language therapist and one of the very few in the UK who is trained to work with children with selective Mutism. With 1 in 150 being diagnosed with the condition, we all need to know how to deal with it. Libby will discuss how to identify SM from reluctant talkers and practical ways to manage in your setting.

Behaviour is communication: Kathryn Stinton is a specialist early years teacher who has worked in mainstream and specialist settings for twenty years. Kathryn will look at the typical development of social skills and factors which can impact on this, as well as the role of the environment in promoting positive behaviour for both adults and children.  A range of practical strategies will be discussed.

The development of language for learning: a Blank solution Natasha Hallam is a speech and language therapist who works in mainstream and special schools settings. Natasha will look at the development of children’s language for  learning and give you practical ways to both assess the children’s levels and tailor your activities accordingly.

2 year olds not talking; how to measure what they can do Margaret Gomm and Georgina White are both speech and language therapists with a great deal of experience of working with younger children in children’s Centres and Nurseries. They will look at the common issue of 2 year olds who cannot talk. They will give you practical ways to record communication before words and tips for working with non-verbal children.

Closes - 3.30pm

Buffet lunch provided

FEES & PAYMENT £85 per delegate £65 early bird until 28th February 2016. 

Places are limited to 50 so please book early to avoid disappoinment.

Payment and booking is all managed online: BOOK HERE

For more information: Libby Hill Small Talk SLT Ltd 

office@smalltalk-ltd.co.uk www.private-speech-therapy.co.uk

'He doesn't need speech therapy he talks fine!' When speech and language therapy assessments are a problem solving exercise!

My job could never , ever become boring as I meet the most fascinating characters every day. The more complex cases I do, the more referrals of complex cases I get. Each one one is different with completely distinct profiles but there is a thread which runs through everyone: a communication difficulty is an enormous barrier for children and leads to awful consequences in many of the cases I have seen. I used this quote "The ability to communicate is central to all that we do, to who we are, how we learn and how we relate to others. Communication problems of any kind, however mild, will certainly lead to isolation, frustration and an inability to fully integrate into society. Children will have a harder time making friends and fitting into nursery or school" (Ross, Leeds Metropolitan University, 2007). I was berated for making the issue sound so series, yet it's so very true for so many children.I see children who are struggling every day yet no-one has thought to refer to speech and language therapy as they 'talk fine'. Its usually because they know someone else in the same boat who has recommended us to be honest.If you have a child who sees things in a black and white manner, is quite literal, has problems getting on with staff and other children, has melt-downs or is very anxious, please see a speech and language therapist who is used to working with complex children. We can assess their pragmatic/social use of language and their receptive processing along with their expressive language to provide a full picture.If we have a profile of their needs we can look at strategies which can help enormously. If we can explain their behaviour, its so much easier to understand it and therefore cope better. Behaviour is just the symptom, if we can address the cause, the symptoms will diminish or in some cases disappear altogether. Obviously there are other causes of behaviour problems but a language and communication issue cannot be ruled out for many children.