Coping with speech and language difficulties in mainstream school

Using pictures, symbols, written clues and prompts in the classroom can really help children with communication problems, as they’re a more lasting reminder than the fleeting auditory signals which make up spoken language.

Teachers might use visual reminders of things like ‘what we need to do to help us listen’ to focus children on what the teacher is saying.

A visual timetable of the sequence of activities that happen during the school day can also be of great help to children. You can use these at home, too, for things like their morning and evening routine.

Saying the child’s name and even lightly touching them on the arm can help focus their attention and cue them in to what the teacher is about to say.

For younger children, getting down to their level and making eye contact when you speak will also engage them.

Ask other parents for advice, too: they may have found a good way of securing their child’s attention at home, and it could be helpful to use the same strategies to help them thrive in the classroom.

Often, children with speech, language and communication needs don’t realise when they haven’t understood something the teacher has said.

Making the classroom ‘asking friendly’ can help. For example, children can be encouraged to repeat back what they’re meant to be doing to check they’ve understood.

With their teacher’s help, you can also explicitly teach your child simple words to explain if they haven’t understood something, such as ‘help,’ ‘I don’t know’ and ‘say it again.’

Some teachers ask children to use a thumbs up/thumbs down gesture as a quick way of seeing who has and hasn’t followed what they’ve just heard: a strategy you might want to try at home, too.

Being able to produce a piece of written work relies on more than just being able to write the letters and join them up on the page.

You can’t write a story unless you can tell a story, and some children need lots of practice to achieve this.

Reading out loud at home, helping them to think about the text, and asking questions like ‘why?’ and ‘how do you know?’ will help your child understand what they have heard and read, as well as showing them how to structure ideas into sentences.

The number of words children know is a hugely significant indicator of how well they will do at school, from Reception right through to the end of secondary school and beyond.

Some children start school with very few words, and they then struggle to learn new words. 

For example, if a child knows all the names of domestic animals when they start school, they’ll find it easier to learn and remember the names of more exotic wild and zoo animals.

Likewise, if they have lots of words for emotions in their vocabulary, they’ll find it easier to talk about how they feel and manage their friendships and relationships.

Help your child build vocabulary by reading lots at home, talking to them about what you’ve read or watched on TV, and naming unfamiliar objects that you see around the house or even out and about in the supermarket.

For some children, speech, language and communication are such a challenge that they need specialist help and support in order to cope with school.

Speech and language therapists have the specialist skills to assess and identify where a child is struggling, and to work with schools and parents to support them.

If you’re concerned about your child’s speech, language and communication, you can ask for a meeting with their teacher and the school’s special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) and request a referral to your local speech and language therapy service.

I CAN, the children’s communication charity, has produced a range of resources and services to support children and their families. Visit www.ican.org.uk for more information.