SLC: Strategies

Receptive language is the ability to understand spoken language. Children and young people (CYP) with receptive language difficulties may have difficulty with:

• understanding the words and sentences people use
• remembering what people say
• following a series of directions
• understanding the questions people ask.

• Ensure you have the young person’s full attention before communicating with them. This can involve saying their name or cueing them in visually.
• Make sure verbal input is supported by the use of visuals to help facilitate the young person’s understanding. Visuals can include diagrams, pictures, objects, brief notes and even a teachers’ body language or facial expression. Visuals can also include the use of visual timetables and Now or Next boards to support routines. Other visual tools like Task Planners can help students to develop independence in their work as they help break instructions into short steps in a systematic and motivating way.
• Staff should reduce and simplify language for young people with SLC needs. This includes using vocabulary at the level the young person is working at and explaining any more complex words.
• Staff should consider the length of their explanations and instructions. Provide frequent summaries of information and give instructions in short steps, one at a time.
• Consider how many information-carrying words (ICW) a CYP can manage when giving instructions or communicating.
• Teach vocabulary robustly by exploring key words using word mapping strategies ( e.g. exploring the sounds and meaning of words). Give students lots of opportunities to encounter these words in different contexts, help them to practise using the words and revisit the words multiple times to support long term learning.
• Reduce distractions by providing a quiet, low-stimulation area to support speaking and listening skills.
• Use topic-related role-play opportunities to reinforce and model language.
• Teach the CYP to show e.g., with an agreed sign or tell you when they have not understood what is being said to them. Positive praise to support.
• Always check that the CYP’s hearing has been tested.

Expressive language is the ability to put thoughts into words and sentences in a grammatically correct and coherent form. CYP with expressive language problems may have difficulty with:

• making their ideas and needs known
• telling a story or explaining ideas
• finding the words they want to use
• making sense to listeners.

• Give the children and young people plenty of opportunities to practice talking in the classroom e.g. group work, think pair share, talking with teacher or TA.
• Give young people extra time to think and formulate their responses to any questions asked. It helps to use the ‘10 second rule’ where an adult counts silently to 10 after asking a question. If at the end of this time the young person does not respond, try once more using the same words and then following this if the child is still struggling, rephrase in simpler language.
• Model the correct language back to the student when mistakes are made by repeating back the correct form in a natural way. For example, student; ‘they is going science next’, model; ‘oh they are going to science next.’
• Expand on what the child has said; ‘a flower’. Adult ‘yes a beautiful, yellow flower’
• Give students frames for talking and writing tasks to help them to structure and sequence their responses. These can include narrative frames that can help map out stories or sequencing charts including key words like ‘first…next’.
• Ask open questions to encourage a greater range of response.
• Provide word banks around key topics.
• Support word finding difficulties by teaching students a wide range of words robustly. This can include exploring the meaning and sounds within words using word mapping strategies.
• Give young people time to ‘find’ words and cue them in by asking them carefully chosen questions like ‘what sound does it begin with?’ ‘Where might you find it?’ ‘Can you think of a similar word?’
• Provide sentence starters.
• Use a range of ways of recording so that learning is not limited by the pupil’s ability to write full English sentences.

Speech is the ability to coordinate the mouth to produce the sounds to make words. Students with speech difficulties can have problems with:

• articulation
• saying multisyllabic or complex words accurately
• simplifying words
• with intelligibility in connected speech.

• Do not pretend to understand the young person. Ask them to repeat themselves using different words.
• Confirm you have understood what has been said by repeating some of the information back e.g. so you are going on a trip on Friday?
• Make sure they can see how you speak. Face them and speak clearly.
• Reduce background noise so you can hear the young person clearly.
• Encourage the young person to slow down if their speech is becoming too fast.
• Make sure you liaise with the Speech Therapist and find out if there is a programme of work that can be supported and reinforced in school.

Ensure staff are trained to understand the different forms stammering can take. These are the most typical features:

• Repetition of whole words e.g., “and, and, and then I left”.
• Repetition of single sounds e.g., “c-c-come h-h-here”.
• Prolonging of sounds e.g., “sssssssometimes I go out”.
• Blocking of sounds, where the mouth is in position, but no sound comes out.
• Facial tension - in the muscles around the eyes, nose, lips, or neck.
• Extra body movements e.g., stamping feet, tapping fingers.
• The breathing pattern may be disrupted e.g., the child may hold his breath while speaking or take an exaggerated breath before speaking.

• Provide a learning environment which is inclusive, calm and promotes understanding, where adults and children respond positively to the CYP with a stammer.
• Adults and staff should be flexible with expectations for oral tasks. Find alternative methods for everyday routines, e.g., replace expectation to answer the register with an agreed gesture or sign.
• Reduce time pressures to speak quickly, to avoid increasing tension and anxiety for the CYP. Continue to actively listen to the CYP, remain interested and focused on them and give them time to finish speaking.
• Create opportunities for the CYP to speak about topics that interest them. This could be as simple as a voluntary ‘show and tell’ or sharing their interests with a friend in a lesson. Be creative.
• Do not finish the CYP’s words or sentences for them. Do not tell the CYP to hurry up, slow down, take a deep breath, or put them ‘on the spot.’
• Raise awareness amongst all staff of the CYP’s SLC needs. Including office staff, mid-day supervisors, transport (bus/taxi), and site staff.
• Use visuals to support word-finding difficulties and communication, E.g., ICT, communication books and boards. For actual examples also see the ICT section when ready
• Provide opportunities for singing (as stammer is often not present when singing).