Information for parents about Speech and Language Therapy assessment and intervention
Understanding Language
Also called receptive language. This is about how a child understands words, follows instructions, answers questions, understands stories and events, makes inferences and predictions.
If children have difficulties with their understanding, this can impact their attention and listening and wider language development.
A child who has difficulties with their understanding may:
- Appear not to be listening
- Misunderstand information, resulting in them doing the wrong thing or the opposite to what they are told
- Have reduced confidence
- Have difficulties with friendships or their learning in school
- Have difficulties following playground games, resolving conflicts with peers, keeping up with conversations.
You can help your child to understand instructions at home by using the following strategies:
- Speak clearly, using shorter instructions with simple language
- Get down to your child's level to make it easier for them to see you as you as you are speaking to them. It also shows your child that you are interested and helps them to listen to you.
I am skilled in delivering a number of interventions to support the development of understanding of language.
Spoken Language
Also called expressive language. This refers to the words that the child uses, not their speech sounds.. Children who have difficulty with their spoken language may have difficulties thinking of the words to say, joining words together, putting sentences together, with grammar, telling stories, re-telling events and experiences. They may have difficulties communicating what they want, need and how they are feeling.
If children have difficulties with their expressive language, this can impact their attention and listening, wider language development and even their interactions with others.
A child who has difficulties with their spoken language may:
- Mix up words, struggle to think of the right word, use words like "it" "thing".
- Say they know or can see the word but cannot remember what it is called
- Find it difficult to explain what they have done or where they have been
- Have reduced confidence
- Have difficulties with friendships
- Have difficulties with lessons in school requiring expressive language
- Withdraw from conversations
You can help your child to develop their expressive language at home by:
- Modelling words and sentences back to them, using the correct vocabulary and grammar
- Reducing questions and instead commenting on what your child can see and hear.
I am skilled in delivering a number of evidence based interventions to support the development of expressive language skills, including narrative intervention, Makaton, word aware, colourful semantics, building early sentences therapy,
Speech Sounds
This refers to the way in which your child says the sounds in words. We use our tongue, teeth, lips and other parts of our mouth to create different sounds. Speech sounds are not the same as letters in the alphabet. For example the word "speech" has 6 letters but only 3 sounds "sp" "ee" "ch".
By 5 or 6 years old, nearly all words should be clear and easy to understand. Families are often the best at understanding their child's speech, as they are with them most of the time!
It is very common at certain ages for a child to struggle with particular sounds. Some sounds like 'r' and 'th' develop much later. In most cases, as children grow older, they learn to make new sounds without any help. However in some cases children require some extra help from a Speech and Language Therapist.
Most of the time, the cause of speech sound difficulties is unclear.
You can help your child with their speech sounds at home by:
- Not asking them to say words/sounds again, instead model them back how they should be said, so your child can hear the correct sounds. Asking them to say words/sounds again that are tricky can impact their confidence significantly as it raises their awareness of their difficulties.
- If you struggle to understand, repeat back to the point you understood and then stop. Your child should hopefully finish the sentence and because they have less to say this may make it easier to understand. Also encourage them to show you what they would like if possible.
I have experience carrying out a number of speech sound interventions with children with mild to moderate to severe speech sound delays and disorders.
Social Communication and Interaction/Pragmatics
Many people do not realise that speech and language therapists see children with social communication and interaction differences. There is a lot that Speech and Language Therapists can support with, which can make a significant difference to a child's social and emotional mental health.
Social communication and interaction, as well as pragmatics refers to the ways in which we use language including non-verbal communication to exchange information, ideas, and emotions within a social context. It looks into how we change what we say depending on who we are speaking to, taking turns in conversation, body language, facial expression, eye contact, understanding emotions. It looks at understanding non literal language such as idioms, sarcasm, jokes.
Some children are not ready to use language yet to communicate their needs and this is ok. A lot of what we say does not include words, non verbal communication is a significant part of letting others know how we feel and what we need. At VM speech and language therapy I will work with you to support your child to develop a way to communicate their needs with the most important people in their lives.
Although a child may be able to speak in complex sentences, they may not always understand how to use language and communication effectively. This can result in them:
- Saying things that are unrelated to the topic
- Having difficulties initiating, maintaining and ending a conversation
- Limited understanding and use of facial expressions
- Understand language in a literal way
- Reading something but have difficulties understanding what it means "under the surface", including interpreting others intentions and feelings.
- Having difficulties adjusting their language depending on who they are speaking to
- Having difficulties with friendships
- Finding it challenging to understand others perspectives
- Struggle with tasks that require them to problem solve, inference and predict
I have experience in supporting children and young people with social communication and interaction differences. I am skilled in equipping children with techniques and strategies to enable them to engage with the world around them, supporting them to develop essential self-advocacy skills whilst also recognising their own many strengths.
I have significant experience in supporting children who are not yet using verbal language.
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
Many difficulties with language resolve over time however some children have persistent language difficulties beyond 5 years of age. This could be DLD.
DLD is a diagnosis given by a speech and language therapist to people who have life long difficulties with talking and understanding words. DLD is a neurodevelopmental condition and this term is used when the language disorder is not due to another known condition. There is no known cause for DLD. There is lots of support and intervention which has an excellent evidence base for children with DLD.
Children with DLD may have difficulties putting their thoughts into sentences, telling stories, with grammar, learning and retaining new vocabulary, following instructions, remembering information.
I have experience assessing, diagnosing and providing intervention for DLD, including contributing to EHC outcomes.
Email/Phone number
info@vm-slt.co.uk
07364201586
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