Speech, Language and Communication skills are vital for children to reach their full potential in life. Families and other caregivers are the most important people to help children to develop these skills and become confident communicators.

Children develop language at different rates. Understanding what typical development looks like can help parents, carers and early years practitioners with early identification and support. For more information regarding key milestones, see Ages and Stages (ican.org.uk)

Understanding Language - (receptive language) children learn to understand words, sentences and conversations. They need to be able to understand words before they can use them. With a good foundation of listening, attention and play skills, children will develop an understanding of language. Often young children can understand a lot more than they can say.

Talking - (expressive language) children learning how to talk, using words and then sentences to share their message and join in conversations. They start with single words and move on to join two words together, then three and four. Their sentences will become longer and more complex and they will begin to link their ideas and be able to retell events and form a narrative.

Speech Sounds - children develop their use of different speech sounds, so they can be understood by others. Some children continue to develop speech sounds up until the age of 7 years.

What might I see in children with communication and interaction difficulties?

Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) can affect children in many different ways.

What might I see in a child with receptive language difficulties?

• Attention and listening difficulties
• Challenging behaviour and frustration
• Difficulty following instructions
• Responding to questions by repeating what you say rather than giving an answer
• Finding it difficult to listen to stories
• Preferring their own agenda
• Poor confidence and lack of self-esteem 

What might I see in a child with expressive language difficulties?

• Limited vocabulary
• Confusing words with similar meanings
• Using sentence structures more appropriate for someone younger, for example, ‘me got them’ at four years of age
• Difficulty sequencing and organising story telling/retelling of events, e.g. information might be given in the wrong order, may miss out who, where or what happened
• Selective mutism SMIRA website
• Stammering stamma.org/

What might I see in a child with speech sound difficulties?

• Speech which is difficult to understand, which might include difficulty in making different sounds

• Difficulty with telling the difference between sounds
• Difficulty with the articulation (making) of sounds
• Difficulty combining sounds in words
• Difficulty saying longer words
• Difficulty with the rhythm, flow or ‘tune’ of speaking
• Frustration and low self esteem

What might I see in a child with social communication difficulties?

• Lack of shared attention including not responding to their name
• Limited pretend play

• Difficulties sharing and taking turns
• Lack of empathy/understanding feelings of others
• Difficulty sharing enjoyment with others e.g. laughing with their peers

• Difficulty following social rules and routines
• Limited non-verbal communication skills such as pointing, inappropriate body language or facial expression and eye contact
• Limited ability to initiate interaction with others e.g. showing things, sharing interest
• May have some language but struggle to use it appropriately e.g. repeated phrases, rote counting
• Difficulties forming and maintaining friendships

When would you move to SEN support for Communication and Interaction needs?

Where there is a lack of adequate progress despite identified and targeted differentiation.

As well as differing in kind, speech, language and communication difficulties may differ in severity. Some children may experience difficulties that can be managed through high quality teaching, while others with more significant difficulties may require group intervention with advice recommended by a Speech and Language Therapist.

Schools should seek to identify children making less than expected progress given their age and individuals circumstances.

This can be characterised by progress which:

• Is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline
• Fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress
• Fails to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers
• Widens the attainment gap

Every child with SLCN is different; they may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or communication at different times of their lives. The following video explores what we may look for in children with speech, language and communication needs.