Recognising Communication Difficulties
My son has started school this year and is getting into trouble regularly. His class teachers are concerned about his behaviour and that he is not bonding well with his classmates. The SENCO at the school thinks he may have a problem with language, could this be connected with his bad behaviour and does that mean he has learning difficulties?
Communication is fundamental to every child as the ability to speak, listen and understand enables us to learn and interact with others. Impairment in learning language can cause children to find socialising and managing their behaviour very difficult. They can also find it hard to develop emotionally and are likely to struggle at school. Around 10% of children in England have Speech, Language or Communication Needs (SLCN) and 7% of these will have a Specific Language Impairment (SLI).
SLI is a developmental language difficulty where a child only has difficulty with their language. This means they do not have learning difficulties and their difficulty cannot be explained by other factors such as;
- a neurological difficulty
- a physical disability
- social/emotional factors
- a particular syndrome
- a global developmental delay
Some common features and markers of a SLI include:
- Impairment that affects all aspects of language including comprehension and expression.
- Being more prevalent in boys.
- Having a family history of speech and language problems or dyslexia.
- Being a late talker.
- A child with language that does not seem to be developing along a typical pattern of acquisition.
SLI is very difficult to diagnose, as there can be many reasons why a child could have language problems. For example, many children from more deprived areas or lower income families can start school with delayed language making them unprepared for the learning that takes place at school. This makes it hard for teachers to differentiate between those who have a language delay and those who have long-term needs or a SLI.
If a child with language difficulties is not given extra support they can easily fall behind at school and this can quickly affect their self-esteem causing bad behaviour and poor engagement in education. They are likely to feel extremely frustrated because they are unable to understand what their teacher wants or they may have lots of ideas but are unable to express them adequately. This frustration will often manifest in bad behaviour or isolating themselves.
