Speech, Language and Communication Provision

Speech, language and communication skills underpin everything we do – making our needs known, expressing our likes and dislikes, interacting with others and building relationships.  They are crucial for reading, learning in school, for socialising and making friends, and for understanding and controlling emotions or feelings.

We may take these skills for granted, but many students struggle to communicate, and they have speech, language and communication needs or SLCN.

A student with speech, language and communication needs might:

• have speech that is difficult to understand
• struggle to say words or sentences
• not understand words that are being used, or the instructions they hear
• have difficulties knowing how to talk and listen to others in a conversation

SLCN is often called a ‘hidden difficulty’. Many students with SLCN look just like other pupils, and can be just as clever. This means that instead of communication difficulties people may see students struggling to learn to read, showing poor behaviour, having difficulties learning or socialising with others. Some students may become withdrawn or isolated. Their needs are often misinterpreted, misdiagnosed or missed altogether. 

The SEN code of practice says that: “The profile for every child with SLCN is different and their needs may change over time.  They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives.”

At St Anselm’s the support we can provide includes focussed TA support and a variety of targeted provision including:

• Language for Learning Programme
• Active Listening Programme
• SpeechLink
• Talkfitness Programme
• Language through Colour Scheme

Our staff regularly undergoes training to keep their skill-set fresh, and we seek advice from the NHS Speech Therapy team where necessary to ensure our provision is having the desired impact.