#SpeakUpSalford

Staff
& Professionals

How to help young people with Receptive Language Difficulties

 

Losing attention when being given verbal information

Useful strategies: 

  • Ensure that the pupil is attending to you before speaking to him.  Use verbal/physical prompts, such as saying name, touching arm etc.
  • Give an overview or context for the day’s lesson.

 

Not following instructions correctly

Useful strategies:

If there is a sequence of instructions to follow:-

  • pause between each one to allow time to process the information;
  • emphasise key words;
  • give instructions in the order they should happen.
 

Not understanding longer pieces of spoken information, such as a story/ factual information about a topic

Useful strategies: 

  • Be aware of the complexity of the language you are using with the pupil.  You may need to simplify the language and break down the amount of information given.
  • Provide simple written information or key points to reinforce spoken information (being aware of pupil’s literacy level).
  • Use a multi-sensory approach with the whole class i.e. visual information, pictures, objects and real life experiences to reinforce information the pupil has to listen to.
  • Encourage the pupil to tell you when he does not understand.

 

May misinterpret an explanation, instruction or question due to unfamiliar words i.e. vocabulary/ The pupil may have gaps in his vocabulary

Useful strategies:

  • Use simple vocabulary when speaking with pupil.
  • Avoid technical words and jargon – try and replace them with a simpler word that the pupil will understand.  If technical words do need to be used, explain what they mean e.g.  terms such as ‘contrast, compare, explain’.
  • Pre-tutor vocabulary in 1-1 or small groups if at all possible.
  • Display key vocabulary  in the classroom

 

Difficulty responding to non-literal language e.g. sarcasm, idioms, such as ‘pull your finger out!’, ‘put a sock in it’ etc.  Pupil may look ‘blank’ or take the information literally

Useful strategies:

  • Avoid using sarcasm, metaphors and idioms because these styles can be difficult for some pupils to understand.
  • If you do use them explain the meanings.

 

Difficulty understanding and answering questions, such as ‘Why? How? If?’ type questions

Useful strategies:

 

  • Re-word questions if the language is too complex for the pupil to understand e.g ‘look at his facial expression.  How do you think he is feeling?’    

 

Difficulty understanding written information

Useful Strategies:

  • Use questions, such as ‘who, where, when, what happened’ to form a visual structure to encourage the understanding of information and text.
  • Discuss the information together verbally.

 

 

 

Further information can be found in Secondary Language Builders - Advice and activities to encourage the communication skills of 11-16 year olds available from www.elklan.co.uk.

NEWS/ EVENTS

Examples of What We Offer

Early Years

Our Early Years team follow the Greater Manchester Early Years Delivery Model (EYDM). They work in close partnership with health, local authority and social care colleagues to support early identification of speech, language and communication needs to ensure the right support at the right time for children, parents/ carers and settings.

School and Post 16

We work within with settings to identify and support communication needs. This could through training staff, modelling and coaching, whole class/ small group input and 1:1 interventions. There is a wide virtual training offer available for Salford schools. Please speak to the school/ college Link Speech and Language Therapist if you have any questions. 

 

 Enhanced Services

The Enhanced Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Service allows settings to buy-in additional support. This is bespoke to each setting and might involve universal, targeted and specialist input and training. For further information, please contact  salttraining@nca.nhs.uk

 

I would also like to say that I am very impressed with the work Speech and Language Therapist is doing in school as well as the professional way she deals with my parents and her helpful advise to my staff. I believe credit where credit is due.

School staff

I have found working with the speech therapist very beneficial. She helps me to set achievable goals for the children by coming into the nursery and interacting with the children and getting to know them. She talks to us on a regular basis and updates us on what targets she would like the children to achieve next. She teaches us new strategies to use with the children which we find really useful, we try to incorporate this into everyday activities. Parent’s often comment on how much they appreciate the advice from our therapist. They also comment on how much progress their children have made since visiting her. We don’t know what we would do without her!

Anneka Williamson, Children’s Centre Practitioner

My child absolutely LOVES coming to see you, you are so good with him. We are extremely grateful for all of your care and support. He is counting down the days until we can come again.

Parent

I just wanted to send a quick email to say thank you for the training you delivered for us this afternoon, it was so useful and informative. It was great to have further training that was bespoke to Early Years and built on what we had done in the whole school training. We're excited to start implementing it for our children.

Early Years Teacher

EPs and SALT frequently work together during Multi agency meetings to clarify individual concerns and strengths. We develop joint objectives, that are regularly reviewed and evaluated to improve outcomes for children and young people. Parents and teachers comment that this work is effective and helps to increase their understanding and knowledge. Jointly we increase schools capacity, through conversations and training, to meet the needs of their pupils.

Joanne Snee- Educational Psychologist

I am new to the role and I have found all members of the team extremely helpful and have gone out of their way to support me.

School SENCo

This is great and I am so appreciative of your support. We have nothing but fantastic things to say about the Salford SALT team and the support that you have given to both of our children.

Parent