The term speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) describes difficulties across one or many aspects of communication including:

• problems with producing speech sounds accurately,
• stammering,
• voice problems, such as hoarseness and loss of voice,
• problems understanding language (making sense of what people say),
• problems using language (words and sentences) ,
• problems interacting with others, for example, difficulties understanding the non-verbal rules of good communication or using language in different ways to question, clarify or describe things.  Some children with communication needs may benefit from social stories to help them understand and make sense of situations. Social stories can be used for this. We have included a social story about coronavirus for you.

All children who are seen by a speech and language therapist have been set a programme by the therapist.

• If your child has been seen by the local authority therapist, you will have been sent that programme in the post. The programme informs you about your child’s targets and have ideas how you can help with them, they often include some game and activity sheets.
• Some of the programmes refer to makaton, colourful semantics or cued articulation:

Cued Articulation In school we encourage many of our children to use the cued articulation method to help with speech sounds. You can find out more by looking at our videos below

Colourful Semantics In school we encourage many of our children to use the colourful semantics method to help with speaking in sentences . You can find out more by looking at our videos below

Makaton Some children need to use whole word signing to aid their communication, the system we use in school is Makaton. Makaton uses simple symbols for children to point to as well as signs that are used alongside spoken language.You can find out more by visiting https://www.makaton.org/aboutMakaton/  .  They have some free downloads.

The BBC’ Something Special website is also a useful source for Makaton and children generally love the programmes.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/something-special