Children with speech and language difficulties

[postmanpatscat]

I'm a MN regular and also a SENCo and primary teacher. I'm studying for an MA in Special and Inclusive Education at present and considering dissertation topics. In my experience, children with speech and language difficulties find it difficult to learn to read. This is not a statement I can support scientifically, it is just my experience that most of the pupils in my school who are significantly behind in their literacy skills also have significant speech and language difficulties eg a stammer or problems with speech sounds.

I'd be grateful to hear from anyone with a child with Sp&L difficulties who can support or reject my theory that the two are related, thank you!

The problem with your theory is that it groups together a big spectrum of conditions as 'speech and language difficulties'. Do you mean speech difficulties? Language difficulties? Expressive or receptive? Just stutter and stammer? 'Only' problems with isolated sounds? Processing difficulties? Etc. Etc. Some of these will definitely impact on reading and literacy, others will have a lesser/no impact. That is without going into the reasons for these difficulties which will themselves have an impact.

If you are a regular, you may also be aware that this is a support board and folk are a sensitive about not being seen as a resource for student projects.

Good luck with you MA.

Have you read:

1. "Dyslexia, Speech and Language" By Snowling and Stackhouse

2."Children's Speech and Literacy Difficulties" By Stackhouse and Wells

1. "Structure of Language Spoken and Written Language" By Townend and Walker

1. Speech and Language Difficulties in the Classroom" by Martin and Miller

There are probably some more recent books - try Whurr Publishers or David Fulton Publishers. It is most likely the children with auditory processing type language disorders, who have dyslexia but like all these SEN, children can have any combination of these co morbid conditions IMO?

That is a pretty simplistic conclusion. Children s&l problems might struggle with reading but often they have a list of other issues as well which might related (learning difficulties,processing issues etc).

I would expect a Senco & primary school teacher & somebody studying for an MA in specual Ed to have a far better understanding than 'kids who struggle with speech nd language have difficulties learning to read'

Go and visit schools who have succeeded in enabling children with S&L difficulties to achieve in the classroom. Find out what they are doing right.
How are they adapting and accommodating the needs of the individual within their teaching strategies?

Interesting dissertation, but you acknowledge that it is your personal experience without saying how much experience that actually is.

Is mrz still posting on MN?
She'd be a useful person to ask that question of.

I assume you've posted on the TES forums in the SN section?

I'd also ask to visit some primary and secondary language units; and the specialist schools for severe speech and language disorders - such as Moorhouse, Dawn House, St Marys, Blossom House, Meath, Alderwasley....

My Ds is 9, nearly 10. He has a diagnosis if a speech and language disorder. He had no trouble learning to read, he also learnt to speak German ( we are not in the Uk anymore).
His spelling age is 7. His reading age is at the start of his grade level. In my opinion he was quicker to learn to read than his brother who has no apparent speech/ language issues.
I have heard that phonics learning does not work for children with speech and language problems as that is not the way that they learn.

My son has salt issues. He has problems processing what he hears. It affects everything. He is not deaf in any way. For example, he struggles understanding the difference between 13 &. 30. If he tried to sound out "tractor" he would write "chator". Speech and language is at the basis of ALL his learning. He is nine and attends a specialist school.

My ds is 7 and has autism. He has been reading words since he was 2. His speech is very delayed and disordered. His Understanding of language is severely delayed. He can speak in phrases and short sentences. He can read things without any understanding. But he can recite whole books word for word. His reading age was ahead of chronological age until age 7 and is now starting to fall behind because the books he can understand are well below his reading age. Until age 7 he read mostly from whole word memory - his memory is amazing. He learnt to decode words using phonics at age 6-7 and really only then because the govt phonics test forced us down that route at that point.
I have been assured by primary school teachers he couldn't read when he could. I have been assured by primary school teachers he could decode words when he couldn't. I have been assured by primary school teachers he would never learn to decode words and they were going to give up teaching him phonic decoding when we had worked on it for a year and he had made masses of progress and was almost there. At that point I gave up on that primary school and moved him to another where he promptly passed the phonics test easily - turns out he just needed a bit more time. His most recent report says he rarely encounters a word he can't decipher. His literacy is 2 levels below age expectations. He sounds like a toddler.
I think you need to define what you mean by s&l difficulties much more clearly and also what you mean by reading / literacy as many children are hyperlexic and can read amazingly but with little / no understanding.
It's a far more complex picture.

My little girl has Downs Syndrome and Autism and associated speech and language issues. She is now 8 and I have been working with her at home and have found a system that helps her to recognise words and it works wonders for her. She is still not putting a sentence together but has a wide vocabulary and can recognise over 300 words. I think it's up to us parents and teachers to push the children and don't assume that they cannot learn.

I know and its thanks to your app recommendations my ds learnt 2 years of maths in 6 weeks when old useless school were telling me he was incapable of learning . He now knows his times tables up to 30 (thanks YouTube ) but still struggles with simple maths word problems.

Actually it's strange but my dad who has severe speech and language difficulties and is autistic has made brilliant progress learning whole words. She is very visually motivated and has therefore been able to learn to read using this method whilst she can not get anything from phonics. I think that we have very little knowledge about what works with these children and so tend to assume they can't do it. I think we need to be more flexible and willing to try new things or in my dd case old things that suit the child.

Both my girls have s&l difficulties. One is a brilliant decoder and crap comprehender. The other is the exact opposite. S&L difficulties is too broad a church for this to be scientifically meaningful.