speech therapy query: social comms

[madsadlibrarian]

I was wondering if anyone knows about the assessment of social communication by a speech therapist - I'd be interested in any information about it, but in particular - is this something speech therapists do in the normal course of their work?
the reason i ask is that the SALT at my son's school has been asked twice to assess his social communication skills - and has twice refused for various reasons (not needed etc)
However his paed has now spoken to her boss and insisted it be done-but now I am getting paranoid and wondering just why she refused - could it be that she simply doesn't know what she needs to do ??-if this isn't something that they do every day -perhaps she has no idea what this involves-hence excuses thus far ???
any ideas gratefully received...

Hmm. In theory I would have said yes, but bearing in mind how DS's first SALT seemed to struggle with his receptive language problems (she wasn't used to the "joint clinic cases"!) you do sometimes have to wonder....

When SALT has looked at his social communication, it's been as part of the normal appointment - paying attention to things like saying hello/goodbye and being able to initiate a "conversation" appropriately. For an older more verbal child I imagine they would look in a bit more detail than that though!

Sounds mad to me.
For a start, what the bloody hell is communication but social.
(I'm a SALT btw)

It's not even hard-a simple checklist like The Pragmatics Profile can be completed in 30 mins.

Is it the school saying assessment is not needed or the SALT refusing to assess?

SALT in consultation with school says he doesn't have language issues. However paed believes he could have a social language disorder, so has asked for assessment to be done.

Thanks v.v. much by the way for tip about Pragmatics profile...I'm going to google that straight away. Interesting also Moondog that you point out that all comms are social - so SALT could be right - if his vocab, speech etc are generally ok, then social should be too. Also v. reassuring to know it is relatively standard thing to look for - so I shouldn't have anything to worry about in terms of her doing it "properly". It sounds as though she is having arm twisted to do assessment now, so she'll be able to say 'told you so' in big letters in her report if she is proved right that there is nothing to worry about!

School said the same about my son, luckily I have known the SALT for a while via another SLCN with another of my children so she assessed him at school anyway.

Generally, SALTs and schools know more about communication than paediatricians.For that reason, interesting that paed. chasing this up.Most seem to think SALTs help people to speak nicely.

All ocmmunication is by definition, social, but obviously some can be purely functional as TC describes.

In early communication, useful to think of language being used broadly for requesting (functional) and commenting (social).

Thus a single word utternace such as 'Aeroplane!' can mean 'I want that plane on the shelf, there' or 'Wow,Mum, look, an aeroplane! It's so intersting that i want to share this revelation with you.'

Madsad,please don't take me literally.I just mention Prgmatics Profile as a nexample of an assessment that looks beyond the functional stuff.What your salt uses is up to her.

Just find it really weird that you are being told social ocmmunication isn't being investigated.Are you sure you have the whole story?

My children's school don't seem to have a clue about communication in my experience. My 4 year old has been reading since 2 but only started putting 2 words together when he was 3. At school he is on the Gifted and Talented as he is a fluent reader. When asked a question in class he often says "I don't know". When other children are sent to the toilet he follows them or goes to get his coat as he must think it is play time. He doesn't play with other children but will run about outside sometimes shouting out things as he does so. He repeats what others say and what he himself says. Everyone is a He whatever their sex when he refers to them. 2 way conversations go from being poor to nil or are computers based. He is literal and can go from referring to a window on the car to talking about windows in computer terms. Even shutting a door can be "shutting a door down".
He is a lot quieter at school than at home and if spoken to at school he walks off or runs off.
Although he can read fluently he couldn't tell you why "floppy was running" in a picture for example.
However despite all this school told my SALT that my son was fine and that they didn't need to assess him.

You are right Moondog,a lot of the problem is they are dealing with a "special needs parent!"- I certainly wouldn't dream of telling SALT what she should do-which is why I'm posting on here rather than asking her, which would be the more honest thing to do, but I am afraid looking stupid or accusing her of not knowing her job. Well I have asked but felt as though I was being fobbed off. But that was probably because I didn't understand the answer - your post have been a huge help with understanding where she is coming from.

Well looks as though she is going to have to document something now, even if it all proves to be a big waste of time. which obviously I kind of hope it will be as I guess "social communication difficulty" is pointing in direction of aspergers or similar.

anway can't thank you enough as i was getting a bit het up about it all.

Hope you get some answers madsadlibrarian soon.