How do I know if my child needs speech therapy?

As parents, its very hard not to compare your child’s abilities with other children of similar ages. While children all develop at different paces and in different ways, there are certain milestones that help parents in deciding whether their child is more-or-less on track.

Talking Point, a service funded by The Communication Trust, has some easy to read handouts which set out important communication skills that you can expect to see at different ages (http://www.talkingpoint.org.uk/directory/free-resources-parents). This is a useful starting point for considering your child’s development more objectively.

The term ‘speech and language difficulty’ covers a whole range of problems including:

• Difficulty listening
• Difficulty attending to spoken information
• Difficulty understanding what others say
• Difficulty learning and using new words
• Difficulty constructing sentences
• Unclear speech
• Difficulty getting words out
• Stammering
• A strained, hoarse or whispery voice
• Difficulty following conversations
• Difficulty with the social parts of conversation, like using or understanding body language or facial expressions

If you have any doubts about your child’s speech or language you should speak with your GP or health visitor and request a referral for a speech and language therapy assessment.

Speech and language therapists are professionals who work with people of all ages on all aspects of communication. A referral to a speech therapist would result in an initial assessment session. You can expect the therapist to take a thorough case history to understand all of the potential factors which might influence speech and language. In addition, he or she would probably do a formal or informal assessment. Informal assessments include observing the child’s communication during play and conversation. They will look at how the child interacts with others. Formal assessment can include a range of tasks, depending on the nature of the difficulty, but can include tasks such as naming objects of describing pictures; or following longer instructions.

If you are concerned about your child’s speech, here are a number of websites to find help
http://www.rcslt.org/Finding_an_SLT

http://www.afasic.org.uk/

Measuring progress: why this is important for measuring change for children who learn differently

Measuring progress is something educators and clinicians have always done. The challenge in 2015 is no different to what its been in the past – how do we measure progress for kids who learn in different ways?

Back in 1995 Lam explained that assessment is unfair if students are not provided an opportunity to demonstrate what they know. Therefore, students who could not demonstrate what they knew were limited in their education opportunities because of the information derived from biased assessments.  So, while some may argue that equality means all students are tested in the same way – the results will be influenced by characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, linguistic background, socio-economic status and disability.

When assessment or evaluation is seen as part of the teaching process, we can more easily adjust the assessment to suit the individual. A portfolio style approach of gathering evidence for skills, progression and for setting goals is often a viable process for students who learn in different ways. This is why, in working in special education, this approach is often popular.

The rise in the use of apps in the special needs classroom is indeed no different than the use of apps in mainstream classrooms. In the Colorcards app range, the designers have drawn on the feedback and expertise of teachers and speech pathologists on how best to track and share progress for students using the apps.

Each of the 5 Colorcards apps (https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/colorcards/id927367010) has a consistent reporting feature running through. The apps collect data on the student’s accuracy; time spent on tasks and also reports on the difficulty levels and shows the activity stimulus.

In addition, the apps allow the review and storage or sharing of the associated spoken comments recorded of the student during the tasks. This really allows for more qualitative evaluation and, indeed, for self-evaluation.

The apps allow the teacher, clinician or parent to customize the content. It is this feature, which in my mind, really opens the apps up to being truly a tool for fairly measuring progress. Being able to customize the images to suit the child means that the level playing field enables a clearer picture of that child’s skills and abilities.  By uploading or taking photos to use in the app of culturally, linguistically and contextual images – the child has a fairer way of being able to demonstrate their own abilities.  Imagine having to name objects in “Everyday Objects” (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/everyday-objects/id927879754?mt=8), which were culturally unfamiliar. Just thinking about the concept of “lunch” and the numerous ways this would be presented in different cultures, is a good example. For me, lunch, may be represented by a ham and cheese sandwich, but for others from different backgrounds, it may be a Japanese style bento box, or an Indian tiffin box.  Being able to adjust the content in the app allows for teachers and therapists to more flexibly create assessment and therapy activities.

The apps cleverly allow teachers or therapists to also track progress for numerous students on his/her caseload or classroom list. This means that quickly and easily content can be created for a student; personalized and used; but that also the teacher or therapist can review progress for individual students, groups or an entire classroom/caseload.

Because the reports can be exported, they can also be shared. This is great for including in learning portfolios or evidencing in progress reports.