How the Areas of Speech, Language and Communication Skills Affect Areas of Development

Speech , language and communication are closely tied to other areas of development, this learning outcome requires you to understand and be able to explain links between speech and development and the likely impact of any difficulties that children may have in acquiring speech, communication and language.

Early identification of speech, language or communication delay is important for a child or young persons’ well-being. All practitioners have a responsibility to identify children’s needs and intervene with appropriate support as early as possible, to help children achieve the goals of ‘Every Child Matters’ and progress towards the Early Learning Goals. The importance of early language and communication skills for children’s later achievements is now well documented and the need to provide support for children at this early stage is so that they can achieve their full potential. This means recognising a child’s difficulty quickly:

The child’s response affects the way they will continue to communicate. When the child starts putting meaning to the words that is being said Semantics comes into play. This directs them to believe nurture is the dominant role in children’s language development.

Part of The Communication Trust is the Hello Campaign. This aimed to make children and young people's communication a priority in homes and schools across the country. The campaign had a special focus on championing the needs of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and their families. It's purpose is also to raise awareness of how important speech, language and communication is across the children’s workforce, allowing practitioners the best training and expertise to support all children’s communication needs.

Communication and speech development: this is learning to communicate with friends, family and all others.

The level of a child’s communication skills can have an effect on most areas of development. If a child is struggling with communication and language they

There may be a recognised syndrome or disorder that causes language difficulty for the child and is not able to communicate with others. The child may have a lack of stimulation and support to provide the rich language experience necessary to develop speech, language and communication skills. For example at school, the setting may not have an enabling environment to stimulate the child’s different interests necessary for acquiring language. The books, music, songs and so on may not stimulate and interest the child.

• An explanation of how levels of speech and language development vary between children entering early years provision and need to be taken into account during settling in and planning.

Speech, language and communication skills support the behavior area in child’s development because if we say negative things to a child then they will feel upset and worthless. Also if we use negative body language this can make a child feel worried or want to push the boundaries of what is/ isn’t acceptable. Children may say horrible things to another child (or adult) so we should try helping the child to see why it isn’t nice to say those things by asking them how they would feel if someone had said it to them instead. The way things are said to a child can make a big difference to how they react. For instance if you say to a child who is messing with a pencil “put that down” in an aggressive way, it could make the child scared, whereas

From this case study we understand it is important to act quickly to support children who have speech and language or communication needs, as language is crucial to learning and enables one to express thoughts in an organised way. Children with language delay may also find it harder to communicate and form relationships with others. They may become frustrated, leading to possible behaviour problems. Very young children in particular do not have the experience to recognise the reason for their

But “if there is a difficulty understanding what people say, difficulty speaking or forming sounds or words and using language in appropriate social contexts then this can affect a child’s behaviour and emotional development”. (Speech, Language Communication Action Plan 2011)

I have become appreciative and more receptive to the functions of language and how they are incorporated into the development of communication skills. Language register is also an important factor that contributes to a child developing soundly

Should the language competence of children from low-SES backgrounds be considered deficient or different? Evaluate the evidence for and against each claim.

When children experience early speech difficulties they tend to be at risk later on. By being susceptible to language skills early on allows the child (ren) to be more proficiency and react in a way that contributes to them being able to express themselves in a way that causes them to use a variety of different phonemes and at the same time mix and maneuver other language and literacy skills. Numerous studies have found that there is a strong link between language problems, reading and overall academic achievement (Konza, 2006, Snow Burns and Griffin, 1998, Justice and Ezell, 2000).

Language, talk, speech, and communication are four different but related topics. Language, is a structured system of signs sounds, gestures, or marks (symbols) that allow people to express ideas and feelings to others; talk is what we do every day; speech is one vehicle used to transmit language; and communication involves the exchange of meanings. Language is how we communicate and speech is one way in which we use language.