Know Your Rights

If your child needs support to understand, listen and talk or communicate with others, it is important to have a good understanding of your child’s needs and find out about:

• what support services are available
• what you can expect at each stage
• your legal rights

If your child’s needs with talking and understanding affect their learning to the extent that additional support is required in school, they may have special educational needs.  There are a number of publications, most free to download, that you may find helpful.  This set of 12 free factsheets explains the changes and how they affect parents and children.

About Ongoing SLCN

Many young children are slow to start talking and/or speak clearly. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they have a serious difficulty. Most children will catch up spontaneously with the help of their families. Others will do so after a few speech and language therapy sessions. As a result, most children by the time they are 4 or 5 are talking and understanding language quite well.

However, a minority of children are at risk of developing more severe forms of SLCN and it is worth knowing the warning signs. If any of them apply to your child it is advisable to consult a speech and language therapist and/or developmental paediatrician, as soon as you can.

Warning Signs

• Not understanding members of the family
• You can’t understand what your child says
• A family history of SLCN
• Being a boy! SLCN is much more common in boys. However, the relatively rare cases in girls can be particularly severe.

 

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

The term SEN is used for children who need more or different help at nursery or school. This is likely to include children with ongoing SLCN. There are two levels of help for children with SEN:

SEN Support: This means that the school or nursery provides extra help from their own resources. For example, a TA (Teaching Assistant) might help a child with SLCN to learn the meaning of new words and/or how to write a story. In a nursery, staff might use play activities to learn and practise new words.

EHCP: EHCP stands for an Education, Health and Care Plan. EHCPs are issued by local authorities for children who need more or different help than ordinary schools or nurseries can generally provide. For example, the EHCP might stipulate that a child should see a speech and language therapist weekly. EHCPs are legal documents and most of the children Afasic supports require an EHCP to access the help they need.

These publications can help:

Accessing Speech and Language Therapy for your Child – A Guide to the Law

Essential Factsheets About SEN

The Afasic Helpline can help with questions about SEN and accessing speech and language therapy: The Afasic Helpline – Afasic

N.B Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own systems to support children who need extra help

 

Finding A School

“All schools must use their best endeavours to make sure that a child with special educational needs get the support they need – this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people’s special educational needs”. Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014

Having said that, some schools are more ‘communication friendly’ than others. If you have a choice of schools, you should visit them and ask questions about how they would support your child.

Questions to Ask

• Who is the school’s Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO)?
• What provision does the school make for children with speech, language and communication needs and /or special educational needs?
• How does the school develop its teaching and adapt the curriculum for children with special educational needs?
• How will school staff know if my child is making progress towards his/her targets?
• How does the school ensure a successful transition between stages and schools?
• What training do the Teachers and TAs have in SLCN? If it’s not a lot, ask whether the school would arrange more training before your child is due to start school.
• Ask how the school approach working with external professionals such as SLTs or an EP?
• The SEND Code of Practice states that schools should work with parents to draw up regular targets for children with SEN. Ask how the school arranges this and how you can be involved
• Maintaining communication: this is important for both schools and families. Ask if the school would provide a home/school book or use some other method to provide information about your child’s progress and activities at home.

Afasic’s leaflet School Visits: Questions to Ask contains more guidance on visiting potential schools : (add here please)

N.B. If your child has an EHCP or is undergoing an EHC Needs Assessment, they may qualify for a specialist speech and language provision such as a Language Unit or Specialist School.

A Language Unit (or the term used in your area) is a specialist class in an ordinary mainstream school catering for children with severe SLCN. The class is usually smaller than standard classes and there is a higher staff ratio. The class is usually overseen by a specialist teacher with the assistance of specially trained TAs. A speech and language therapist usually attends the class some or all of the time.

Most language units are in a local primary school. Some areas also have a secondary language unit.

Specialist SLCN Schools

https://afasic.org.uk/specialist-schools-for-dld-slcn/

State Benefits

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are the state benefits paid to the parents of children and adults in order to help with the extra costs of a disability. Severe forms of SLCN may qualify for either DLA in the case of children under 16 and PIP for adults over 16. The application forms can be tricky to complete so it’s advisable to read the guidance in these publications:

Claiming Benefits for Children with Speech and Language Impairments Claiming benefits for children with speech and language impairments – Afasic

Disability Benefits & Other Financial Support: Disability-Benefits.pdf (afasic.org.uk)

Equal rights

Some info below