Supporting children with language difficulties in classroom
Learning to talk is usually a natural process with children. We usually don’t sit children down to teach them language as they do it quite quickly and naturally.
This natural way of learning to talk doesn’t apply to all children as some children don’t find this process easy.
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For some children, however, this doesn’t come easily even though they may be meeting all other developmental milestones.
Sometimes, this difficulty to acquire language is associated with conditions such as autism, down’s syndrome, attention deficit hyperactive disorder etc.
Children with language difficulties may have difficulties using and understanding language and forming friendships.
They typically use simple words and sentences, miss grammatical markers such as tenses (“The teachers help Kojo yesterday” instead of “The teachers help-ed Kojo yesterday”) and find it difficult understanding long and complex sentences.
Language development is a key part in children’s intellectual, social and emotional growth. Teachers use both oral and written language in the classroom to teach and give instructions.
Children are expected to contribute to discussions and engage with their friends. Children with language difficulties will often have difficulty understanding the teacher without support.
• Use name or a familiar listening cue “I’m going to give an instruction now….”to gain attention of child.
• Give specific praise for to child, for example “Good listening”
• Clear start and finish, “First, ball. Then, car.” "Car is finished”
• Visual clues/pictures to support what you say e.g. For example, show them the picture of ball, when it’s time to play with the ball and say “First, ball”.
• Allow children to complete one part of an instruction before giving the next part of the instruction. For example, “Put the spoon down” (after child follows this instruction, you give the next one) “Give the plate to Adwoa”.
Speak more slowly, say less
Use visual aids such as pictures and gestures such as pointing to the object of reference.
For example, point to the cup, if you are asking child to get you the cup.
Strategies to support expressive language:
• Give time for child to respond e.g. up to 10 seconds.
• Prompt- provide the start of the answer you expect. For e.g. “yes, this is for drinking”
• Give two or three alternatives. For e.g. “Is it apple or orange?”
• Ask specific closed-ended questions which do not require a lengthy complex answer.
• Model words, for example if child says ‘tat’ for cat, you will say. “Yes, cat”. Don’t repeat ‘tat’. Asking child to repeat words correctly tends not to help.
• Exaggerate how you say the word for child to see how it’s formed using the lips, tongue, etc.
• Ask child to try to clarify meaning when not understood. Encourage use of gesture and giving additional information.
For children who stammer:
• Encourage good turn-taking without interruptions and a slow, relaxed talking rate in class
• Telling child to “Slow down”, “Start again”, “Take a deep breath” tends not to help. Instead model talking slowly.
•Be specific – avoid ambiguous language such as “Give me the remote” instead of “Give me that”.
• Be explicit about classroom rules and social expectations – use posters and pictures.
• Adult-led small group work focusing on foundation skills – such as taking turns (with games/activities that allow child to practise the skills with adult feedback).
• Be explicit about turn-taking. For example, “my turn, your turn”.
• Immediate specific praise – ‘Good looking/listening/turn-taking!’
• If child deviates from topic – explicit cue e.g. “we’re talking about …… now”.
The teacher has to identify the most useful strategies for the children in class. When the appropriate strategy is used, children with language difficulties are able to do better.
It is important that teachers and families liaise with speech and language therapists to be able to support children with language difficulties to succeed at school and in life.
The writer is a Speech & Language Therapist/Clinical Tutor, University of Ghana.
E-mail: [email protected]
