SLCN Blog - Archive

Training is essential to ensure we have the skills and knowledge needed to carry out our role as effectively as possible. So why is it that ‘Schools’ spending on teacher training has dropped for the first time this decade despite a retention and recruitment crisis in the profession?’

Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking® is a series of concepts, treatment frameworks and strategies for supporting and teaching children with social learning difficulties. I was lucky enough to attend a Social Thinking® conference in Ireland. Michelle Garcia Winner is a very engaging speaker, and I found myself often thinking ‘wow- that’s a light bulb moment!’ 

Lego® Therapy has risen in popularity over the last few years as an intervention for children with social communication difficulties. So, what actually happens in Lego®-based Therapy?

Sarah Helton is a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Consultant and Trainer who specialises in bereavement, grief and loss. Here she writes about how we can support bereaved children with SLCN.

An interview with a teen-aged girl with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

All children (and adults) will have their ‘off’ days where their behaviour may be slightly out of character, fractious or downright obnoxious! This is normal, and is often linked to lack of sleep, hunger, over-stimulation, pain, receiving bad news or perhaps an argument with a friend - there can be all sorts of reasons. In some cases there is a known condition where behaviour is different in comparison to peers - children with learning difficulties.

November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month for 2018. The Epilepsy Foundation is rolling out the ‘Let’s Use Our Brains to End Epilepsy’ campaign to raise awareness and change the way people react towards seizures.

You may have heard reference to the ‘word gap’ in the news several times this year. Oxford University Press produced the ‘Oxford Language Report’ earlier in the year, directly addressing the importance of closing this gap. This is not the first time a gap has been highlighted, although the report certainly gained some traction in the media.

This year International Developmental Language Disorder Day falls on 19th October 2018. Raising awareness is all about making sure the topic is always in circulation and ensuring that people are also aware of what that topic is.

On 28th April 2018, NAPLIC held its annual conference in Birmingham, drawing a host of Speech and Language Therapists and other professionals working with children and young people to its talks focusing on Developmental Language Disorder.