Speaking and Listening: meeting the needs of children with a range of special educational needs
Speaking and Listening is an important area of the English NC for children with special educational needs who may experience difficulties with the development of more formal skills in reading and writing. The area is significant not only in its own right through the development of communication and participation skills, but also in terms of supporting reading, writing and learning in English and across the curriculum. For example speaking and listening helps children to access meanings in texts through group and class discussions and aids the development of deeper understandings of texts, ideas and events through drama and role play.
Speaking and listening was omitted from the NLS framework of teaching objectives, and for several years this led to a general undervaluing of the role of talk in primary schools. There was a corresponding lack of opportunities in many classrooms for discussion, group work, drama and role play. Two recent resources have provided guidance for teachers in the development of speaking and listening in their classrooms. The first, Speaking, listening, learning: Working with children in KS1 and KS2, (QCA/PNS 2003) complements the NLS Framework for teaching. Leaflets set out active approaches in which all children in a class can be actively involved. These include drama techniques such as freeze-framing, hot-seating and thought-tracking and group discussion techniques.
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/literacy/818497/
While helpful to teachers in a general sense the materials do not provide adequate guidance for working with children with SEN. The range of children’s special educational needs outlined in the SEN Code of Practice (DfES, 2001) is as follows:
- Communication and interaction needs associated with understanding and expression of language.
- Cognition and Learning needs relate to effective thinking and memory associated with either generalised or specific learning difficulties.
- Behavioural, emotional and social development needs associated with social and emotional aspects of learning, with social communication and making friends, rules and relationships, understanding non-verbal language or with behaviours associated with hyperactivity, poor attention and complex special needs;
- Sensory and/or physical needs associated with hearing and visual impairments, under or over sensitivity or sensory integration impairments; also associated with physical disabilities, medical and neurological conditions. (PNS, 2005)
It is important to note that many children experience more than one area of need.
A second document, Speaking, Listening, Learning, Working with children with Special Educational Needs (PNS, 2005), produced by an advisory group with considerable experience in SEN, offers detailed and specific guidance to educational professionals. The document argues that for children who experience a range of language, literacy, communication and other needs, speaking and listening must be considerably extended to include broader concepts of communicating and responding, if adequate learning opportunities are to be provided. These expanded concepts should cover all forms of expressive and receptive communication including development of symbolic representation, verbal and non-verbal expressive and receptive language skills in addition to the development of oral communication. (PNS 2005)
The document, which suggests teaching styles and access strategies for children with a range of SEN, can be downloaded from: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/inclusion/sll_sen/
The following table, adapted from the document, describes how the main categories of the English NC need to be extended to include children with a broad range of SEN:
| Speaking |
Speaking can be thought of broadly, as ‘expressive communication’. This means using all channels available to the child, such as vocalising, gesture, facial expression, body movement, use of pictures and objects, as well as formal systems such as signs, sign language, symbols and communication aids (Alternative and Augmentative Communication: AAC). Some children may be very dependent on other people to interpret their intentions. |
Listening |
Effective participation in a social world requires an ability to receive information and respond appropriately. Listening is, of course, associated with awareness of auditory input and most children with special educational needs are able to hear and attend to some level of sound. For some, however, listening may need to be thought of more broadly as attending to communication input – which may be visual or tactile as well as auditory, for example, looking at someone signing or sensory exploration, such as touching something handed to them. |
Group discussion and interaction |
Communication requires exchange of information which is both given and received. This strand emphasises interactions with a peer group, to negotiate, debate, advocate, reach agreement and prioritise action. These are relatively advanced social skills. However, group discussion is a vital context of development for all children. Some children may need to be taught specific skills to participate effectively in interaction and many may need some form of specific support to enable them to engage effectively and maintain communication with others in a range of contexts. |
Drama |
Drama is not only a tool for expressing and communicating ideas, thoughts
and feelings: it is also a powerful medium by which to explore social understanding – why people think and behave as they do – in the safety of it being one-step-removed. It can be used to access meanings embedded in stories and events and to explore human intentions, motivations and consequences in a range of social situations across the curriculum. Drama can be thought of as pretend play or a process of imaginative, rule-based activity that may initially require a child only to participate as if an event were happening and take on a valued role within a clear structure. All children can and should be included in opportunities to participate in drama and to assume a role, however notional. A few children may need to be supported in understanding the symbolism of the drama form. Others may have an understanding of makebelieve but may need support in participating with others.
Adapted from: PNS (2005) Speaking, Listening, Learning, Listening, Working with children with special educational needs, DfES |
The activity below is based on a brief case study of a statemented child with moderate learning difficulties within a mainstream classroom. The activity aims to demonstrate the limitations of the English NC Speaking and Listening in meeting the child’s learning needs, and asks students to consider some of the teaching strategies that could be employed to give the child access to a routine classroom activity.
Activity
Ask students:
- to consider the brief account of Anna, below
- to read the extract from the Programme of Study for Speaking and Listening Key Stage 1, below
- to consider why it might be inappropriate for Anna’s needs
- to discuss how a teacher might prepare to support Anna in taking part in a whole class discussion with a group of children, of a new picture book which is going to be the focus for the class’s work for the next week.
Anna is 7 years old. Her spoken language has been slow to develop both in her first language (Greek) and her second language (English). She has been identified as having some learning difficulties, has a slight hearing loss and some difficulties in articulating her speech. She is very shy in speaking in front of groups of children in any formal situation, although in play she speaks a little more freely. She is a happy and sociable person and has begun to be able to read some simple texts, with support. She is in a mainstream classroom and has a Teaching Assistant to work with her for 30 minutes per day and receives speech therapy once a week.
Programme of Study for Speaking and Listening, Key Stage 1
Speaking
‘To speak clearly, fluently and confidently to different people, pupils should be taught to:
- speak with clear diction and appropriate intonation
b) choose words with precision
c) organise what they say
d) focus on the main point(s)
e) include relevant detail
f) take into account the needs of their listeners.’
It should become immediately apparent that the NC PoS for KS1 is not relevant to Anna’s needs. The Speaking and Listening section includes speaking, listening, group discussion and interaction, drama, standard English, language variation and breadth of study. Students may find it helpful to look at the whole Programme of Study for Speaking and Listening Key Stage 1 to see if any parts might be relevant for providing learning opportunities for Anna.
http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/En-1-1-POS.html#N1002D
Teaching approaches
In considering Anna’s needs, students might think about the following:
- Anna’s seating within the class which normally gathers together to sit on the carpet during shared reading times
- visual supports that the teacher might prepare before she introduces the story eg artefacts, pictures, story props, use of an interactive white board
- how the teacher might adapt the language of her questions to make them clearer to Anna and some other children in the class
- how the TA might help to prepare Anna beforehand eg through reading the book aloud to her, discussing the pictures and any unfamiliar words or expressions
- how the TA, who sits with the whole group during shared reading time, might help to prepare Anna for the discussion and support her in responding to the teachers’ questions
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/inclusion/sll_sen/pns_sen118705sll.pdf
See also useful leaflets Speaking, Listening, Learning: Listening – receptive communication, Group discussion and interaction, Progression in drama, Successful environments, and Watch your language
These can be downloaded from:
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/inclusion/sll_sen/
These documents are a valuable resource but they address the needs of children with a wide spectrum of SEN so students will need help in interpreting them.
References
 
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