Speech and Language Therapists are trained to assess and treat speech, language and communication difficulties in children to enable them to communicate to the best of their ability.

Communication difficulties can be a speech difficulty, where just the child’s speech sounds are  affected; a language issue, where the child’s understanding or ability to say words, phrases or sentences is affected; or it may be an interaction difficulty.

The DAS Speech and Language Therapists offer training to DAS colleagues on all aspects of speech, language and communication since DAS students may have particular weaknesses in one or more of the following areas:

• Listening and understanding what is said to them
• Learning and remembering words
• Forming sentences
• Using speech effectively, e.g. talking about what they have done and why
• Saying words clearly or fluently
• Using language in social settings, e.g. taking turns in conversations

Communication Conundrum

Can’t find the words I want to say,
Explaining a story seems to take all day,
Taking turns, eye contact is poor,
Having to listen in class is a chore,
Unable to talk, speaking unclear,
Oral exam, something to fear
Confusion with concepts of space and time,

Not sure if ‘ride’ and ‘right’ should rhyme,
Stuttering, cluttering, mumbling – all three?
A boy, a girl; she and he don’t agree
The length of instruction is way too long,
Order of words come out so wrong
Don’t understand, vocabulary is low
Voice not working, only can show
Using gesture, intonation, can’t hear very well,

Speech and Language Therapist,
please can you tell?

Joyce and Shuet Lian, DAS Speech & Language Therapists, outline the different communication difficulties our DAS students can face:

Differences some of our DAS Students Face

Communication Difficulties

Our Speech and Language Therapists at DAS provide intervention to many children with a range of communication difficulties, as well as dyslexia. Shuet Lian explains that the range of communication difficulties includes “Receptive Language Impairment, which means a difficulty understanding spoken language, and Expressive Language Impairment, which means a difficulty using spoken language.” Children with language impairment may have problems with getting along with other people and understanding what other people mean, which would, therefore, affect their social relationships.

Other communication difficulties include articulation disorders, where children have difficulties producing certain vowel or consonant sounds, and phonological disorders, where children are able to produce all the sounds of English as single sounds but they have difficulties producing some of the sounds in words. Phonological problems occur at a ‘higher’ level of linguistic processing.

One disorder that Joyce notes as a lesser known impairment is Cluttering Fluency Disorder. This is characterised by having a “rapid and/or irregular rate of speech, omitting or distorting sounds or syllables, excessive use of disfluencies such as ‘um’ or ‘uh’” along with other symptoms which mean that students have difficulty in conversations as they tend to interrupt others and have “limited awareness of how [their] speech sounds to others”.

Shuet Lian states that Selective Mutism is another less prevalent communication disorder. This is when children are not able to speak in certain social situations, for example at school, but they are able to speak and communicate in settings where they feel secure and comfortable, such as at home. These two examples indicate the wide range of communication difficulties that students can face.

Helping Students with these Difficulties

Joyce explains that “the speech clarity of someone who clutters is often at its best in a structured situation in which the person is actively monitoring it. In contrast, speech clarity is often at its worst when the person is more relaxed such as in casual conversation.” The DAS Speech Therapists help students become more self-aware, as she explains, “I found it helpful to write a short personal story about them that talks about the communication difficulties they faced with their family and friends. When they are aware of their difficulties, then we can move on to set therapy goals together. This helps to motivate them to work towards their goals.”

Shuet Lian adds to this and states, “Providing visual support such as pictures, charts or tables in addition to verbal explanation helps students with communication difficulties to understand better.” One example could be explaining the formation of a rainbow with a simple diagram:

Raindrops + Sunlight = Rainbow 

This diagram supports the verbal description. Additionally, “Use short sentences, rather than lengthy ones, for instructions and directions as well as gestures to reinforce understanding.” Technology such as iPads and computers can be used to engage the child in verbal communication. Games are effective in improving communication skills as they are enjoyable.”

At DAS, children go through a comprehensive speech and language assessment. An individual education program is tailored based on the profile of the child obtained from the speech and language assessment. Speech and Language Therapy is offered in individual or group settings.

In the future, the DAS Speech and Language Therapy team hope to introduce social skills programmes, speech-language therapy in Chinese language, as well as an expanded pre-school program in order to further meet the needs of students.