Case Study: Enabling Staff to Support Social Communication and Language Difficulties
In the interest of safeguarding, this child has been referred to as ‘Heidi’ throughout the case study.
Our Speech and Language Therapist, Katy, has been working with Heidi on her social communication and language difficulties, alongside her autism diagnosis. The intervention has been targeted and universal for teachers and staff to implement. She has been receiving intervention with Chatterbug since January 2021. We have been working within her setting since January 2016.
Background
Heidi has been struggling with her in-class engagement due to her social communication and language difficulties. This causes difficulties for her to both understand others and make herself understood by others.
Due to this, engagement in the classroom can be challenging to maintain. When Heidi can not understand the information being presented to her via spoken language, it makes it difficult to process what might be happening!
To ensure her academic success and equal opportunity as her peers, teachers and staff must find strategies to support her learning and engagement in the classroom.
As Heidi is currently in KS2, this support must be in place so she can thrive once she moves to secondary school.
How did Chatterbug help?
Heidi has been known to Chatterbug since January 2021, so much of her intervention has already been successful. However, for intervention to be consistent and allow her to reach her full potential, school staff and parents must also be involved.
Our therapist, Katy, has been working with the staff at Heidi’s school to ensure they are equipped with the necessary strategies for a consistent support system.
To do so, Katy focused on two main frameworks: Blank Level Scenarios and Language for Behaviour and Emotions. These were used to discuss different scenarios using guided questions from the therapist. This helped to aid them structure explanations and conversations with Heidi and support her understanding in the classroom.
This also helped to support her social differences. To do this, they needed strategies to support her attention and listening skills in class. These strategies include things like allowing her to have a fidget toy or taking regular movement breaks.
Additionally, Katy also recommended providing a safe space for her to go to if she does not feel able to join her classmates in the playground at break times. This safe space will help prevent her from feeling overwhelmed and encourages her to interact as and when she feels ready to do so.
Heidi’s progress to date
Since receiving intervention and support from her teaching staff, Heidi has much-improved comprehension skills. This has massively improved her classroom engagement and is more eager to learn at school.
Katy has also provided an EHCP to continue to support. The EHCP also allows them to continue this progress into secondary school and ensure she still receives the necessary support.
What has Heidi said about their therapy?
As a result, now that she is better understood and can understand others, Heidi’s mental well-being has massively improved. By supporting comprehension and social skills, Heidi is now less isolated and can be more involved with her school work and socialising with her peers!
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