Case Study: Language Difficulties Impacting Attitude to Learning
In the interest of safeguarding, this child has been referred to as ‘Kenny’ throughout the case study.
Our Speech and Language Therapist, Renata, has been providing intervention for Kenny since 2020. We have been working within his setting since January 2020.
Background
Kenny has been experiencing some language difficulties. These difficulties typically present themselves in the form of grammar and forming longer, more complex sentences. For example, we often found that Kenny would use conjunctions randomly, and did not demonstrate a true understanding of their function in a sentence.
Language difficulties can have a major impact on a child’s academic career. As a result, Kenny is struggling with his academic success and attitude to learning, as he struggles to engage in class the same way as his non-SLCN peers.
Sadly, the impact isn’t limited to just Kenny’s academic performance. His language difficulties are also causing him to have difficulty when communicating with others. Subsequently, he has struggled to build meaningful relationships with his peers.
The impact of struggling academically and socially has had a huge impact on his self-esteem and has shown a lack of confidence. As Kenny is now in KS3, it is essential to improve his confidence and attitude to learning so he’s ready to take on GCSEs!
How did Chatterbug help?
Despite Kenny’s struggles with his confidence, he has always been eager to get started with his intervention, meaning he and Renata could really get down to work!
Kenny attends 1:1 therapy sessions where they work together on building his sentence strength and the use of more complex sentences. To do this, Renata mostly used a scaffolding method to support Kenny in building his own sentences.
To scaffold, Renata started by using a gap sheet. This gap sheet would show two related sentences and a selection of conjunction words. Kenny then had to select the most suitable conjunction for the 2 sentences.
As he became more successful with this task, Renata changed around to test his new level of understanding. To do this, she then would provide the first half of a sentence and conjunction. Kenny was then required to provide a suitable second half to the sentence (e.g. The boy could not go outside to play unless…).
The final step to fully understanding his progress was to test whether he could make a complex sentence based on a picture. To support him, Renata provided a list of conjunctions and their definitions so he could more easily create the complex sentence structure.
Using scaffolding allowed him to understand how to use complex sentence structures independently.
Kenny’s progress to date
Since receiving intervention, Kenny has made fantastic progress. His ability to use more complex sentence structures has improved so that he can better express his thoughts and ideas. In addition, it has improved his use of complex sentences in structured and class work.
Not only this, but his confidence has massively improved, and he is always happy and excited about attending his therapy sessions with Renata!
Now that he has shown a great understanding of sentence structures, Renata will start bringing in new concepts, such as supporting vocabulary. This will help him to support his word-association skills.
Get in touch
Interested in how Chatterbug can help you? You can view our services and training here.
Alternatively, contact the team on:
Phone: 0113 240 8510 Email: [email protected]
Or fill out the form below: