Importance of Education

Educational Provision for Children with Specific Speech and Language Difficulties in England and Wales

Geoff Lindsay and Julie Dockrell with Clare Mackie and Becky Letchford

Final Report July 2002
Published by: Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL ISBN: 1 871501 17 2 2002

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. 2. 3. INTRODUCTION THE STUDY RESULTS 3.1 LEA Questionnaire 3.2 Speech and Language Therapy Services Questionnaire 3.3 Interviews with LEAs

3 4 12 17 22 22 32 43

3.4 Interviews with Speech and Language Therapy Managers 78 3.5 Interviews with LEA schools with language units 3.6 Interviews with other LEA schools and resources 3.7 Interviews with special language schools 127 157 172 196 203

4. 5.

DISCUSSION REFERENCES

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the support and involvement of the LEA officers, speech and language therapy managers, school headteachers and principals, and heads of units. We would also like to thanks the project’s steering group for their expert advice and support: Dr Norah Frederickson, Department of Psychology, University College London; David Braybrook, I-CAN; Derek Lucas, Northamptonshire LEA; and Professor Klaus Wedell. Finally we would like to thank Jean McElroy for her administration of the project and her invaluable assistance in preparing the final report.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) 1 have a primary language problem. That is, the problem is not attributable to other factors, e.g. a significant hearing loss, intellectual impairment. Prevalence studies suggest that the numbers of children concerned are substantial, about 5-7%. There had been no systematic review of provision for this group of children since the survey

References: American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual if Mental Disorders (4th edition): DSM IV. Washington: American Psychiatric Association. Aram, D.M., Ekelman, B.L., and Nation J.E. (1984). ‘Preschoolers with language disorders: 10 years later’, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 27, 232-244. Aram, D.M. and Nation, J.E. (1975). ‘Patterns of language behaviour in children with developmental language disorders’. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 18, 229241. Band, S., Lindsay, G., Law, J., Soloff, N., Peacey, N., Gascoigne, M., and Radford, J. (in press). Are Health and Education talking to each other? Perceptions of parents of children with speech and language needs. European Journal of Special Needs Education Botting, N., Crutchley, A. and Conti-Ramsden, G. (1998) Educational transitions of 7-year-old children with SLI in language units: a longitudinal study, International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 33, 177-197. Charman, T. (2002). Autism and MMR. The Psychologist, 15, 166-167. Charman, T. and Baird, G. (2002). Practitioner review: Diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder in 2- and 3-year-old children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 289-305. Conti-Ramsden, G., Crutchley, A. and Botting, N. (1997) The extent to which psychometric tests differentiate subgroups of children with SLI. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 40, 765-777. Department for Education (1994) The Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs. London: HMSO. Department for Education and Employment (1997) Excellence for All Children. London: Stationery Office. Department for Education and Employment (1998) Meeting Special Educational Needs: A Plan for Action. London: Stationery Office. Department for Education and Skills (2001a). The SEN Code of Practice. London: DfES. Department for Education and Skills (2001b). Inclusive Schooling. Nottingham: DfES. Dockrell, J.E., and Lindsay, G. (1998). ‘The ways in which speech and language difficulties impact on children 's access to the curriculum’, Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 14(2), 117-133. Dockrell, J.E. and Lindsay, G. (in press). ‘Specific speech and language difficulties and literacy. In T. Nunes and P. Bryant (eds) Handbook for Literacy. London: Kluwer Academic. Dockrell, J.E. and Lindsay, G. (2000). Meeting the needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties. European Journal of Special Needs Education. Dockrell, J. and Lindsay, G. (2001) ‘Children with specific speech and language difficulties: the teachers’ perspectives.’ Oxford Review of Education, 27, (3), 369-394. Dockrell, J., and Lindsay, G. (2002). ‘Whose job is it? Parents’ concerns about the needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties.’ (submitted). Hutt, E. and Donlan, C. (1987) Adequate Provision? A Survey of Language Units. London: ICAN) Law J, Boyle J, Harris F, Harkness A, and Nye C, (1998) Screening for speech and language delay: a systematic review of the literature Health Technology Assessment 9 (2) 1-184. Law, J,. Dockrell, J, Williams, K, and Seeff, B. (2001). The I-CAN Early Years Evaluation Project. London: I CAN. 203 GAL/jpm/Nuffield Report/July02 Law, J., Lindsay, G., Peacey, N., Gascoigne, M., Soloff, N., Radford, J., and Band, S. with Fitzgerald, L. (2000) Provision for Children with Speech and Language Needs in England and Wales: Facilitating Communication Between Education and Health Services. London: DfEE Law, J., Lindsay, G., Peacey, N., Gascoigne, M., Soloff, N., Radford, J. and Band, S. (in press) ‘Consultation as a model for providing speech and language therapy in schools: a panacea or one step too far?’ Child Language Teaching and Therapy, Leonard, L. (1997). Children with Specific Language Impairment. Cambridge, M.A.: The MIT Press. Lindsay, G. and Dockrell, J. (2002). Meeting the needs of children with speech and communication needs: a critical perspective on inclusion and collaboration. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 18 (2), 91-101. Lindsay, G. and Dockrell, J. (submitted) Whose job is it? Parents’ concerns about the needs of their children with language problems. Lindsay, G., Soloff, N., Law, J., Band, S, Peacey, N., Gascoigne, M., and Radford, J. (in press). Speech and language therapy services to education in England and Wales. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. Rapin, I., and Allen, D.A. (1983). ‘Developmental language disorders: Nosological considerations’. In U. Kirk (Ed.), Neuropsychology of Language, Reading, and Spelling. New York: Academic Press. Tomblin JB. Records, N. Buckwalter, P. Zhang, X. Smith, E. and O’Brien, M. (1997) Prevalence of Specific Language Impairment in Kindergarten children Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research 40, 6, 1245-1260 World Health Organization (1992). The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders. Geneva: WHO. 204 GAL/jpm/Nuffield Report/July02