Children 11 years old and over
Parents
If you are a parent of a child 11 years and over it may be useful to consider the information for professionals on this page when accessing support for your child at school.
Please visit our webpage on stammering for all ages if your child has a stammer that you would like more support with. If you notice the quality of your child’s voice sounds different to the voices of others who are the same age and sex, visit the voice disorders webpage to find out more.
If you are unsure what to expect and when in terms of your child’s speech and language development, you can use the Ages and Stages Guide to Speech and Language Development to find out more.
Professionals
On this page you will find useful advice for supporting children 11 years and over who may need extra support with speech and language and communication development.
Screening and identification
Please take a look at our screening tools. The forms can be printed off, completed by hand, and then scanned, or downloaded from the website as a word document. It is recommended that you do not complete the form directly on the website as your work may be lost.
The tools link in with the service’s referral criteria. They will help you to understand whether a referral to our service is appropriate. They will also help you to know where to focus your universal or targeted support.
You can also view the speech sounds screening tool and pictures you’ll need to use it.
Please watch this short video for further information on screening tools:
Targeted intervention
Please find below user guides to assist you in choosing an appropriate targeted intervention to support a child’s talking, understanding, and social interaction.
You can also watch this short video to find out more about targeted interventions and universal support:
Help with understanding Click to Toggle
Language for Behaviour and Emotions User Guide (upper Key Stage 2)
Help with talking Click to Toggle
Help with speech sounds Click to Toggle
Help with social interaction Click to Toggle
Visually Supported Conversations User Guide
Language for Behaviour and Emotions User Guide (upper Key Stage 2)
Comic Strip Conversations User Guide
Intensive interaction introduction
All brains are different. This means that people are ‘neurodiverse’. Some people are neurotypical and some people are neurodivergent. Neurodivergent children and young people will have differences in the way they sense and experience the world and communicate and interact with others. This video explains these differences and what we can do to understand and support them.
You can also visit Neurodivergent Education Support and Training (n-est.org) for more.
Environmental support
Please find below advice which will support you to creating a communication-friendly environment in your setting.
General advice Click to Toggle
Workforce development
Please find below a series of resources for you to use to develop your own knowledge and skills in supporting speech, language, and communication skills. You will find links to free pre-recorded training and short online courses. You will also find advice on specific strategies that you can use to support the children you work with.
Training courses Click to Toggle
CPD short course (speechandlanguage.org.uk)
SLCF – The Communication Trust (slcframework.org.uk)
Children you are working with may or may not have a diagnosis of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). If they are having difficulties with their talking and/or understanding of language, the advice in the webinar below will be useful to support them:
Bradford training videos Click to Toggle
Children over the age of five who have language difficulties that impact on their communication and learning in everyday life may have Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). A Speech and Language Therapist would make this diagnosis. This short eight-minute presentation explains more about DLD and describes some key strategies to help.
Supporting understanding and clarification skills (active listening)
This 30-minute training video explores strategies that can be used to support children to be active in their own understanding and learning.
Supporting language using colour coding
This 55-minute training video explains how adults can use colour coding of words and sentences to support a child’s understanding and talking.