Frequently Asked Questions

My child lacks tact and can be insensitive, he blurts out his thoughts and can appear rude or cheeky. What could I do?

Answer: Children with Pragmatic Impairments may have problems with "theory of mind" and picking up on non verbal clues that provide information on what a conversational partner might be thinking or feeling. If your child has a habit of "blurting out" or sounding rude, cheeky or insensitive, have your child practice whispering his thoughts to himself and then moving onto a "think-dont say it" mode. Role play situations, help him to identify what thoughts he should keep quiet versus those which should be expressed and in which situations. Try video taping him and giving feedback. Let him know that he sounded a bit rude or cheeky when he said what he did, and provide him with the language he needs to express himself better. For example..If your child is offered some sweets by another child and he doesnt like those particular ones, if he would normally say something negative such as, "I hate them!", have him practice saying, "No thank you, I am not keen on those (or whatever is being offered)."

My child cannot understand a set of simple instructions. What could I do?

Answer:Too much auditory information can be overwhelming for SPD children. Give the child visual clues, gestures, pointing and physical prompts to enable him to understand and perform a task. Instructions should be specific, direct, clear and concise and for very young children, must not include more than two steps. E.g."Ben pick up the bricks. Put the bricks in the box" Provide the child with the information he needs to be able to understand..show him..Do it first so he can see what you require of him. Help him with the functional understanding of concepts such as position, size, colour, shape and time as much as you can too, by guiding him or emphasising the concept with a visual clue..ie guide his hand to push the box under the bed saying "Put the box under the bed".Use “build ups” too to keep the child learning about language structure, eg: “shoe” - “shoe on” - “put shoe on” -“put your shoe on”

My child appears deaf. What could I do?

Answer:Give the child time to process your language, to understand the message and carry out the action. First of all before you speak make sure your child is looking at you by calling his name. If eye contact is difficult for your child do not insist on it, kneel down to your child's level and face them, so they can see your mouth peripherally. If the child does not respond to their name, gently tap them on the shoulder or arm. A high sing songy voice can help to catch their attention too. Reward your child for good listening by using a lot of praise.

My child interprets everything I say literally. How can I help?

Answer: Avoid using sarcasm, idioms, irony, slang, jokey language etc, but if you do find yourself using it, try to explain its meaning. Focus should also be given to increasing the child's comprehension of multi meaning words through the use of visual supports, word games and semantic mapping (mind maps).

My child reverses pronouns. How can I help?

Answer: Pronouns need to be taught using names and communicative behaviours, such as pointing, to label people properly and establish a referent i.e.. its no use a child saying, "She laughed at me!" when you have no idea who “she” is.Teach your child to point, look at, or name the person or thing he is referring to too.

"I" and "Me" can be taught when your child requests items. When they ask for juice.."want juice!" ask.."Who wants juice?" Elicit the response "I want juice". When the child begins requesting actions such as "kiss “ ask, “Who should I kiss?” and prompt him to respond, “me”. Be sure to expand on these using other people and toys by asking questions such as, “Who am I kissing?” and prompting “me” or the person or thing, "I am kissing Daddy / the cat!" Ask "who" questions frequently, "Who wants some biscuits?” and prompt “I do” or “me”.

"My" and "Mine" can be taught using body parts too..e.g...ask your child to, "Touch my nose", touch your child's nose too and ask "Whose nose am I touching?" ...elicit "My nose!" Have your child point to himself and his nose and say "I am touching my nose!".

Possessive pronouns such as “his”, “her”, “its” and "ours" can be taught in a similar way during storytime. Have your child point to "Can you see her with the red hat!", "Him with the blue scarf" and expand with , "That's right, she has the red hat!", "He has the blue scarf". "Who has the red hat? Elicit "She does" with a finger point. Point to yourself and say "I have a (say colour) jumper" Point your child's finger at their jumper and prompt "I have a (say colour) jumper". "Who has a (name child's colour) jumper?" Give a phonemic prompt (mm) to the child so he says "Me!" Repeat using characters names.. "Barbie has a...".... elicit ........."pink dress"..Ask, "Who has a pink dress?".... Elicit .. "Barbie has a pink dress", together with a finger point to Barbie.

Questioning "who?", in a manner described above, as part of everyday conversations and storytimes can help improve a child's ability to use personal pronouns enormously.

How can I help my child understand what he is reading?

Answer: Encourage your child to read stories, poems and plays with you as much as possible. Let your child see that reading is fun.Take them to the library, let them choose their own books to read and enrol them into holiday reading schemes/bookclubs and storytime sessions too. When introducing a new book, show your child the cover, discuss the title, author and any pictures. Ask your child what he thinks the story might be about and ask lots of "who" and "why" questions whilst reading the story. Discuss the characters, what they may be thinking and feeling, how they might react to hypothetical situations, what might happen next and so on, to be sure he understands the overall meaning of the story. Read the same story a few times if you can, over the next few days so that your child becomes familiar with any new vocabulary and has plenty of opportunity to process the story. After you have read the story a few times, ask your child if he can tell you the story without referring back to the book to be sure that he has understood the gist of it. And be sure to discuss any unfamiliar vocabulary, such as multi meaning words, idioms and metaphors that he may not be familiar with in the story.

Will my child outgrow their SPD?

Answer: SPD is a developmental language/communication disorder which generally improves with age. Some children will make good progress, but others may continue to have difficulties as they develop and may go onto receive a further diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder. It is important for teachers and other support professionals to understand that SPD is not a disorder that just disappears when the child learns to use language fluently and more appropriately, the difficulties change as the child develops. For a child making good progress, their language on the surface might appear "normal", however, pragmatic difficulties are such that they only become apparent when communication breaks down. A casual listener may not experience this breakdown in communication as often as the child does throughout their day as he talks to many people. These frequent breakdowns in communication can have a real impact on the child's social relationships and self esteem, so you should continue to monitor the child very carefully throughout their school years, as well as remembering to check their understanding of abstract language and unfamiliar vocabulary, which if left unsupported, could hinder academic success.

Why my child?

Answer: Unfortunately, it is not always possible to pinpoint any one reason why your child suffers a language delay or disorder. However the following reasons are thought to be behind such difficulties:-

Family history & genetics
More boys than girls are affected
Frequent ear infections in toddlers and in preschoolers
Hearing impairments
Developmental delays

My child has difficulty learning new vocabulary. How can I help?

Answer: Children learn new vocabulary whilst experiencing day to day activities. Experiences which are memorable, enjoyable, full of sights and sounds are likely to be more meaningful to children and its likely that any new vocabulary experienced in this way will be remembered. So for example, going to feed the ducks at your local duckpond could become a valuable learning experience for your child as you experience all the sights, sounds and smells associated with such a trip. You could use this theme to expand vocabulary learning throughout the week through play e.g. playing with ducks in the bath, looking at books together with pictures of birds in them; singing songs, making fun animal sounds, drawing a pond together, talking about the ducks habitat, what you might see and which other animals might live in the pond with the ducks, i.e. frogs and snails etc. Choose 3-4 target words to start off with. Don't try to teach too much too quickly or you could confuse your child. Make sure your child hears the new target words you want to introduce over and over to reinforce them. Emphasise the new words by saying them a little louder, pausing just before you say them. It's important for a child with SPD to make links when teaching new vocabulary to help them use the word in the right context too, so make sure you discuss what the target word means, which words it might rhyme with, what other uses it may have, which other words are similar..i.e. feathery is a bit like fluffy, could the word have an opposite meaning, and so on..the idea being to build up a bigger picture for the child to be able to understand and use the new vocabulary appropriately and with flexibility.