This study aimed to clarify factors related to difficulties in responding to "yes/no" questions (Y/N-Qs) among 52 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 41 boys and 11 girls aged between 3:5-16:0 years. Participants completed the Tanaka-Binet Intelligence Scale V, the Picture Vocabulary Test: Revised (PVT-R), and the Pervasive…

A 10-year-old boy with autism was part of an evaluation of an innovative intervention focused on improving communication skills. His school was using the minimal speech approach (Potter and Whittaker, 2001) with all children in accordance with government guidance. The pupil's receptive language had not been formally assessed due to his lack…

Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and social, emotional and behaviour difficulties (SEBD) commonly overlap, yet we know relatively little about the mechanism linking the two, specifically to what extent it is possible to reduce behaviour difficulties by targeted communication skills. The EPPI Centre systematic review methodology was…

The recommendations from the Bercow Review of services for children with speech, language and communication needs (DCSF, 2008a) have significant implications for the training of pre-service teachers who will be expected to be more able to meet the needs of such children. This article explores the potential within the Standards for Qualified…

Many profoundly deaf signers have difficulty communicating with hearing people. This article describes a therapy called "Strategies and Measurable Interaction in Live English" (smiLE; Schamroth and Threadgill, 2007a), an approach used to teach deaf children skills to become successful communicators in real-life situations. This study evaluates the…

The role of language for learning is core across the entire school curriculum. Thus, children with speech, language and communication needs are at risk of underachieving academically. Research reports and policy drivers advocate the need for a whole school approach (WSA) to enhance children's spoken language and communication skills, yet little is…

Assessing adolescent language skills poses significant challenges due to the subtle nature of language proficiency at this age, along with the high linguistic demands both academically and socially. As with young children, the current range of language assessments designed specifically for adolescents mostly includes standardized tests. This…

Little research to date explores parental experiences of early intervention. This study uses action research over a six-month period to explore the expectations and experiences of parents whose children attended an early-intervention group for speech/language impairments. This intervention programme was facilitated by a speech and language…

This study investigated the effects of introducing the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) on the frequency of requesting and commenting and the length of verbal utterances of two children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who presented with some spoken language, but limited use of language in communicative exchanges. A mixed research…

The communication skills of typically developing Finnish-speaking children between three and six years of age were examined using the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC). The differences between the boys and girls were also investigated. Results showed that the performance of the three-year-old children differed on the Speech subscale of the…

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is a discipline that has seen recent developments as a consequence of the worldwide technological revolution. Children with complex communication needs, who benefit from such systems, are now afforded an opportunity to develop independent communication skills. The aim of this paper is to review…

The importance of collaborative practice between those who provide services to children with special educational needs is now regarded as essential and is supported strongly by the UK government. However, joint working is often difficult to implement, despite the goodwill of all involved. This paper describes a pilot study aimed at developing…

A fundamental deficit in children with high-functioning autism (HFA) is social communicative competence. Atypical prosody in variable forms has been implicated in contributing to this deficit. The purpose of this case study was to describe the clinical management of an eight-year-old child with HFA for whom prosody became the primary target of…

This paper examines the repair skills of three groups of 7 to 11-year old children: 1) children with Pragmatic Language Impairments (the PLI group); 2) children with Specific Language Impairments with no pragmatic difficulties (the SLI group); 3) children with normally developing communication skills (the mainstream group). The data comprise…

The current position on speech and language intervention for children who have pragmatic language impairment (PLI) is limited by a lack of evidence to support practice. Two intervention outcome case studies of children with PLI, aimed at establishing efficacy, are presented in this paper. Standardized language tests and conversational sampling…