Disruptive students who have difficulty providing specific information, problem solving, planning ideas and understanding inference may have an underlying communication disorder, a new study has revealed.
The study investigated the common language and social skill difficulties of a group of Year 5 to Year 9 students with behavioural problems.
“Students who act up in class are often written off as ‘bad seeds’ when an undetected language or communication difficulty is the root cause, impacting on their learning and contributing to their poor behaviour,” according to speech pathologist, Karen James.
“Common areas of difficulty include an inability to supply sufficient information or providing non-specific information which creates communication difficulties for the listener or reader; higher level executive functioning skills such as problem solving difficulties, problems planning ideas, understanding written work and what they are being told. They also have trouble with inference – these students are concrete thinkers and take things literally.
“Pragmatic or social skills difficulties are also common as students often lack the vocabulary to express what they are feeling, or even react inappropriately because they don’t know the difference between sarcasm and humour.
“Finally, literacy is a common concern as students can often recite the parts of a written text but are unable to or lack the confidence to develop written story ideas of their own – they are much better when asked to tell the story.”
Ms James says the tell-tale signs your child has a communication disorder include
- Not understanding or responding to what you say to them and having difficulty following spoken directions
- Only saying a few words or not combining words
- Using unclear speech and their words are not easily understood
- Not interacting socially and having trouble playing with other children
- Having difficulty with early reading and writing skills.
Ms James says the consequences of a communication disorder can have far reaching effects on a child’s development, including academic progress, behaviour, social interactions and self-esteem and confidence.
“Parents support and behaviour can assist in the development of their child’s language,” says Ms James.
Her top tips to support the development of children's communication skills are:
- Talk, play and read with your child
- Listen to and respond to your child
- Use everyday situations to talk about what you can see and what you are doing
- Use many different words and longer sentences as your child gets older
- Follow your child’s lead and talk to them about they are interested in
- Encourage your child to play with other children
- Enjoy music together.
Ms James recently presented her research to the national conference of speech pathologists.
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