Communicating Phonics - The Communication Trust

Communicating PhonicsSection 4 > Different types ofspeech, language and communication needs > Children with pragmatic language impairmentHelping to access the phonics screening checkPossible issuesChildren with pragmaticlanguage impairment often havedifficulty making sense of newsituations or activitiesThere may be difficulties due toraised anxiety because of poorsituational understandingChildren with pragmatic languageimpairment have concreteunderstanding and struggle tounderstand higher level aspects oflanguage like inferenceWays to helpThe check needs to be presentedas a routine reading session orother familiar task with a wellknownteacherCheck instructions will needto be given in simple languageand children may need you torepeat what they need to do andadditional trial itemsYou should also consider the following in your literacywork with children who have pragmatic languageimpairments:• Does the child understand what they can read?• Is the child able to draw the main theme from a story orconversation?• Does the child appreciate the difference between real andpseudo words?• Does the child have difficulty with sequencing and narrative?• Is the child able to follow jokes, sarcasm and general socialchatting?They may be easily distracted -unusual or novel items, such asthe unusual illustrations in thephonics screening check may beparticularly distractingSome children with pragmaticlanguage impairment havegood decoding skills and willexpect words to be meaningful;therefore they may underperform on the pseudo-wordsbecause they are trying to makethem into real words 52The screen will therefore needto be carried out in a quiet,distraction-free environmentFurther emphasis that thesewords are names of monsters oraliens may help to overcome thisproblem52 Freed et al, 201161