What is SLCN?

Afasic supports parents and represents children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

Some children find it hard to talk and/or understand what people say to them. SLCN is the term most commonly used to describe these difficulties. It stands for Speech, Language and Communication Needs. You might also occasionally hear the term SLCD, meaning Speech, Language and Communication Difficulties.

Skills for language development

The ability to speak and understand language requires a number of different skills. Children with SLCN might have a difficulty with just one skill, or with several. For example, some children might:

• Find it hard to make the mouth and tongue movements necessary to form clear sounds: ‘b’, ‘k’ etc.
• Have weak attention and listening skills. Young children learning to talk need to concentrate much harder than adults in order to understand what other people are saying – rather like we do when learning a foreign language
• Not understand what language is for, so often use or respond to it inappropriately –sometimes ignoring you when you speak to them, at other times saying something completely unrelated
• Find it hard to recognise the difference between certain sounds or words and so struggle to make sense of what they hear – confusing ‘look’ and ‘like’ for example
• Have a poor memory for what they hear, making it hard to learn new words or follow instructions

Some speech and language therapists and other professionals use a range of specific terms to describe these different types of difficulty.

SLCN sometimes occurs as part of another disability, such as Down’s syndrome, or a hearing impairment. Indeed, not learning to talk at the usual age is often the first sign of some conditions – autism, for example. This type of SLCN is described as a secondary need.

Afasic’s principal focus is on children whose SLCN is their only or main difficulty. This is often described as a primary or specific need.

Main factors of risk

In most cases, it is impossible to know for certain why children who seem otherwise perfectly fine develop SLCN. However, these are the main factors increasing the risk:

• Family History: Around 30% of children with SLCN have a close relative with similar difficulties, compared to only 3% of the general population. This suggests a genetic predisposition, but, few of the gene(s) responsible have so far been identified and it is not yet possible to take a blood test or anything to confirm the diagnosis.
• Low birthweight or preterm birth (before 37 weeks) – this doubles the risk
• Being a boy – SLCN is 2 – 3 times more common in boys than girls
• Delayed motor skills more than double the risk. Motor skills means things like learning to walk, throwing and catching a ball and using crayons

Written by Rachel Harrison, speech and language therapist, on behalf of Integrated Treatment Services.