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Perryfields Primary

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Communication and Interaction

Communication and Interaction (CI)

What is CI?

Within the code of practice, communication and interaction is defined as follows:

 

Paragraph 6.29
‘Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them, or they do not understand or use social rules of communication. The profile for every child with SLCN is different and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives.’
Some of our children experience some challenges with communication and interaction and there are lots of ways in which we support the development of this within school.  We are supported by the Speech and Language Therapy Service who work with the children and Perryfields Primary staff to help us provide the optimum environment in which children can develop their skills.
At Perryfields we use a Total Communication approach which basically means that we utilise different methods of communication to support each individual child as fully as possible.  Listed below are just a few of the different approaches used but staff will be happy to discuss with you what is most appropriate for your individual child’s needs.  Whatever approach is decided upon, spoken language at an appropriate level for each individual is always used.  Here we outline some of the ways in which we support communication development in school.  This list is not exhaustive, and it may be that other methods are used to support your child.  Our commitment to working with parents to ensure the best outcomes means that we will always talk to you about the most appropriate ways to support your child.

Visuals and Widgets

Children with learning difficulties benefit from having a visual to support the spoken word.
Some children have spoken language supported by photographs of the real object / place.  For example, they are shown a photograph of soft play before being taken there.  For others a symbol or drawing will support their understanding.
As with all of our communication support approaches the level of visuals will be personalised to the individual.  Some children will be shown a single visual prompt, others will have a now/next board and others may have a timetable for the day showing them what will happen.
Each class has a standardised Visual Timetable.  This aids with transition from one class to another.

Objects of Reference

An object of reference is a whole physical object, or part of an object, that you hold or touch to represent or identify:
  • A person.
  • An object.
  • A place.
  • An activity.
  • An idea.

This approach is used for children at the earliest levels of understanding who find it difficult to understand spoken words, signs, symbols or photographs. Adults encourage them to handle a real object which becomes part of the activity.  For example, a cup may represent a drink or a swimsuit might represent swimming.

Objects of reference can help children to: 
  • Make their own choices. 
  • Understand more of what people are saying. 
  • Ask someone to start an activity. 
  • Ask someone to end an activity. 
  • Ask for something they want. 
  • Ask to do something or go somewhere. 
  • Understand the different things planned for the day and when they’ll happen.

Intensive Interaction

What is intensive interaction? 
 
Intensive interaction is a social communication approach that is most often used with people who have learning difficulties and/or autism. It helps to develop early interaction skills so that children can enjoy being with other people and develop their ability to use eye contact, facial expression, vocalisation and turn taking. 
Intensive Interaction is a type of play based therapy which works to engage a child who may find it challenging to communicate or interact with those around them. It is in some ways, a conversation that doesn’t require spoken words. This method is different from other approaches in that in encourages the adult to completely follow the child’s lead, using skills your child has to join them in their own style of communication. This teaches your child that their “ voice” is valued and encourages them to explore it further.
 
What does it involve?
The following points are a great place to start, but we would highly recommend you speak to your speech therapist to see a demonstration or discuss this further.

Mirroring– this simply means copying what your child does, as they do it, this includes using the same body language and facial expressions, mirroring movements, repeating any sounds your child makes back to them.
 
Expanding– over time, if your child is showing a positive response to you copying their movements/sound etc. you can then expand on it a little. E.g. if your child is tapping on the floor, you could move to gentle tapping on their arm and seeing if their response changes.

Pausing to Watch and Respond—at all times your should be fully focused on how your child responds to your actions, do they look/stop/smile etc. The more you watch, the more you will notice how to adapt what you are doing to maintain their interest.
 
This interaction is key for building the foundations for communication, therefore your child may need to be showing good progress with this before they are ready to work on communicating using words or pictures.

Makaton

Makaton signs are used, always alongside speech, to support children to understand the spoken word.  Signs are very useful for children who are visual learners and helps them to develop and expand their vocabulary skills.
In the academic year 2024-25 three members of staff (one from EYFS, one from KS1 and one from KS2) received Level 1 and Level 2 training in Makaton from a qualified trainer. 
We focus on a sign per week and have visual representations of key marathon signs up around classrooms and the agora. (don’t do yet but would like to do)

PECS

The Picture Exchange Communication System is where a child is taught to hand over a picture or symbol in order to get something they want.  We start at the very early stages of children requesting a favourite food or toy then move onto sentence level and commenting to develop language skills.  As with signing, speech is also used alongside PECS.

Colourful Semantics

Colourful Semantics is a Speech and Language Therapy approach created by Alison Bryan. This approach provides children with a visual framework to develop their sentence structure and grammar. It does this by attaching a colour to the different elements in a sentence:
  1. Who – Orange
  2. What Doing – Yellow
  3. What – Green
  4. Where – Blue
This allows your child to learn the imporant elements of a sentence (e.g. verbs), and how to put them together in the correct order. By providing this visual element, you give your child the opportunity to build their own sentences, at the level they are working on.
Alongside the four key colour-coded elements, there are also further stages that incorporate adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions and negatives.
In order to understand a bit better how this approach works let’s look at this sentence:
~
Tom is riding his bike to the shop.

There are different parts that make up this sentence and each part is given a colour:

Who? Tom
What Doing? is riding
What? his bike
Where? to the shop
Who is Colourful Semantics suitable for?
The Colourful Semantics approach is suitable for children with a wide range of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN):
  • Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
  • Language Delay or Disorder
  • Global Developmental Delay
  • Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
  • Learning Disability
  • Down Syndrome
What kind of things can Colourful Semantics be used for?
There are a range of skills that can be targeted using this approach, including but not limited to;
  • Understanding & answering WH question words (e.g. who, what)
  • Understanding word order (e.g. Subject-Verb- Object)
  • Developing sentence length
  • Story telling skills
  • Vocabulary development
WellComm
Delayed language skills lead to under-performance later in life. WellComm helps to identify primary school children who are experiencing barriers to speech and language development so that we can support them early in their education journey.
WellComm is an assessment toolkit which assesses Language and Understanding.  It creates a report identifying whether a child is working age appropriate (green), working towards age appropriate (amber) and below age appropriate (red).
Once assessed using the toolkit children are put into intervention groups where the ‘Big Book of Ideas’ is worked on.  The ‘Big Book of Ideas’ has targeted activities to help take appropriate action straight away.  Activities and strategies are shared with parents.

If you child scores ‘red’ and makes minimal progress on the intervention, the SENCo will ask you to make a referral to the SALT.

 

Speech and Language Referral to a Speech and Language Therapist 
FASTA is the referral service to make an appointment for a child to see an Speech and Language Therapist.
Therapies Booking Service – 0121 612 2010 for all first appointments
Referrals may be instigated by professionals but parents must make the phone call to make the appointment.
Opening times for appointment line:
Monday to Wednesday: 8.30am-12.30pm and 1.30-4pm
Thursday 9am-12.30pm and 1.30-3.30pm
(Please note the service is closed for lunch between 12.30-1.30pm)
During school holidays:
Monday to Wednesday: 8.30am-12.30pm
Thursday: 9am-12pm