A team approach to assessing and working with children with specific language difficulties

Abstract

This paper describes how the needs of children with specific language difficulties are assessed and met in Liverpool. It describes (a) the assessment procedure at the Child Development Centre, in particular the joint assessment of language and cognition; (b) the links between the child development centre and the Liverpool language units; and (c) the interdisciplinary way in which this is done. It is argued that the main strengths of this set-up are continuity of care, answerability to parents, and the effective use of resources.Liverpool was one of the first local education authorities in Britain to set up units for children needing intensive speech therapy input and a teaching approach and curriculum geared to their special language needs. The first three of these language units opened in 1974. The impetus behind this was the combined enthusiasm of four people: a consultant paediatric neurologist, the then head of the Liverpool School Psychological Service, a senior speech therapist, and a teacher. The first three were, at that time, working together in the Language Assessment Clinic of the regional Child Development Centre (CDC) at Alder Hey Childrens Hospital, and the teacher worked in the Day Unit in the CDC, which was increasingly specializing in children with language difficulties.In the twelve years since then, four more language units have opened, and the original close link between their work and that of the CDC has at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen on May 27, 2015 clt.sagepub.com Downloaded from 152 been maintained and strengthened. We believe that this link has helped to bring about an exceptionally interdisciplinary way of working which has encouraged continuity of care, answerability to parents, and the effective use of resources. Criticisms can also be made of aspects of the close-knit style of working which has evolved, and after outlining the structure of the service and briefly indicating assessment and therapy approaches, this paper concludes with the authors' own view of what are the major strengths and weaknesses of the system described. Joint language clinicsThe organization of the assessment procedures at the CDC and of the language units themselves has gone through many modifications over the years and continues to do so.