This Friday, Liz Murray, Director of SEND for STAR Academies, and I are speaking at TES SEND North in Bolton. We’ll be talking about the links between social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) and speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), which seems very timely as this week is Children’s Mental Health Week.
Liz contacted me a few years ago because she noticed that the number of children identified with social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) needs was growing. At the same time, those with SLCN were under-identified, a picture I see replicated across many of the schools we work with at LINGO.
Liz and I have worked together over the past few years on how best to support children with SLCN in the STAR Academies. A big part of this work includes identifying children with SLCN alongside supporting SENCos and class teachers to understand the links between SLCN and mental health.
This is important as we know many children with SEMH have underlying language needs, which can often go unseen. Between 40-54% of children with behavioural needs have language impairment. A huge 81% of children with emotional and behavioural disorders have unidentified language difficulties. Additionally, children with Developmental Language Disorder are at much higher risk of emotional difficulties than their typically developing peers.
The Relationship Between SEMH and SLCN: A Growing Concern in Schools
The complex relationships between SEMH and SLCN can make it difficult to identify children with underlying language difficulties, with some being misunderstood and others missed altogether. We often see children’s behaviours, but it’s much more difficult to see what the underlying issue might be. For instance:
Lack of engagement can be seen as difficult behaviour rather than a struggle with following instructions.
Lack of compliance can be seen as poor behaviour rather than lack of understanding.
Student responses can be seen as a lack of cooperation, defiance, or rudeness rather than difficulty organising or using language well.
It’s difficult, as sometimes children are non-compliant, though others don’t understand and can respond with frustration. This can be cumulative, and before we know it, the social, emotional, and mental health needs have completely masked the underlying difficulties with language.
We know, for example, that around two-thirds of children at risk of school exclusion have language difficulties. Our Youth Justice system also has high numbers of children with SLCN – for example, in 2019-2020, a staggering 71% of young people sentenced in youth courts had language disorders.
Behaving appropriately depends on the ability to think through situations and anticipate the emotions that will be generated. However, children with SEMH and language needs are often:
Less able to talk about their own feelings,
Less able to identify emotions in others and
Can struggle with problem-solving and prediction based on language and reasoning.
How can we expect these children to manage their emotions and develop emotional literacy if they don’t have the words to recognise and regulate their emotions?
So, if we are working with children who have been identified as having SEMH, it’s always worth asking questions about their language skills. This is particularly important around their understanding of language, which can be very difficult to spot.
The Everyday Struggles of Children with SLCN
Imagine for a moment that you struggle to understand what people say. Maybe it takes you a while to process information. Then, before you know it, the conversation or instruction has moved on, and you’re lost. Or maybe you have something to say but don’t have the words. Or you struggle to put those words into sentences that other people understand. These scenarios can very quickly become overwhelming, resulting in frustration, anxiety, and opting out.
For children with language needs, just listening to talk can be exhausting.
How SLCN Links to Mental Health Challenges
It’s not surprising, therefore, that children with SLCN are at higher risk of social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties and mental health difficulties. This is exacerbated when needs are not identified, supported, or understood. I work a lot with children who have Developmental Language Disorder. They tell me that one of the things that makes a big difference to them is when the adults around them know they have DLD and understand what that means.
We might see other ‘symptoms,’ such as limited attention, literacy difficulties like understanding texts or writing cohesively. We might see many behaviours not conducive to learning, from distraction and disengagement to challenge.
Early identification is therefore so important, not only for their language development but also to mitigate mental health risks.
How Strong Language Skills Support Better Mental Health Outcomes
There is now research to support the positive impact strong language skills can have on our mental health. For example:
We know that early language development at ages 2 and 4 is closely linked with emotional development and behaviour at age 6.
The Millennium Cohort Study found that verbal cognitive ability appears to be a powerful protective factor against the development of childhood conduct problems.
We also know that for older children (9-12-year-olds) with SLCN, a feeling of agency and positive relationships were protective factors in relation to wellbeing.
Practical Steps for Supporting Children with SEMH and SLCN in the Classroom
So, what to do…
Identification is key – consider testing language skills of children identified with SEMH. There are lots of checklists and screening tools that can help.
Collaboration between therapists and schools at every level can help enormously, including at leadership levels, between therapists, SENCos, and class teachers.
Use simple classroom adaptations to support understanding, for example:
Consider adult language
Check understanding
Use visual support
Chunking instructions to make them easier to follow
Consider implementing language interventions for children with SEMH – we have our own we use with good impact https://www.lingospeech.co.uk/category/all-products. We also love the Language for Behaviour and Emotions resource – reference below.
Teach emotional words vocabulary explicitly if needed.
Speech and language therapy plays an important role in identifying and supporting SLCN. It promotes better outcomes for those with social, emotional, and mental health needs.
Use what’s out there - Check out some great free resources developed by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) – a set of useful factsheets and a free online training course – Mind Your Words in our resource list below.
Remember, if in doubt, ask yourself - "Could this child have language needs?"
Resource List
Language for Behaviour and Emotions
Supporting Social, Emotional and Mental Health and Wellbeing Factsheet:
Promoting Social, Emotional and Mental Health Factsheet: