Expressive Language

Expressive difficulties are under-identified because they are quiet. A child who says little rarely generates referrals. Start from structured observation rather than from a checklist.

• Sample talk in at least three contexts: one-to-one with a familiar adult, small group, whole class.
• Compare oral explanation with written output and with non-verbal demonstration of the same knowledge.
• Record what the child can do with a scaffold in place and without it — the difference is the most useful single datum you will collect.
• Note vocabulary reach, sentence length and complexity, sequencing in recount, and word-finding pauses.
• Ask the family what talk looks like at home, and ask the child what makes talking easier or harder.
• Check hearing has been screened recently, and check whether English is an additional language — a child developing EAL is not thereby a child with SLCN.

• Universal: sentence stems in every classroom, structured partner talk, explicit vocabulary teaching, thinking time as a norm, multi-modal ways to show learning.
• Targeted: small-group oral language work, pre-teaching vocabulary ahead of the lesson, narrative structure support, colourful semantics or similar approaches where staff are trained in them.
• Specialist: speech and language therapy involvement, programmes designed and monitored by the therapist, AAC assessment where appropriate.
• Reasonable adjustments: extra processing time, alternative response formats, reduced volume of written output where composition is not the objective, advance notice of questions.

NHS speech and language therapy provision and referral routes vary considerably by area, and Bercow: Ten Years On found provision across England uneven. Know your local pathway before you need it.

• Find out whether your service accepts school referrals, parent self-referral, or both.
• Referrals are stronger with specific evidence: examples of the child's talk, what has already been tried, and for how long.
• Where a therapist gives a programme, agree who delivers it, how often, and how it is recorded — otherwise it quietly stops.
• Waiting is not a reason to pause school provision. Adjustments should be running before, during and after any specialist involvement.

• Open with what the child can do, and mean it.
• Use examples rather than terminology — "she starts a sentence and abandons it" travels better than "expressive language difficulty".
• Be honest about uncertainty and about waiting times rather than managing expectations downwards.
• Ask what helps at home. Families usually know strategies the school has not tried.
• Be clear that school support does not depend on a diagnosis.

Standardised scores move slowly. Choose measures that will actually show change within a term.

• Mean length of utterance or sentence complexity in a short recorded sample, repeated termly.
• Volume and quality of independent written output on comparable tasks.
• Frequency of voluntary contributions in class, counted over a fixed period.
• Use of taught vocabulary in the pupil's own talk and writing.
• Reduction in scaffolding needed to reach the same outcome.
• The child's own report of whether talking in class feels easier.

1. Department for EducationStatutory guidance
   SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (2015)

   Names communication and interaction — including speech, language and communication needs — as one of the four broad areas of SEN, and sets out the graduated approach schools must follow.

2. Department for EducationStatutory guidance
   Early years foundation stage statutory framework (current version)

   Communication and language is one of three prime areas; providers must give children a language-rich environment and opportunities to express themselves.

3. Department for EducationProfessional guidance
   Development Matters: non-statutory curriculum guidance for the EYFS (2023 revision)

   Describes typical progression in listening, understanding and speaking. Explicitly not a checklist, and not statutory.

4. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Oral language interventions (Teaching and Learning Toolkit)

   Rates oral language approaches as high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence. The Toolkit is periodically revised, so check the live page for the current impact estimate rather than quoting an older figure.

5. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Preparing for Literacy: improving communication, language and literacy in the early years (2018)

   Recommends high-quality adult–child interaction and structured language development, and notes the recommendations may also apply to older pupils who have fallen behind.

6. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1 (2017, updated)

   Places developing pupils' language capability — vocabulary, listening and structured talk — among the foundations of early reading and writing.

7. Education Endowment FoundationResearch summary
   Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 (2017, updated 2021)

   Links spoken vocabulary and structured discussion to reading comprehension and writing composition across KS2.

8. Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsProfessional guidance
   Clinical information: developmental language disorder (DLD)

   States that DLD affects around 7.6% of children — roughly two in a class of thirty — and describes its impact on understanding and using language.

9. Norbury, Gooch, Wray, Baird, Charman, Simonoff, Vamvakas & PicklesResearch evidence
   The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder (SCALES study), Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2016)

   The peer-reviewed population study behind the 7.6% figure. It concerns language disorder overall — receptive and expressive — not expressive difficulties in isolation.

10. Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsProfessional guidance
    Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): position statement (2024)

    Defines AAC — signing, symbols, boards, speech-generating devices — and summarises the evidence base. States that AAC supports rather than delays spoken language.

11. Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsProfessional guidance
    Augmentative and Alternative Communication: overview (2024)

    Plain-language explanation of AAC for families and school staff.

12. Speech and Language UKProfessional guidance
    Ages and Stages

    Qualitative descriptions of typical speech, language and communication development by age band. Ranges, not norms — individual variation is expected.

13. NICEProfessional guidance
    Early years: promoting health and wellbeing in under 5s (QS128), quality statement 2: speech and language (2016)

    Its rationale notes that children with communication difficulties are at increased risk of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The statement itself concerns early identification, not primary-age provision.

14. I CAN and RCSLTProfessional guidance
    Bercow: Ten Years On — an independent review of provision for children and young people with SLCN (2018)

    National review finding awareness of communication needs low and provision across England uneven, with recommendations on identification, workforce and whole-school practice.

15. Public Health EnglandProfessional guidance
    Best start in speech, language and communication (2020)

    Guidance and supporting evidence on early identification of communication needs. Early-years focused; useful background for primary schools working with feeder settings.