Expressive Language

Prompts for professional reflection, not diagnostic criteria. Look for patterns across contexts rather than single incidents.

• Contributions are short, general or vague relative to what the pupil clearly knows.
• Reaches for non-specific vocabulary — "the thing", "it went like" — instead of subject terms already taught.
• Can point to or select the right answer but cannot explain the reasoning aloud.
• Oral recount or explanation loses sequence; the listener has to reconstruct it.
• Written work is noticeably thinner than the pupil's oral understanding suggests it should be.
• Avoids volunteering, defers to a partner, or repeats a peer's answer verbatim.
• Talk drops away sharply in unfamiliar, evaluated or whole-class settings.
• Frustration, withdrawal or off-task behaviour clusters around tasks requiring extended talk or writing.

A profile built only from what a child cannot do is an incomplete profile — and usually an unfair one.

• Understanding that outstrips expression — often visible in practical or non-verbal tasks.
• Persistence in getting a message across through gesture, drawing or demonstration.
• Strong visual, spatial or practical reasoning.
• Precise contributions when given a sentence frame or a choice of terms.
• Willingness to talk in a pair or small group when whole-class talk is too exposed.

Difficulty being understood can be exhausting and can surface as refusal, clowning, withdrawal or anger — particularly at the point where extended talk or writing is required.

NICE's rationale for early identification of speech and language need notes that children with communication difficulties are at increased risk of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. That is a reason to consider language as a possible factor — not a reason to assume it explains any given incident.

On prevalence: the SCALES population study (Norbury et al., 2016) found around 7.6% of children have developmental language disorder — roughly two per class of thirty. That figure covers language disorder overall, receptive and expressive together; there is no reliable separate figure for expressive difficulty alone.

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.