NEURODIVERSITY HUB
Speech, Language and Communication
Reasonable Adjustments
Reasonable adjustments are changes that your school or family makes to remove or reduce a disadvantage because of your neurodivergent needs around routine and change. You can ask for reasonable adjustments to be made.
- Allow the child or young person more time to process information and instructions and formulate their own answers. If they do not respond immediately, count silently up to 10 before you try repeating or rephrasing.
- Use visual supports. Visuals can help children and young people understand about activities and transitions. They also help to support their memory. Use gestures, pointing and demonstrating what you mean. Draw pictures to help you explain. Make use of interactive whiteboards, iPads, apps and online videos. Provide visual timetables, flowcharts, language-rich displays and clear, simple signage around the school, college or workplace. Visual supports (autism.org.uk)
- Where possible, use a multi-sensory approach in your teaching and training. Try to provide multiple opportunities for hands-on learning especially in topics that have a heavy language load. For example, use number lines in maths or build a model of a volcano in geography. Start with the child or young person’s own first-hand experiences, focusing on life skills and creative tasks where possible. Model the language you want the child or young person to use throughout practical activities. This will support any subsequent spoken or written tasks.
- Think about how you use language
– Slow your rate of speech.
– Issue one instruction at a time and build the task up.
– Keep your sentences short and concise.
– Pause between sentences so that the young person can process the information more easily.
– Offer to repeat or rephrase
– Say instructions in the same order that you want them to be done. For example, ‘Finish question 10 before you go outside’ will be easier to understand than, ‘Before you go outside, finish question 10.’
– Simplify your vocabulary – such as using the word ‘make’ instead of ‘produce’.
– Try to avoid using idioms and other non-literal language. If you do, then explain what you mean. - It can be difficult for children and young people to clearly explain their side of events. For example, if there has been a conflict with a classmate. Give them more time and support to tell their story but only when they are calm.Try drawing the situation out in stick man/ cartoon form as you talk it through. This will help them to sort out the details of who, what, where, when (the sequence of events). Their own thoughts, feelings, and motivations and those of the other people involved can also be explored. https://bcuhb.nhs.wales/services/hospital-services/neurodevelopmental/documents/comic-strips
- Understanding and expressing their own emotions and understanding the emotions of others may be difficult. Take opportunities to describe and explain your own feelings out loud e.g. “I’m feeling so frustrated right now because my laptop is running slow”. Offer suggestions about how they might be feeling to build their own emotional vocabulary, “I wonder if you are feeling anxious right now because you’ve forgotten your workbook.”
- Be mindful that swearing may not be intentional for young people when they are dysregulated. Swear words are stored next to the emotional part of the brain and not in the cognitive-language area. Swearing can be part of the flight-fight-freeze response and is not always controllable and/or intended to offend.