Our Approach to Communication
The SEND Code of Practice (2015) identifies Communication and Interaction as an area of special educational need and support. Ensuring coverage for children and young people who have difficulty communicating with others and understanding language.
Total Communication Approach
West Gate School subscribes to a total communication approach in recognition that we all connect and communicate differently. Total communication is about developing functional communication that is highly personalised to the individual. By applying a holistic approach, we are able to develop a range of communication skills that allow our young people to become empowered, being able to form connections with others through successful interactions, supporting information exchanges and developing conversations.
‘Process Based Learning’.
Communication is a process; learners will learn the process of communication by communicating, and the more opportunities they have of communicating, the more secure their learning will be.
Therefore, it is essential we are always providing:
1. A motivation (a reason) for communicating
2. A means (a method) of communicating
3. A mate, someone (a partner or partners) to communicate to.
Communication underpins all learning
Every opportunity is taken throughout the school day to support and develop communication. For example, the use of symbol exchange, symbol/photograph core boards, true object-based icons (TOBIs), objects of reference, Signalong signing and verbal communication are embedded into all sessions of the day. This is always tailored to pupils’ needs and within the classroom environment as well as along the corridor to promote the use of communication skills in meaningful contexts.
We focus on supporting pupils to be dynamic in their communication, to express preferences, feelings and opinions, to move beyond “imperative communication” and ‘I want’ strips.
We want our pupils to have a voice and to feel safe and confident to use it.
To enable this to happen, we aim to create a Total Communication environment which is appropriate to the needs of learners and is consistently supported by staff, to enable our learners to develop a meaningful and effective form of communication. The needs of our learners are at the forefront of everything we do and therefore the way we communicate with learners is personalised to each learner according to their needs.
Total Communication - this may include:
At West Gate School we encourage development in the six main areas of communicative learning for children, young people and adults. Those being:
1. Imperative communications: Based on getting needs and wants met. E.g. “I want biscuit”
2. Declarative communications: Which are not meant to gain anything other than joint attention and acknowledgement, but are essentially social communications expressed for the joy of communicating and are communications for the sake of themselves, for example ‘Isn’t it a lovely day’, or perhaps on the most basic level ‘Hello’.
3. Formal social interactions with familiar and unfamiliar people: These require a particular way of behaving that take in a society’s understandings of what constitutes appropriate language, familiarity, attention, time, proximity and touch. They are generally rule bound and will be societal bound.
4. Non-verbal, behavioural communications: Learners may have significant difficulties with their receptive and expressive communication and sensory processing and may use behaviour as a form of communication. We emphasise ‘listening to behaviours’ as a key factor, because we recognise that many learners have difficulties with verbal communication skills and will therefore communicate most effectively through their actions.
5. Peer to peer communications: If communicating with and to someone without communication difficulties is a significant challenge, communicating with and to someone (such as classmates) with communication difficulties is bound to be considerably more challenging!
6. Augmentative and alternative communications (AAC): These are a series of methods used to allow learners access to any of the above areas of communication. Learners at West Gate will have access to personalised communication aids wherever required. Some learners will use them at all times as a necessity,
some may use them temporarily and some may use them alongside others as part of a wider range of communication experiences.
Some learners are at a stage before their communication becomes fully intentional, so staff need to be sensitive in interpreting behaviours. Some learners will be more intentional in their communication, but not yet able to use functional language.
At West Gate, Learners are supported to develop their:
- Social Interaction through staff understanding the “Stages of Play”
- Unoccupied Play
- Solitary Play
- Onlooker Play
- Parallel Play
- Associative Play
- Receptive language
- From recognising to understanding how to respond to facial expressions, tone of voice, non-verbal cues (body language);
- Tolerating peers in their environment, which might take the form of giving joint attention, playing alongside a peer, engaging in a simple game with another pupil, perhaps with support (you can reduce support and prompting over time as appropriate), engaging in more complex games with peers as appropriate to each pupil;
- Demonstrating the ability to comprehend
- Developing conventions of conversation such as turn taking (my turn your turn) and remembering learned responses.
- Expressive language via
- Body Language
- Facial Expressions
- Gesture
- Pointing
- Vocalisations (Functional and Non-Functional)
- Behaviour
- Signs (signalong) and Symbols (InPrint)
Many of our pupils at West Gate have a diagnosis of Autism, which brings with it recognised difficulties with social communication, social interaction, and rigidity in behaviour towards thought and change.
What does this mean communicatively for pupils?
Social communication
Many Learners have difficulties with interpreting both verbal and non-verbal language like gestures or tone of voice. Some pupils are unable to speak or have limited speech. Other challenges include:
- taking things literally and not understanding abstract concepts
- needing extra time to process information or answer questions
- repeating what others say to them (this is called echolalia)
Social interaction
Autistic pupils often have difficulty 'reading' other people - recognising or understanding others' feelings and intentions - and recognising and expressing their own emotions. This can make it very hard to navigate the social world. Autistic pupils may:
- appear to be insensitive
- seek out time alone when overloaded by other people
- not seek comfort from other people
- appear to behave 'strangely' or in a way thought to be socially inappropriate
- find it hard to form friendships.
Repetitive and Restrictive Behaviours
With its unwritten rules, the world can seem a very unpredictable and confusing place to autistic individuals. This is why they often prefer to have routines so that they know what is going to happen. They may want to travel the same way to and from school or work, wear the same clothes or eat exactly the same food for breakfast.
Autistic pupils may also repeat movements such as hand flapping, rocking or the repetitive use of an object such as twirling a pen or opening and closing a door. Autistic pupils often engage in these behaviours to help calm themselves when they are stressed or anxious, but many autistic pupils do it because they find it enjoyable. This is, in itself, communication.
Change to routine can also be very distressing for autistic pupils and make them very anxious. It could be having to adjust to big events like Christmas or changing schools, or something simpler like a bus detour that can trigger their anxiety.