Dr Judy Clegg, Sheffield University will present this seminar for a general audience of professionals who work with children and young people.

Children and young people with communication difficulties are, by definition, vulnerable. Communication difficulties may be their primary presenting condition, and this affects their functioning and their future in all aspects of their lives. However communication difficulties are also found with very high frequency in other populations of children and young people identified as vulnerable, such as those with social and emotional difficulties, behavioural difficulties (or all three), those coming from poverty and social disadvantage, and those already in contact with the justice system. This makes “communication needs in vulnerable children and young people” a very large issue for society to deal with. 

This talk will review what we know now. It will present the current evidence on the language and communication needs of vulnerable children and young people and our understanding of their needs and developmental trajectories. It will discuss theoretical issues of how associated language and communication is with later social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Last but not least, it will tackle the implications of how much we understand about the needs of these individuals in relation to the provision currently offered.

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