Helen Prince talks to Louise Pennington about communication in children with special educational needs.  Louise outlines the challenges some children with SEND face from early years through to secondary education and how the Word Gap can affect this, before offering strategies to help support teachers and pupils. 

Louise Pennington is the Professional Development Lead for maths and Numicon at Oxford University Press. She is a founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and previous Primary Teacher, SENCO and Local Authority SEND Team Leader.  Louise tweets at @pdLouiseP

Further reading and support:

• Louise recommends 10 favourite gins with an education connection!
• The Communication Trust: A website for professionals supported by a collection of not-for-profit organisations.
• I CAN’s Talking Point: A guide to the typical stages of speech and language development in babies, children and young people.