The Support Centre for Autism & Language Impairment (SCALI)

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The Support Centre for Autism and Language Impairment at Thomas Tallis is for students who have a Statement of Special Educational Needs. The statement clarifies that they have learning difficulties as a result of a language disorder or persistent language delay and/or Autistic Spectrum Disorder. 

WHAT IS AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER? 

Autism affects how the brain functions and how a person perceives, processes, understands and responds to information.  All people on the autism spectrum are affected to a varying degree in the following three areas: 

• Social and emotional understanding
• Communication and language
• Flexibility of thought and behaviour 

This means that children with the autism spectrum disorder have difficulty with:

• understanding social behaviour and conventions, and being able to recognise their emotions and those of others,
• developing and using effective communication and language skills including speech, gesture, facial expressions and intonation,
• problem solving and knowing how to adapt when a familiar situation is changed.

WHAT IS LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT?

Language Impairment takes many forms. Although children whose language is impaired may have a diverse range of difficulties, they all have a problem with language development and effective communication. They may have difficulty in making sense of what they hear or in expressing their ideas and thoughts. Understanding and applying new concepts and unfamiliar vocabulary may cause confusion, and students may need considerable support to think about, plan and organise themselves. Their ability to perform tasks, which are not dependent on language will often be usual for their age. However, when language is required to take part in school activities all aspects of learning may be affected.

The purpose of the provision is to:

• Address communication difficulties and help students to develop their language skills.
• Teach students the language they need to understand and use for their school subjects.
• Support students with their work in mainstream lessons, optimizing their access to the National Curriculum.
• Implement programmes of study addressing social skills and social language, so that students can make the most of their integration into the social, pastoral and extra-curricular life of the school.
• Encourage and facilitate independence and the fullest possible participation in whole school life.
• Focus on basic skills recovery in literacy and numeracy.
• Raise and maintain awareness of language difficulties and to disseminate information to all staff at Thomas Tallis regarding:

1. students' strengths and talents,
2. the nature of their language difficulties,
3. appropriate achievable targets,
4. strategies,
5. good practice in teaching of students with speech and language needs,
6. work in partnership with Tallis mainstream, Tallis SEN and the Support Centre for Deaf and Hearing Impaired, and students' parents.

SUPPORT AND WITHDRAWAL

Students in the Support Centre for Autism and Language Impairment usually follow a full mainstream timetable and are supported by a team of Learning Support Assistants in at least 75% of lessons, including all core curriculum subjects. Students are withdrawn for 1-4 lessons per week depending on the type of intervention needed. Students will normally see the Speech and Language Therapist for an hour each week.