Many children have special needs or learning difficulties. Children with special educational needs often have difficulties with communication or learning because of disease, injury or a disorder or syndrome. Some children just have learning difficulties for no apparent reason. However, no matter what the level of communication difficulty, it is likely that there are ways to facilitate children to communicate. Even children with profound difficulties have the potential to increase their level of communication, allowing them to initiate, respond and make choices. (Access the different pages using the Special Needs menu on the left of the screen).
This section of the website focuses on:
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Children with Special Needs and Learning Disabilities – this section will give an overview of the causes and nature of special needs. Children with special needs, learning disabilities, or learning difficulties present with a wide range of communication, speech, and language difficulties.
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Syndromes – many children have communication difficulties as a result of a genetic syndrome. There are hundreds of known syndromes, some of which are extremely rare. A genetic syndrome, may have little or no effect on communication skills, but often there are communication difficulties due to physical or cognitive difficulties. icommunicate plans to build up a database of syndromes and associated communication difficulties, as well as, offering information, strategies and programs to facilitate communication.
- Total Communication - icommunicate follows the Total Communication philosophy, which tries to find any and every way possible to enhance communication. Individuals with high and complex needs can also be given the opportunity to communicate there needs and feelings, using a range on communicative tools. We also provide some Key Guidelines, which are simple tips that you can use everyday to make communication easier. These key guidlelines can help parents, students and teachers to enhance communication. Special needs schools often have a students with a diverse range of communication disorders, but there are many key strategies that can be used to improve the communicative environment. Our Downloads Centre contains a Total Communication Section, which we will continue to update.
- Strategies to Facilitate Communication - in this section of the website we briefly discuss communication strategies such as using visuals and objects, assistive communication devices (AAC), and enhancing communication to create a positive communication environment which will impact positively on challenging and inappropriate behaviour.
You may also find information and strategies that are associated with special needs and communication development in our Autism Section and our Child Development Section.
If your child has a communication delay for whatever reason, it is important that you contact your local speech and language pathologist / therapist for specialist input and guidance.
To find out more about the range of communication options that you can use to facilitate communication for individuals with special needs see the Total Communication Folder of our Downloads Centre.
To find more information and resources relating to Special Needs and communication visit our Resource Centre.
You can also look at, and purchase a large variety of books relating to Children with Special Needs, and facilitating the communication, learning, and behaviour of individuals with special needs, at our Online BookShop.
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icommunicate Guide 
