A language/communication difficulty is at the core of many types of special educational need: specific and general learning difficulties, autism, sensory impairments and specific developmental disorders. A language-based approach to teaching and therapy therefore provides a key to unlocking many children's difficulties with learning and social behaviour in both mainstream and special schools.

Underpinned by this ideology and based upon observations of practice and research this book covers issues surrounding language difficulties in educational contexts from pre-school to adolescence. It then presents a language-based approach to educating children with special needs, in mainstream and special schools. A final chapter addresses the use of IT in the education of children with language difficulties.