Why do SLTs need to assess eligibility? 

BEST was developed as a specialist intervention for children with significant language difficulties or disorder. These children often have complex needs and difficulties in other areas of language and development such as social communication disorders, hearing impairment and speech sound disorders which may limit their ability to engage with and benefit from BEST. SLTs have the knowledge and expertise to identify these needs and decide if BEST is a suitable approach. If SLTs are not involved in this process children with previously unidentified needs and disorders may not receive timely diagnoses and the correct support may not be put in place.  

Can schools administer the Eligibility Assessment if a child is already known to Speech and Language Therapy services? 

In some cases, if schools have a close relationship with SLT services and following discussion with a child’s SLT, school staff may administer the eligibility assessment if the SLT agrees that it would be suitable for the child. 

What is meant by ‘significant or severe language difficulties or disorder’? 

In the context of BEST, we mean children who are unable to produce multiword sentences made up of three or more parts. By the age of three, most children can put words together to form a range of meaningful sentences that have multiple elements. For example, “the boy gave the apple to the man” is a sentence with four elements. However, some children can find forming sentences like this very difficult and may communicate mainly with single, two, or three-word sentences made up of only one or two parts (“the man go”, “me sit”). The following link from Speech and Language therapy UK provides helpful information about typical ages and stages for language development which may help you think about the children in your setting who may be struggling with language. https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/help-for-families/ages-and-stages/ 

Why can’t autistic children use BEST? 

BEST uses joint attention and play based activities to support language development. Autistic children may have significant difficulties in these areas and therefore will be unlikely to benefit from the program. Alternative, specialist support may be required for these children.