Collaborative working to promote the communication skills of a 14-year-old student with emotional, behavioural, learning and language difficulties

Research has shown that children with emotional and behavioural difficul-ties are likely to have additional special needs including undetected communication problems. This study considers the background factors associated with complex emotional, learning, and language difficulties in one individual. It also set out to investigate the effectiveness of an integrated approach, where professionals worked together to identify this student’s special needs, to help him learn and in particular, to develop his communication skills. While the results of a single case study must be treated with caution, this study suggests that integrated work had a positive effect on this student’s ability to interact and to learn.