Speech and language therapists work in partnership with you and your child, as well as any other professional involved in their care, to enable them to reach communication potential. Our goal is to work closely with your family and educational staff so you understand your child’s needs, empowering you to be able to support and enable you and your child to achieve their best.
Speech and language therapists support children with children with a variety of needs. This includes children who have:
- difficulties understanding what is being said
- difficulties with vocabulary or putting words together
- unclear speech
- difficulty paying attention or listening to what has been said
- difficulty communicating with others
- difficulties with the mechanics of chewing and swallowing
- a hearing impairment
- a cleft lip and/or palate
- a stammer/stutter (these words mean the same thing)
Children’s speech and language therapy have an open referral system. This means that we accept referrals from any source including from parents, health visitors, pre-schools, nurseries, mainstream and special schools, paediatricians and GPs.
Please click on this link to refer your child into the service, you will then receive a telephone call from a speech and language therapist to discuss your concerns further and organise an assessment as appropriate.
If you feel your child has difficulties in one or more areas of their speech, language or communication, you may wish to use talking point’s progress checker to check the progress of your child’s communication development. Alternatively, if your child attends nursery or school, you may wish to discuss your concerns with them. Nurseries and schools have access to checklists and activities to support your child.
Please note that if your child is having difficulties with chewing and/or swallowing or has started to stammer then a referral should be made as soon as possible to ensure the correct advice is given to you. Click here to refer your child to the speech and language therapy team.