The Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) service provides assessment, diagnosis, advice and treatment for children with a range of speech, language and communication and swallowing difficulties. Treatment may be offered on an individual or group basis or through programmes of advice. The NHS service is for children with a Stockport GP up to the age of 16 years or 19 years if they attend Heaton Special School. The NHS SLTs may also be funded by a child’s school/local authority to meet a child’s needs under an educational duty as described in Special Educational Needs and Disability code of practice.
The service is divided into teams depending on your child’s age & needs.
What should you do if you are concerned about your child’s speech, language or communication skills, or their feeding / swallowing?
Pre-School children: The health visitor / early years worker will carry out a number of checks on your child between 0-5 using ‘Ages and Stages’ and you can speak with them about any concerns you may have at this time. You can also talk to your Health Visitor or Nursery Staff if you are concerned about your child’s speech and language development. If you are concerned about your child’s development in more areas than just communication, call your health visitor for advice/information. They can make a referral to any service they feel is appropriate for your child.
School Age Children: If you are concerned ask the school teacher / special educational needs co-ordinator to discuss your child with their named therapist. If appropriate a referral can then be taken for the NHS speech and language therapist.
What will happen next?
What will happen next depends on the difficulties your child is having. These may be with speech, language or social communication, dysfluency (stammering) and, or feeding / swallowing skills.
Your child may be offered intervention from the early years workforce, school or nursery staff. The Speech and Language Team can also offer further support and advice as needed.
Parents/carers may be asked to carry out speech and language activities with their own child.
School may be advised to follow in school interventions and a referral may or may not be needed.
Your child may be taken on by the speech and language therapy NHS team and offered a range of therapies such as group sessions or individual sessions with the speech and language therapist.
Children may be given a programme of activities that nursery / school support staff would carry out with them and the therapist would see them again to review their progress.
The Speech and Language Therapy service may also offer direct therapy to children with the most severe communication and / or feeding / swallowing difficulties.
Parents may be invited to training sessions to help them support their child’s needs.
This could include:
Makaton Training – use of signs and symbols to support language and speech development
Visual Approaches to support Autism
SLT strategies for children with speech language and communication needs.
For any queries or more information about opportunities offered by the service to empower parents / carers through training please email CTSTraining@stockport.nhs.uk
The level of service and support will depend upon the specific needs of your child’s speech , language, communication and / or feeding / swallowing difficulties.
When should a child be referred to speech and language therapy?
Children should be referred to Speech and Language Therapy for assessments / advice as follows:
- Children with severe speech or language delay including stammering. Severe usually means children with a delay in their language of over 12 months.
- If a child is stammering they should be referred immediately.
- Children showing signs of being selective mute should be referred immediately.
- Children whose language has regressed, i.e. they have lost language they previously had should be referred immediately.
- Children with feeding and swallowing difficulties should be referred immediately.
- Children with complex language and communication needs including Autism who need more help to achieve their developmental goals.
- School age children who are very unclear with their speech and mixing up sounds well beyond the age expected. ( NB Schools have a computer tool ‘Speechlink’ to screen children and provide in school help where appropriate before making a referral).
School age children who are stammering and need more help. |