What is Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy?
Our Speech and Language Therapy Team provide life-improving support and care for children and young people who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking, or swallowing.
We are based at Rowan House in Hyde, but we work in a variety of different settings including schools, community clinics, special schools, the young person’s home and nurseries.
Our goal is to make sure that the child’s environment and the people within it are able to support a child to reach their communication potential and to participate fully in all areas of their life. We work closely with parents and carers, teachers and teaching assistants and other health professionals to achieve this goal.
How to refer to us
If you have concerns around your child's speech and language or communication needs, they may need a referral into our speech and language team. We accept referrals from parents, schools and other health professionals. All referrals should be made using the ISCAN Referral form and sent to our Community Booking Team (childrenscommunitycentralbooking@tgh.nhs.uk)
Early Years
If your child is age 5 or younger, and their are concerns with their language skills please liaise with their Health visitor or setting to ensure they have followed the Language and Communication standard to support the referral and send the completed the record sheet . Referrals that have not followed the Language and Communication standard will be rejected.
School aged children
If your child is school aged, please liaise with their school to complete the School's Screening Tool to support the referral to show what you have already put into place.
Please note referrals for children with speech sound difficulties (pronunciation of sounds) will only be accepted when a child is 3 years 6 months or older
Children of any age can be referred for stammering
Our pathways
Within speech and language therapy we have different teams to be meet the different needs of all children and young people. The majority of children aged 5 and under will be seen at local community clinics, Children over 5 years of age will mostly be seen at school and in some cases at home.
See below for an overview of our different pathways
This is for children under 5 and also children of any age who have speech sound difficulties or a stammer
- Your child will be offered an face to face appointment at a local community clinic for initial assessment to establish their strengths and needs and decide on next steps.
- You can choose whichever clinic is most convenient for you.
- In your first appointment we will discuss any concerns you have about your child and go through their medical and developmental history.
- Then the therapist will assess your child. This may involve any or all of the following: observation, playing with your child, carrying out assessments.
- We offer different packages of care depending on your child’s level of need. This may be group therapy, a written programme for nursery/school staff, advice for parents or in some cases 1:1 therapy.
- If needed, some children will be offered a review appointment to check how they are progressing and decide if more support is needed.
Our School service supports children aged 5 and over who have difficulties with language and social communication.
- Children over 5 years of age will usually be referred to our Mainstreams school service.
- To begin with, parent and carers will be offered a telephone appointment. The appointment will consist of lots of questions about any concerns you have about your child, their medical and developmental history. Following this appointment, you will receive a brief report outlining your child’s needs and advising school, GP, and other services that your child is now being seen by our team.
- Your child will then be seen in school by a speech and language therapist who will complete a detailed assessment of your child’s communication skills. This is likely to include assessment of your child’s understanding and talking, discussion with teaching staff and in some cases an observation of your child in class/on the playground/ during lunch.
- At the end of the appointment the therapist will write a report detailing your child’s strengths and needs and will suggest the next steps for your child. Children will either be allocated to the universal, targeted or specialist pathway. Support for your child may include:
- Training and advice for you and your child’s teachers.
- Providing a therapy programme to parents and school staff to follow, these will be activities to support a child’s communication throughout the day.
- In some exceptional circumstances your child may be offered a block of therapy.
- For some children we will also contribute to the EHCP assessment and the SEND process.
- Once your child has received advice/ input, their episode of care will be closed. If the Speech and Language therapist thinks your child will need further support from speech and language therapy, they will suggest that your child’s school requests re-access to the service within the next 18 month
Children at any age can be referred to our stammering service using the ISCAN referral form.
Parents are invited to book an initial telephone appointment to discuss concerns around their child’s stammer and take a case history.
Depending on your child’s level of need, they will then be offered a package of care at one of our local clinics.
For most younger children (5 years and under), families will be offered Parent and child interaction therapy. This will take place at our local clinics.
Some children may be offered 1:1 or group therapy with the stammering specialist service supporting them with their overall communication skills and fluency
For children who require more intensive support for example setting up Augmentative and Alternative communication (AAC) and for children who require support from a multidisciplinary team.
- Children under 5 will initially be invited to our clinic service and initially follow our Clinic and Early years pathway
- Children over 5 will initially follow our Mainstream Schools Pathway
- At your child’s initial assessment appointment, it may be decided that their needs will be best supported by the Specialist Speech and Language Therapy Team. This will be discussed with you and the next steps identified.
- Your child will be offered further assessment with a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist if needed or they may be offered a place on a therapy intervention. The assessment may be at home or at your child’s setting.
- Following the assessment your child will be offered a package of care based on their strengths and needs. This may be a parent intervention group, a written programme for nursery/school staff, training and advice for parents and educational setting or in some cases 1:1 therapy.
- The Speech and Language Therapist will support you and your child’s setting (nursery/school) to make sure their communication needs are well supported. They will identify what further support your child needs to reach their potential at home and at nursery/school.
- If your child needs an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) we will assess your child and provide advice to the Local Authority as required.
- When appropriate the Speech and Language Therapist may attend your child’s Person Centred Planning (PCP) meetings.
- When your child is well supported with their communication at home and in their setting their episode of care will be closed. Your child can then re-access for further support within 18 months or be re-referred if new concerns are identified.
Children's Speech and Language Therapy is based at Rowan House in Hyde, but work in a variety of different settings e.g., nurseries, mainstream schools, community clinics, special schools and/or the young person’s home
If your child does not require a face-to-face appointment, we may feel it is appropriate to offer a telephone or video consultation instead. This may be with a parent/carer only or sometimes with the child as well.
Address
Rowan House Clinic,
Grange Road South,
Hyde,
SK14 5NU