Your child’s Speech and Language Therapy journey

Who will refer my child to your service?

Most children are referred to The SLT Service by Health Visitors, their educational setting such as their nursery or school.

Referrals are also accepted from social services and other health professionals (such as GPs or Paediatricians). Consent is required from a parent or legal guardian before a child can be assessed.

Where do you see my child?

Children are seen in a variety of ways – digitally or face to face including in their settings depending on their age and needs.

When children are seen in their setting this enables us to demonstrate and share information about how to support them with relevant staff such as TAs and teachers.

If your child is not yet ready for school we will typically see them in clinic or sometimes at home.

How do you initially assess my child?

As part of your child’s initial assessment, we will take a case history by talking to you or other members of their family.

We may also want to talk to other important people in your child’s life such as childminders or teachers/TAs at their school.

We may assess a range of areas such as:

  • Their ability to produce a range of speech sounds.
  • Their ability to understand and use language (e.g. the past tense).
  • Their ability to focus and concentrate on different tasks.
  • Their speech fluency.
  • Their play and interaction with others.
  • Their ability to hear specific sounds.
  • Their ability to eat and drink safely.

For younger children, assessment is often through play-based activities and observation of interactions with other children and adults. For older children we may assess using formal speech and language assessments and observe both interactions and learning in the classroom environment.

As part of the initial assessment, we will also want to learn more about how they are coping in a range of situations such as at school and at home. Children can present differently in different environments and it helps us to learn if they find certain settings harder or easier than others.

How often you see my child for therapy?

For some children with more complex difficulties, we may offer several episodes of intervention and care and provide specific support at points of transition for example moving from primary to secondary school and preparing for adulthood.

As your child’s skills develop the amount of direct therapy that they need may change. They may have times where they need more frequent sessions such as to introduce a new therapy program. They may also have periods where they need time to consolidate and practice new skills before an SLT reviews and updates targets.

For some children, support is likely to be focused on raising awareness of strategies and training up those who are close to the child as they are best placed to guide and help the child’s confidence grow.

How else might we support your child?

Support is tailored to individual children’s needs. If the speech and language is part of a wider need and impacting on learning, we may provide detailed information as part of the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) process or deliver specified therapy in a child’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). In partnership with the child, family and setting we identify key outcomes, monitor progress and input into the Annual Review process.

Alongside our team of Speech and Language Therapists, there are a range of other professionals who may support your child. This may include a team of Speech and Language Technical Instructors who can provide short blocks of intervention under the guidance of an SLT to work on specific targets or goals.

For children with more complex needs they may be supported by Integrated Assistant Practitioners who are skilled to work across all three therapies and may integrate outcomes from different therapies, for example Physiotherapy or Occupational Therapy into a child’s therapy program.

We will liaise with you and adults who work with your child, which may include staff at the setting, school, paediatricians, and other professionals. We may deliver training about how to deliver specific therapeutic programs or how to support children with communication needs. We may invite you and/or your child to join one of our groups to learn more about how to support their communication.

When will you discharge my child?

When your child’s speech and language needs are appropriate for their age or they have achieved as much as they can specialist support will end. If further support is required, your child can be referred for further assessment.

Non-urgent advice: Further information

I have more questions. Who should I speak to?

Please speak to your therapist about any questions you have however big or small.

Alternatively, our admin team can redirect your queries: oxonchildrens.therapies@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk.

 

Page last reviewed: 10 February, 2023