The Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Service is part of Children’s Integrated Therapies (Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy & Speech and Language Therapy services).

The Speech and Language Therapy Team provides assessment and intervention for children and young people aged 0 – 19, with a range of speech, language and communication needs and/ or eating and drinking/swallowing difficulties.

This can include:

• Understanding and using spoken language

• Recognising and producing clear speech sounds

• Using language and communication socially

• Other ways of communicating eg. using signing, symbols, communication aids

• Voice quality

• Stammering

• Eating and drinking

Speech and Language Therapy assessment may form part of a multi professional assessment and diagnosis pathway.

Specialist Clinical areas within the service:

• Complex and additional needs, in mainstream schools and special schools

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

• Dysphagia (eating/ drinking and swallowing problems)

• Dysfluency (Stammering)

• Hearing Impairment

• Specific difficulties with speech and/or language

• Pre-school/ Early Years

• Mainstream Nursery/School Community clinics

• Secondary age children in Mainstream schools 

What to expect from the Speech and Language Therapy service:

• Following referral parents/carers are contacted to arrange a suitable appointment

• Evidence based intervention pathways according to a child's need, including:

  • Individual Therapy

  • Group Therapy

  • Active Support- where programmes are provided for parent/carer/ educational staff to carry out

  • Advice and telephone review

• Written reports following assessment and therapy, as appropriate. 

• Training to parents/carers, nurseries/schools and other professionals concerning specific speech, language and communication needs or to support the specific needs of an individual child eg. Makaton training 

• Speech and Language Therapists work closely with other appropriate professionals, depending on the needs of the child and family. This could include:

  • Other members of the Children’s Integrated Therapies Team – Physiotherapists & Occupational Therapists

  • Education staff in Mainstream and Special School settings

  • Other specialist Education Teams providing support eg. Language and Learning Partnership, Autism Outreach Team, Children’s Sensory Team, Behaviour Support Team, Physical/Medical Team, Portage Team, Educational Psychologists

  • Joint clinics – including multidisciplinary feeding clinics

  • Regional Teams eg. Regional Communication Aid Service (RCAS), Regional Cleft Lip and Palate Service 

• Speech and Language Therapists can refer on to other professionals, to support the overall needs of children and young people 

• We work from a range of locations across the city – Children’s Centre, Ryhope Health Centre, Southwick Health Centre, Houghton-le-Spring Health Centre, Washington Galleries Health Centre; we also work in nurseries, schools and at home as appropriate to the needs of the child 

• Together with the people in the children’s lives who know them best (ie. parents/carers/education staff etc), we aim to get a clearer picture of how the children’s difficulties impact on their ability to communicate in their environment and how it makes them feel. This then enables us to work towards reducing the impact the speech/language/communication needs are having on the child in their environments.