• Photo of a child
  • Photo of a child
  • Photo of a child

Children's Therapy Services - Speech & Language Therapy

We support children who have speech, language and communication difficulties. We help them to achieve clear and fluent speech and understand spoken language. Communication is a complex skill and we use communication aids, signs, symbols and gestures to support children and young people.

Type

Children's Therapy Services - Speech & Language Therapy Team

We support children and young people (0– 19) who have speech, language and communication difficulties. This includes difficulties with:

  • Understanding language 
  • Using language
  • Communication  and interaction 
  • Dysfluency (stammering)
  • Speech sounds
  • Social skills

We also help children and young people who have eating and drinking difficulties. Some children we support may have identified needs such as cleft palate, hearing impairment and special educational needs and disability (SEND).

We work closely with parents, carers and other professionals to help you help your child. This may include workshops, training, assessment, group and/or individual therapy sessions .

Who is this service for? Children and young people from the age of 0 to 19.

How to access this service: Referrals can be made  by health, social care and education professionals via the Referral Management Centre (RMC). For further information on referrals and how to access the Children's Therapy Service for Speech and Language therapy please click here. 

If you would like to discuss referring a child to the 0-19 service please contact the 0-19 Admin Hub for further details on 0800 170 7055.

About us

As a service we strive for:

  • Timely and appropriate referrals to Speech and Language Therapy Service  
  • Improvement in parental awareness, knowledge and the home communication environment
  • Increased educational professional confidence in understanding, developing and supporting children’s speech, language and communication 
  • Improved outcomes for children with Speech and Language and Communication needs  
  • Successful collaborative working with families and  services for shared outcomes

As a service we do not offer:

  • Elocution
  • Teaching English  as an additional language
  • Developmentally normal speech sound errors

Accessing our service

Referrals can be made by a range of Education, Social Care and Health professionals. All referrals to children’s services including children’s speech and language therapy are made through the Referral Management Centre (RMC). You can access the RMC's webpage by clicking here. 
 
Information on how to make a referral to Children’s Speech and Language therapy can be found in the  Childrens Speech and Language Therapy Toolkit[pdf] 1MB 
 
This outlines the process for professionals to follow in order to make an appropriate referral.  For some referrals additional information is required to support our understanding of the child’s needs. For example this may be developmental checklists and school/nursery information. Where a child is attending early years or school settings, it may be that those working with the child on a regular basis are best placed to make a referral and include the supporting information.  
 
The toolkit also outlines general advice to support children’s speech, language and communication development and useful resources that can be found on the internet. 
 
When a referral has been received by the RMC they will be passed onto a clinician to be screened. If a referral is not accepted the referrer and parents/carer will be contacted via a letter outlining why the referral was declined and what might happen next.

Contacting us and opening hours

Monday to Friday: 9am to 5pm

Children’s Speech and Language Therapy
Sudborough House
St Mary’s Hospital
Kettering

Telephone: 03000 273 737
Email: childsalt@nhft.nhs.uk