Support for the young person may involve 1:1 sessions and groups or a mix of the two. These sessions may be led by a speech and language therapist or by one of our team of speech and language therapy assistants.
We also offer training for parents, school and nursery staff to help develop the skills of those that work or have contact with the young person.
We can also work with schools using service level agreements (SLAs). This means that settings can access additional therapy to that which is provided as part of the local offer. For more information about SLAs, please contact the Speech and Language Therapy Team at Rowan House on 0161 366 2050.
If the young person is under 30 months of age, a referral to the ISCAN Speech and Language Therapy Team may not be necessary. Attendance at a communication group at a local Children’s Centre may be recommended. The groups are Baby Babble, Small Talk and Toddler Talk. These groups will enable family members and carers to gain ideas on how to promote the young person’s communication. If insufficient progress is made following the group the staff at the Children’s Centre will refer the young person to the ISCAN Speech and Language Therapy Team explaining both the progress the young person has made as well as the difficulties they continue to experience. This information is very helpful to a speech and language therapist when deciding whether to offer an assessment.
Children’s Speech and Language Therapy is based at Rowan House in Hyde, but we work in a variety of different settings e.gincluding schools, community clinics, special schools, the young person’s home and nurseries.
We work with young people aged 0-19 registered with a GP. in Tameside and Glossop, their families and carers.
What to expect
Children under 5 years of age
- Your child will be offered an appointment at a local community clinic for initial assessment to establish their strengths and needs and decide on next steps.
- In certain cases we might offer a home visit if this is more appropriate.
- The appointment will consist of lots of questions about any concerns you have about your child, their medical and developmental history. The therapist may observe your child playing or may do some direct assessments, these might involve play activities or looking at pictures.
- The next steps could be offering you a course that teaches parents/carers the best ways to support their child’s communication. Early Language Development Articles – Helpful Information and Tips for Parents (hanen.org)
- Offering your child a weekly therapy group to directly work on the areas they find hard, these usually run for 5 weeks.
- Providing a therapy programme to parents and nursery staff to follow, these will be activities to support a child’s communication throughout the day.
- Offering your child weekly therapy on their own on the areas they find hard, this is not the option for most children.
- At the end of the appointment the therapist will discuss the next steps for your child and give you some advice.
- If needed children will be offered a review appointment to check how they are progressing and decide if more support is needed.
Children over 5 years of age
- 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.
- 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 direct assessment of your child’s understanding and talking, discussion with teachers and in some cases an observation of your child at school.
- 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.
Next steps 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.
- 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 months.
Children with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties
- Your child will usually be offered a home visit for initial assessment, we will aim to offer this at a time when your child would usually have something to eat and drink if they are able to.
- The visit will consist of lots of questions about any concerns you have about your child, their medical and developmental history. We will ask lots of questions about your child’s feeding history from their birth onwards.
- The therapist will aim to observe your child eating and drinking. Please just offer them their usual foods and drinks.
- At the end of the appointment the therapist will discuss the next steps for your child and give you some advice.
- The next steps could be arranging another home visit to review how your child is doing with the advice, demonstrating some things to help your child or discharging them if they are doing well and you are confident how to support them to continue to make progress.
I think my child is finding understanding and talking hard. What should they doing?
- Find helpful information about the typical development of speech and language skills here.
I’m worried about my child’s understanding and/or talking. What can I do?
- Contact your health visitor to discuss your concerns or raise them at your child’s developmental checks.
- For children under 30 months there are communication groups run at local Children’s Centres that you can attend with your child. Your health visitor or private day nursery can refer your child to the groups. Tameside Public Health Talking Together 0 to 5 years Old these are great for supporting and promoting early speech and language as well as being fun and full of motivating activities.
I’m worried about my child’s eating and drinking. What should I do?
- Contact your health visitor to discuss your concerns or raise them at your child’s developmental checks. They will be able to give you lots of advice and support around weaning and early eating and drinking.
- Have a look at the following websites for advice and ideas:
- If there are persistent concerns about a child’s eating and drinking after following advice from your health visitor please refer by completing the ISCAN Referral Form (in the column on the right)
- Babies and young children may also be referred by other professionals involved in their care.
I can’t attend a planned appointment or think I have missed an appointment for my child. What can I do?
- If you cannot attend an appointment it is really important you let us know by contacting the team on 0161 3662050. We will always do our best to offer you another appointment.
- If you miss an appointment and do not contact the team it will be assumed you no longer require your child to have speech and language therapy and they will be discharged. However we realise that mistakes happen and if you contact the team quickly after the missed appointment we will discuss next steps.
My child has been waiting for an appointment for a long time, when will they be seen?
- The waiting list for our service is currently significantly longer than the NHS target of 18 weeks. We are doing our best to see children as quickly as possible.
- Please access the communication groups if you can as these are brilliant for supporting younger children.
- We offer training to nurseries and schools and they will have lots of knowledge and activities to support your child.
- Please look at the websites and our advice sheets – there is lots you can do!
What if English is not my first language?
- We are always happy to arrange interpreters as needed, this could be face to face or by telephone interpreting.
- Please state on the referral form if an interpreter is required and what language is needed.