Services for Parents

Assessment is an important part of the therapy process and can be carried out in your own home. It provides a starting point from which we can see if any progress has been made and helps to build a picture of your child’s communication strengths as well as areas that they find more difficult. It also helps to identify any potential targets for therapy if this is required. The assessment session often starts with a discussion about your child’s ‘history’ of development. We will ask questions about speech, language and communication milestones in your child’s life, as well as ask about other relevant informant such as how they are progressing in their physical and social and emotional development. We will also spend time directly interacting with your child. Assessment is often play based, and motivating – it looks like we are just having fun! In fact we are using the opportunity to informally assess your child’s skills. Sometimes more structured, formal assessments are also used to provide a more in depth assessment of your child’s profile of speech and language development.

Once assessment is complete, we will share our observations so that we can discuss together what the next steps might be.

We may not recommend any further sessions. We will be honest about whether we think your child needs therapy and whether we are the best providers for what you need. Your child’s skills may be developing age appropriately or with some advice, you may be able to support developing their skills at home without the need for direct therapy. We may suggest referral to other professionals or signpost you to other services if appropriate.

We may recommend a follow up session so that we can demonstrate specific strategies and activities that will be useful to help you support your child’s communication. 

We may recommend therapy for your child and offer a series of regular sessions, on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. Therapy is very much a partnership process. It relies on us working together and for you to be actively involved. We want you to feel confident at the end of each session so that between therapy visits you can try out the strategies and activities that we have practised with your child when you are at home.

It is difficult to predict how long a child may need therapy for, it depends on the nature of what they find difficult and how easy it is to support change. Some children and families only need a few sessions and we are able to change things very quickly, other children may have longer term needs and require more support. We will talk about how your child is progressing at each session and we will monitor and review progress together. It’s important that you are actively involved and happy with recommendations made and with the agreed next steps for you and your child.

Yes. You are entitled to access NHS SLT services as well as choosing to access support from an Independent SLT. It is recognised good practice for both NHS and Independent SLT’s to work collaboratively and inclusively with each other to achieve joint goals and the best outcomes for all children and families they work with.