Children

Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) work with children and young people with a range of speech, language, communication, and/or eating and drinking difficulties.

The NHS Forth Valley SLT team aim to:

• Provide an equitable child-centred approach to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs, and to those with eating and drinking difficulties
• Support children, young people and their families to self-manage their speech, language, communication or eating and drinking needs
• Develop the skills of the other individuals involved with the child or young person to use strategies to help their continued development and promote wellbeing
• Provide targeted support when required

SLTs work in a range of settings, such as community clinics, nurseries and schools, offering universal services for children and young people and providing targeted support when required.

Targeted support for children and young people can be provided in a number of ways including groups for parents, advice and strategies, working with other children in a group and individual appointments.

This webpage is designed to give information about how typical speech, language, communication and eating and drinking skills develop and what you can do to help.

Children need lots of skills to become good confident communicators. SLTs can help families support their child with all of these skills. Please click on the areas in the pyramid to find further information and top tips about how you can help communication development.

SLTs can also offer support about Eating and Drinking, Stammering and – if your child is learning to use more than one language – Bilingual and Multilingual Development.

Barriers to communication such as glue ear, using dummies and television and other screen time can impact on children’s speech, language and communication development.

Helpline

If you require any further help, you can contact our helpline for advice and guidance from a Speech and Language Therapist on the numbers below

• Falkirk: 01324 673585 – Thursdays 1pm -4pm
• Stirling & Clackmannanshire: 01786 434078 – Tuesdays 1pm – 3pm

Request for Assistance from Speech and Language Therapy

Speech and language therapy operates an open referral system. This means that parents, carers, young people or any professional can request assistance where there is a concern about a child or young person’s wellbeing as a result of speech, language, communication or eating and drinking difficulties.

All requests for assistance must have parental or carer consent for children under  16 years of age. Young people 16  years and over must give consent themselves.

All requests are considered to identify what is mostly likely to help at this point in time and responses may include

• Advice
• Reassurance
• Signposting to a more relevant source of help
• Assessment

To enable therapists to make appropriate clinic al decisions and decide what the next steps may be, the individual making the request should answer the following questions:

• What are the main concerns about the child/young person at the moment?
• How is this affecting the child/young person at the moment?
• Is anyone else concerned, including extended family, friends or education staff?
• Is the child/young person receiving any additional support, including any other services in involved at the moment or in the past?
• What things have already been tried to help the child/young person manage better?
• What has been beneficial?
• What are your expectations from speech and language therapy?

Contact Details

The NHS Forth Valley SLT team support children and young people in 3 local authorities:

You can follow us on Tuesdays on Twitter @NHSForthValley #chattyTuesday and Facebook NHS Forth Valley.

Giving Feedback and Raising Concerns

Speech and Language Therapy aims to deliver a high standard of service, and we are always looking for ways to improve.

Comments, issues or concerns should be shared with individual therapists in the first instance. If you would like to submit feedback or comments please use our Feedback Form.