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Who does a Speech & Language Therapist work with?

A Speech and Language Therapist works with a wide range of children with a variety of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

These could include children who:

• Have poor listening skills.
• Have difficulty understanding language.
• Don’t have many words in their repertoire.
• Struggle to join their words to form well-structured utterances.
• Find certain speech sounds difficult to produce.
• Stammer.
• Choose not to talk in certain settings (Selective Communicators).
• Struggle to follow the unsaid ‘rules’ of communication and find the ‘social’ aspect of communication difficult.
• Have voice difficulties e.g. very hoarse voice.

What does a Speech & Language Therapist do?

A Speech & Language Therapist would assess the child (formally and/or informally) and make any onward referrals if necessary e.g. to have their hearing checked or see an Occupational Therapist or Paediatrician. The parent is usually invited into school and this enables a detailed case history to be taken. The therapist also speaks at length to the class teacher to gain a real insight into their concerns about the child. The therapist will have a wide range of formal and informal assessments to help them to accurately identify the child’s difficulties. The therapist can also observe the child in class or at play to learn more about their specific difficulties and the impact these have.

The speech & language therapist would then write a report for the school and the parents/carers and feed back clearly to all concerned exactly what the issues are and what needs to be done to support these, both at school and at home ideally.

The therapist would offer support to Teachers, TAs and Parents, and targets and strategies would be set. Resources are often provided to the school.

The Therapist may work directly with the child (whilst demonstrating ideas and training a member of staff) and will also support changes in the child’s environment (e.g. making the classroom more language friendly).

Why Speech & Language?

Without a solid foundation of good speech and language skills, children fail to reach their potential in all other areas of learning. Delays can be avoided and support can be offered early, when it is needed the most. Schools then begin to reap the benefits of offering quality input for speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in Nursery and Key Stage 1 as notably fewer interventions are required higher up the school.

To find out more about how an independent Speech & Language Therapist could work in your school, contact us today. https://www.speech4schools.co.uk/contact

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