These are some of the areas speech and language therapists are involved with.
Please use the menu on the right to jump to specific topic.
Some children have problems with their voice. The difficulties that children might encounter with voice include continued hoarseness or maintaining volume / pitch. Many of these children will have been seen by an Ear, Nose and Throat Consultant. Their assessment and management will be provided at their local community clinic.
Following government guidelines for the NHS all children born with cleft lip & / or palate across Stoke on Trent and North Staffordshire will first be seen at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Any necessary surgery is carried out there, with follow up by their specialist team. At the age of eighteen months all children will also be seen by their local Speech and Language Therapist for advice on eating/drinking skills and early communication.
Stammering can also be known as stuttering or dysfluency. All these terms mean the same thing. A stammer is characterised by interruptions to the smooth flow of speech which may include repetitions of part / whole words, sound prolongations, or getting stuck on a particular sound. In older children other features such as anxiety and avoidance of certain words or situations may occur.
Most children in North Staffordshire who stammer will be seen at their local health centre or children's centre by one of a team of Speech and Language Therapists. Each child will be fully assessed prior to any intervention and this will involve a detailed discussion about the development of the stammer, possible causes, family history, and the child’s personality as well as an evaluation of the child’s speech in clinic and parent/child interaction styles.
Following assessment the therapist will, if appropriate, initiate a programme of intervention in consultation with parents/carers, which may involve making changes to the child’s environment and/or more direct therapy approaches.
There is also a specialist dysfluency therapist within the department who can provide health centre therapists with advice or a second opinion, or to whom more complex cases can be transferred for assessment and therapy.
The British Stammering Association is a charity providing advice, information, support and contact with other people who stammer. They can be contacted by phone on 020 8983 1003. They also have a useful website at www.stammering.org
The specialist Speech and Language Therapy service for Hearing Impaired children works with children who have a significant sensori-neural or permanent conductive hearing loss. These children may be identified from Newborn Hearing Screening as babies or at a later age by Audiology. Children may be seen at home, school or clinic. The therapist advises parents/carers and education staff regarding communication development and in appropriate cases carries out direct work with the child. The therapist works closely alongside the teacher of the deaf and audiology, sharing information and setting up joint programmes of care.
People who have speech and/or language difficulties may benefit from different forms of communication to help them understand others and express themselves. AAC refers to a range of systems designed to help those whose communication is impaired, perhaps through accidents, illness or whose conditions have existed from birth.
An assessment of the person’s needs is made and a variety of potentially useful strategies are considered. Solutions often consist of introducing pictures, symbols, sign language or in training others as to how the person communicates. Occasionally technological aids are introduced and the person and their carers are supported in using these.
Within the Speech and Language Therapy Department there is a therapist who supports both AAC users and other therapists who are involved with AAC with their own clients (pupils).
The Special Schools Team consists of a group of therapists with a wide range of specialisms who jointly provide an assessment, intervention and monitoring role for the speech and language needs of the children within the schools. The therapists aim to work in close collaboration with parents and school staff to ensure that the social and academic needs of the children are met. The special schools team provides a service to both Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire LEA’s.
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. All people with autism have impairments in social interaction, social communication, and imagination. This is called the triad of impairments. As well as these three main areas, repetitive behaviour patterns and a resistance to change in routine are often seen in an individual.
Children with an ASD within North Staffordshire who are referred to the Speech and Language Therapy Service may be seen in a variety of locations. Children may be seen as part of the Joint Pre-School Therapy Service, in the community clinics, in a special school or within a mainstream school. The location will depend on the age and the need of the child.
There is a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist for ASD within the department who can provide advice and support to all the speech and language therapists. This may take the form of case discussions or second opinions. Training on ASD and communication can be given to staff outside the department who are working with a child with an ASD or who are interested in developing their general knowledge in this area.
The specialist is also part of a Pre-School Autistic Spectrum Disorder Team. The core team members include a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Community Paediatrician as well as a Speech and Language Therapist. The team also link with the Local Education Authority, Social Services and the Autism Outreach Team. The team works with children under five years of age, their families and early educational settings to determine whether a child has a diagnosis of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
The National Autistic Society is a charity that provides information, advice, support and training for individuals with a diagnosis of ASD, their families and any professionals interested in this area. The headquarters is in London, telephone number 020 7833 2299 and website is www.nas.org.uk Alternatively there is an autism West Midlands who are based in Birmingham, their telephone number is 0121 450 782 or website address www.autismwestmidlands.org.uk or the North Staffordshire Aspergers / Autism Association based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, telephone number 01782 627002 or website address www.nsaaa.co.uk
The service covers all children in North Staffordshire with a SLI. This therefore includes children across both LEA’s (Staffs LEA and Stoke on Trent LEA). A specific speech and language impairment refers to significant speech and language difficulties, which occur in the absence of any other learning difficulties.
Speech and language therapy for these children may be provided at the Heron Cross Speech and Language Resource and the I-CAN Nursery, with support also given to children that attend their local community clinic via a consultative model to the child’s community clinic therapist and/or in close liaison with the child’s school.
The community clinics provide speech and language therapy to children from the ages of 18 months to 16 years, by appointment. Children always attend with a parent, carer or key worker.
Children are referred for community SLT with difficulties in one or more of the following areas:
The therapist will assess and diagnose the presenting problem and recommend appropriate intervention. This may involve direct therapy sessions at the health centre, a programme of activities to be carried out at home, nursery or school, advice to adults about how they can alter their own communication to help the child (strategies), and/or advise about changes to the home, nursery or school environment to enable the child to communicate more effectively. The majority of direct therapy is in the form of child-friendly games and activities. Most children thoroughly enjoy the sessions.
The Community SLT Service is divided into two teams, Stoke (City team) and Newcastle and Moorlands (County team). The City team works within the City of Stoke on Trent Education Authority and the County team works with Staffordshire Education Authority, although all SLTs are in fact employed by North Staffordshire Community Healthcare Trust.
Community SLTs are extremely busy, they manage large caseloads and there are long waiting lists. For this reason therapists are not usually able to visit children at home or school, however many school staff take advantage of our open door policy and attend SLT sessions to work and learn alongside the therapist. If home or school visits are essential, then the community SLT will refer the child to one of the more specialist SLT services. To be fair to children on the waiting list, we operate a strict policy of discharge following non-attendance.
The speech and language therapy service together with the paediatric physiotherapy service provide a joint service for babies and pre-school children with developmental problems. These may have a specific cause such as Down ’s syndrome or Cerebral Palsy, or they may be more general. A Senior Physiotherapist and Senior Specialist Speech and Language Therapist currently head the team.
Initially children are visited at their home where, through discussion, demonstration and advice, the family can be helped to encourage their child to learn the next stages. Some children attend joint therapy groups at the Child Development Centre where they and their carer work through a programme of activities to encourage the skills which lead towards independent mobility, and the skills which build up to talking in an enjoyable way.
Speech and Language Therapists work primarily with children to assist their communication, language and speech development. Some therapists have specialised training to assist children with eating and drinking skills. This may be because;
