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Speech and language therapy for pre-school children
- Speech, language and communication
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Accessing speech and language therapy
Any parent or carer can access support by completing the early advice welcome questionnaire.
You may have already spoken about getting support with another professional such as a health visitor or a pre-school member of staff. If so, speak to them to see if they have already spoken to the speech and language therapy service.
The first appointment
After completing your early advice welcome questionnaire, you will be given a date, place and time for your child's first appointment. To begin with, this is likely to be a virtual (online) appointment. For most children this first appointment will be known as an early advice session.
Not all children need to be seen in person. To decide the most appropriate type of intervention, a decision is made according to the individual needs of the child and family. This will be discussed with you.
Support for your child
Each child we see is unique and will have different individual needs. Our support and intervention will be adapted to suit your child. This support is known as an Individualised Package of Support (IPoS). It will be discussed and agreed with you before any therapy intervention starts.
Understanding your IPoS
After the first appointment, it may be agreed that the best intervention will be providing you with ideas to support your child at home. You will then be given advice and strategies to try.
Alternatively, after the first appointment we may feel that your child needs further assessment or input. We will talk to you about what the support may look like and how many sessions there will likely be.
We may decide that your child will need more than 1 IPoS. This will depend on their needs and response to any previous intervention.
We will also talk to you about your child's readiness for therapy. It is important for you to be involved in your child's therapy. The therapist will also talk to you about the different ways you can support your child at home.
With your permission, we will work together with your child's setting to enable them to carry out our recommendations and strategies in the most appropriate way for your child.
After the appointment
We do not routinely write reports, but we can provide a Report of Involvement if required. This may be produced after an assessment or after a completed IPoS. The report will be shared with parents, carers and the setting.
Last reviewed: 22 March, 2024
