We help children if they have problems with their speech and when they communicate. Our aim is to help every child thrive and be confident when they talk. We support children and young people from age 2 to 18.
What can we help with?
If your child finds it hard to understand or use words and sentences. They might struggle to follow what you ask them to do. Or they might find it hard to express themselves or join in conversations.
If you find it hard to understand your child when they speak. They might have trouble making certain sounds. They may get frustrated, and they might stop talking.
If your child finds it hard to connect and relate with people. They might not have ways to let you know what they want, which can affect play and joining activities.
This is when your child repeats sounds, words, or certain phrases. They might also struggle to get words out when speaking. It’s called ‘bumpy’ because talking doesn’t feel smooth — there are bumps along the way.
Our aim is to make sure all children are listened to, whether they stammer or not. We want to help people accept stammering. It is ok to be different.
We will support you, your child and the people around them. We aim to reduce any impact of their stammer. We help children to feel confident and included in everything they want to do, whether they stammer or not.
The type of support we offer depends on your child’s needs. It is very helpful to meet with parents / carers on their own as well as seeing you with your child. We may see you in person, speak on the phone or on video call.
We also run group sessions. This gives children the chance to meet other children who stammer. Your therapist will discuss with you whether this might be right for your child.
If you are worried about your child having a stammer or ‘bumpy’ talking, please get in touch straight away. Don’t ‘wait and see’ what happens. It is common for bumpy talking to increase and decrease over time. So even if the bumps seem to have stopped, please still make a referral.
If your child’s voice sounds breathy, hoarse, or strained for more than a month then get in touch with us.
There are many reasons why your child’s voice may sound different. We will help explain the reasons why this might be the case.
Whatever the reason, we know that there are certain things that your child can do to make the most of their voice. There may also be things that they are doing that make the problem worse.
Click here for some great tips from Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) on how you can help your chlid.
This is when your child struggles to eat or drink. They might choke, cough, or gag. They might often get chest infections. Problems in this area can affect how children grow and develop. They may struggle to put weight on.
Our team will refer your child if we think they need this specialist help. We also see infants and children who are tube fed and those who have more complex needs.
We will work with you understand your concerns about your child. We will need to know:
- When did the problem start?
- How did they feed as a baby?
- What is the current feeding pattern?
- How much do they eat and drink and what types of food?
- How long does it take for them to eat a meal?
- Has your child has had lots of chest infections?
If we need to, we will also arrange a visit to come and see how your child is when eating or drinking. This is usually in the home.
Click on the links below for advice and helpful resources:
- NHS Best Start in Life (Weaning) - Click here.
- Infant and Toddler Forum (Learning to like new tastes and textures) - Click here.
If your child struggles to manage their emotions. This may impact how they behave. This could be down to their problems with speech and communication. We can help identify why this is happening and support you and your child.
How we support you and your child
The care we give is mostly out in the community. Often, the best way we can help is by empowering you and the people close to your child. We may see your child in school or nursery and show teaching staff how to support them.
We may also want to see your child for some therapy sessions in our clinics. You and your child will attend for a block of weekly appointments. We will share specific activities and ways to help with your child’s speech.
If your child needs more help, we will give them intensive support. This will include a higher level of therapy. If we think your child needs intensive support, your therapist will let you know. We will also work with your child’s school. Our aim is to help sort out any problems as soon as we can.
Your child might need intensive support if they struggle to:
- say sounds correctly and put these sounds together to make words.
- understand words or make sentences when speaking.
- remember new words or use correct grammar.
- know how and when to use language in social situations.
Not all children will need intensive support from us. Most will make good progress with the normal level of therapy we offer.
We also support children with more complex needs. These needs will impact on their speech and how they communicate. We see children who have:
- Down’s syndrome
- Cerebral Palsy
- a learning disability or autism
- global developmental delay
- other genetic conditions or problems.
We work with your child’s education team at nursery and school. This includes if they are in a special education school. We also see and assess children before they reach school age. Our aim is to support you and your child to reach their full potential.
We will help the people who are around your child and let them know how they can help. We will share tools and activities to help them support your child.
If we think your child needs help from other services, we will help you to get this for them. We will support for parents and families too.
We help children who are profoundly deaf and have permanent hearing loss in both ears. Their hearing loss is severe and these children will use hearing aids or cochlear implants.
It is important for us to work closely with parents and carers of deaf children. We will work with you and other professionals who support your child. We might see children in a clinic setting and often in their nursery or school. This helps us understand your child’s needs and provide the right advice and support.
Our therapists use British Sign Language (BSL). They support all deaf people who require access to sign language.
Click on the links below to some helpful advice and resources:
- Helping your Deaf child to develop language & communication - BBC Tiny Happy People
- A family’s advice on supporting their Deaf child - BBC Tiny Happy People video
- Guidance on glue ear - BBC Tiny Happy People
- National Deaf Children’s Society - National Deaf Children's Society
We help all children. If your child speaks or hears another language at home, not just English, you can still get in touch. We are here to help if your child has problems in any of the languages they speak.
Let us know how long your child has lived in the UK, what language they speak and if you need an interpreter.
Click on the links below for some helpful advice and resources:
- Myth-busting: Bilingualism - Speech and Language UK
- Children learning more than one language - Speech and Language UK
- Bilingual babies and speaking multiple languages at home - Tiny Happy People
Referrals
For preschool children under five, you should speak to your health visitor first. They will advise you and help you decide if your child needs our support. For school-age children, you should talk to your child’s teacher about your concerns.
Schools and other health professionals can refer a child to us.
As a parent or carer, you can also refer your child to us directly. We have some guidelines to help you decide if a referral is right for your child. Click on the links below or call us for advice.
- South Tyneside – click here or call 0191 283 2484
- Sunderland – click here or call 0191 569 9122.
If you want to refer your child to us for help, download the referral form for your area:
Post the form back to us (see contact details below). Or ask your school or health visitor to refer for you.
Top tips
- Please give us as much detail as possible on the referral.
- Be clear about what you want from speech and language therapy.
- If you’re not the parent/carer of the child, get their consent and let them know your concerns.
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South Tyneside referrals Speech and Language Therapy Department, Cleadon Park Primary Care Centre Prince Edward Road South Shields NE34 8PS |
Sunderland referrals Speech and Language Therapy Department, The Children’s Centre, Durham Road, Sunderland SR3 4AG |
When we get a referral, we will contact you by letter. We will ask you to phone us to arrange your first appointment.
It is important that you contact us when you get the letter. We need parents/carers to ‘opt in’ to the service so we can assess your child.
First appointment
This may over the phone, or in person with you and your child. We will ask you about your child and what your concerns are. We will arrange to assess your child if we need to. This might be in clinic or at school.
After the first appointment we will agree the next steps. Sometimes a child may not need our support.
If your child does need help from one of our therapy teams, we will arrange this. You must attend the appointments. If you cannot attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can rearrange it.
If you miss an appointment without letting us know, we may discharge your child.
How long will care continue?
We provide care as long as your child needs it. We will only discuss discharge from our service when:
- Your child can manage any problems and the impact on their daily life.
- You and those around your child are no longer concerned.
- We feel that any problems will get better over time.
- You and those involved with your child have the skills and resources to support your child.
Missed appointments
If you do not turn up, it means we cannot support your child. It also means we waste an appointment slot. If you miss an appointment without letting us know, we may discharge your child.
We are here if you need to re-refer your child to our service but you will join the end of the waiting list.
Useful links
- South Tyneside family hubs - Click here.
- Sunderland family hubs - Click here.
- BBC CBeebies Parenting resources (Supporting children aged 0-5) - Click here.
- Speech and Language UK (Supporting children's early communication skills) - Click here.
- Speech and Language UK (Talk to a speech and language advisor) - Click here.
- NHS Best Start in Life (Learning conversations and telling stories: 3 to 5 years) - Click here.
- Makaton symbols and sign (Core vocabulary) - Click here.
- Speech and language UK (Talk Boost programme) - Click here.
- Speech and Language UK (Developmental Language Disorder) - Click here.
- Copying words back correctly (Speech Modelling) - Click here
- Supporting speech sounds - Click here.
- How to help people who stammer - leaflet
- Help if your child stammers - Click here.
- Supporting children with Selective Mutism – Kent NHS Foundation Trust
- Local mental health support – Sunderland, South Tyneside and Gateshead services
- Young Minds - Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People
Visual resources
- How to use communication boards - Click here
- First / next visual board - Click here
- Stage 0 visual boards - Click here
- Stage 1 visual boards - Click here
- Stage 2 visual boards - Click here
- Visual timetable symbols - Click here
- Zones of regulation visual - Click here
