Making a referral for help with speech and language
What to expect at a first appointment
When we have received a referral to see your child, we will contact you when we are able to offer an appointment. Sometimes your first contact might be via phone or video call.
Please make sure we have your up to date contact details including mobile phone and email. Some families may also be sent a questionnaire by post or email to complete before the first appointment.
We see children and young people in range of settings, including online, in clinics, in their education setting and at home. This will be discussed when we arrange the appointment or will be detailed in your appointment letter or email. Also see the Social Story: Salt Way document (PDF).
The appointment will usually take between 30 and 60 minutes, but sometimes longer. For video or face to face appointments, the Speech and Language Therapist will need to talk to you as well as spend time with your child or young person.
If we are working in a school or pre-school setting we may suggest a member of staff joins us too.
The Speech and Language Therapist will ask you about your child’s development, and about how they communicate.
You may be asked if they understand when you talk to them, and for examples of the words or sentences they use.
It will help us if you can bring:
your red Child Health Record (if you still use it). This is to help remind you of any developmental milestones or health or medical notes.
any questionnaires we sent you, fully completed
any relevant reports from other people your child sees
The Speech and Language Therapist may observe your child in their own choice of activity, or may have some toys and activities to use in order to find out about their communication.
If we don’t find out enough from this appointment you will be offered another one. If you have suggestions about how we can best find out about your childs communication, let us know in advance.
You and the Speech and Language Therapist will discuss the options for what can happen next. This might include a review appointment in a few months, discharge, a series of therapy appointments, an assessment in another setting, or attending a course or workshop.
The Speech and Language Therapist will write back to the person who asked us to see your child (the referrer). You (as parent/carer) will also receive a copy. We will ask your permission to send copies of the report to people such as your GP and your child’s school or pre-school.
We will do our best to accommodate your needs, but there are some limits to the range of times and days we can offer.
Please let us know in advance if you cannot attend an appointment, use the details on our contact page to let us know, so that we can offer that slot to someone else and rearrange another time with you.
If you miss any Speech and Language Therapy appointments, we will do our best to contact you afterwards, but you may be discharged if we do not hear back from you.
If the therapist is ill on the day of your appointment, we make every effort to let you know via the contact details we have for you. Please ensure you keep us update if your contact details change.
If you have any concerns about your child’s speech and language therapy, your therapist will be happy to discuss them with you. If you need to contact the Manager for Children’s Speech & Language Therapy, you can contact us.
