Social Communication

The Role of the Speech and Language Therapist.

The Speech and Language Therapist works with the people that are in the child’s environment, such as parents/carers, nursery/school staff and other people working with the child to gather information about how they communicate and relate to others. This may also
involve observing the child closely in a social environment such as nursery, school or home. We support everyone in the child’s life so that they can deliver the intervention appropriate to the child’s interaction and communication needs

What the Speech and Language Therapist can do:

Advise everyone on how to adapt the way they communicate and interact with the child.
Advise everyone to make changes to the environment e.g. making it more structured and meaningful for the child.
Provide training for everyone to support their understanding of the child’s social interaction and communication difficulties.
Provide specific speech and language interventions.

Hanen More than Words Parent Programme – an intensive parent course (see ‘More than Words’ leaflet for more information).
Hanen Talkability Parent programme – an intensive parent course (see ‘Talkability’ leaflet for more information).

Social communication workshops:

Stages 1 and 2
Stages 3 and 4
Visuals workshop
Theory of mind
Social stories
Comic strip conversations.

Intensive Interaction /The 4 I’s. The Speech and Language Therapist will identify the child’s needs and provide training for staff for these specific interventions. We often provide support for parents and staff to implement these interventions by a Speech and Language Therapy Assistant modelling these at home, nursery or school.
Language programmes. Sometimes children with autism or social communication differences have needs with language, and the Speech and Language Therapist can provide specific advice and interventions as appropriate. This might include vocabulary and narrative programmes.
We can signpost / suggest other local groups within the community for support. We may also complete any onward referrals to other services as appropriate.

The Speech and Language Therapist will work with your child over an “episode of care” to identify with the parents, carers, setting staff and young people appropriate goals and specific strategies.

This will be as many interventions as the Speech and Language Therapist feels is necessary to ensure goals and strategies are in place for your child.

We will make sure that everyone working with your child understands how to use strategies and work towards goals and understand when to re-contact the Speech and Language Therapy Service for the next episode of care. In the meantime, we would expect both you and other people working with your child to carry out the strategies we have recommended in your child’s everyday life.

We would ensure both you and those working with your child know when to reaccess the Speech and Language Therapy Service for the next episode of care if appropriate. Some children may need one episode of care, whereas others may need ongoing episodes of care.

You should also reaccess the service if you have additional concerns, or feel strategies are not effective. Reaccessing our service is easy: a phone call to our team, a request for other professionals to contact us (e.g. nursery/school) or an email to Children’s Therapy Services. Parental consent is needed. Please also see our website for further information.

T: 01253 951101

E: bfwh.admin.paediatrictherapy@nhs.net

W: https://www.blackpoolteachinghospitals.nhs.uk/services/childrens-speech-and-language-therapy

The following websites have lots of information for parents, carers and other professionals about different types of communication needs and local SEND services: