#SpeakUpSalford

Parents
& Carers

Your first appointment

 

Once your child has been referred to the Speech and Language therapy service and the appropriate forms have been completed an appointment will be arranged.  This first appointment is known as an initial assessment.


 

The First Appointment - What to Expect (initial assessment)

This initial assessment appointment will allow the Speech and Language Therapist to assess your child’s speech and language difficulties.

What will happen at my Initial Assessment Appointment?

  • The appointment usually lasts between 45 minutes and an hour.
  • The Therapist will ask about your child’s development. Bring your parent held record if you have one.
  • It is a two-way discussion. You will be asked for your views on your child’s speech and language, and what you think is important for them. Feel free to ask any questions.
  • There will be toys for your child to play with while we talk.
  • Bring along your child’s favourite toy or book.
  • The Therapist will play with your child, or use books and pictures if they are older.
  • Don’t worry if your child is shy at the first appointment. We’re used to this!
  • You could bring some notes of what your child says or an audio/video clip.
  • If your child is in nursery or school, it is helpful if you seek the views of the staff on your child’s speech and language.


What will the Speech and Language Therapist look at?
Depending on why your child has been referred the Speech and Language Therapist will want to find out about some of the following areas of your child’s speech and language development:

  • their attention and listening skills
  • their understanding of words and sentences
  • the words they use
  • how they put words together
  • their speech sounds
  • their play skills
  • their social skills, eg., eye contact, taking turns
  • what their voice sounds like
  • how fluently they speak


What Happens after my Initial Assessment Appointment?
Towards the end of the appointment the Therapist will discuss their findings with you and together you will decide what should happen next. This may be a monitoring review in clinic, a school/setting visit or being listed for further therapy sessions. 

It is important that you attend your appointment.  Please let us know if you are unable to keep the appointment.  If you do not attend and do not contact us, your child will be discharged from the service and no further appointments will be sent.

 

 

Student training and what this might mean for you

Salford Care Organisation is a teaching organisation. All our clinical services are committed to the education and training of the next generation of health and social care professionals.

If you and your child use our service you may come into contact with students. Sometimes students may observe you or your child’s treatment. On other occasions they may carry out assessment or deliver treatment.

Please be assured that any information, which you share with either the student or the supervising clinician, will be treated with the strictest confidence in accordance with Salford Care Organisation's policy on confidentiality.

All assessments and interventions carried out by students are overseen by a qualified Speech and Language Therapist, so that the quality of your care will not be affected in any way. All procedures carried out by students are in accordance with the same policies and guidelines that govern qualified clinical staff.

You will always be asked for your consent for a student to be present. You have the right to refuse this request. Should you refuse consent for a student to be present or to carry out treatment, the quality of your care will not be compromised in any way.

All students working in Salford Care Organisation have undergone health and police checks to ensure that they are suitable to work with patients.

 

NEWS/ EVENTS

Examples of What We Offer

Early Years

Our Early Years team follow the Greater Manchester Early Years Delivery Model (EYDM). They work in close partnership with health, local authority and social care colleagues to support early identification of speech, language and communication needs to ensure the right support at the right time for children, parents/ carers and settings.

School and Post 16

We work within with settings to identify and support communication needs. This could through training staff, modelling and coaching, whole class/ small group input and 1:1 interventions. There is a wide virtual training offer available for Salford schools. Please speak to the school/ college Link Speech and Language Therapist if you have any questions. 

 

 Enhanced Services

The Enhanced Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Service allows settings to buy-in additional support. This is bespoke to each setting and might involve universal, targeted and specialist input and training. For further information, please contact  salttraining@nca.nhs.uk

 

I would also like to say that I am very impressed with the work Speech and Language Therapist is doing in school as well as the professional way she deals with my parents and her helpful advise to my staff. I believe credit where credit is due.

School staff

I have found working with the speech therapist very beneficial. She helps me to set achievable goals for the children by coming into the nursery and interacting with the children and getting to know them. She talks to us on a regular basis and updates us on what targets she would like the children to achieve next. She teaches us new strategies to use with the children which we find really useful, we try to incorporate this into everyday activities. Parent’s often comment on how much they appreciate the advice from our therapist. They also comment on how much progress their children have made since visiting her. We don’t know what we would do without her!

Anneka Williamson, Children’s Centre Practitioner

My child absolutely LOVES coming to see you, you are so good with him. We are extremely grateful for all of your care and support. He is counting down the days until we can come again.

Parent

I just wanted to send a quick email to say thank you for the training you delivered for us this afternoon, it was so useful and informative. It was great to have further training that was bespoke to Early Years and built on what we had done in the whole school training. We're excited to start implementing it for our children.

Early Years Teacher

EPs and SALT frequently work together during Multi agency meetings to clarify individual concerns and strengths. We develop joint objectives, that are regularly reviewed and evaluated to improve outcomes for children and young people. Parents and teachers comment that this work is effective and helps to increase their understanding and knowledge. Jointly we increase schools capacity, through conversations and training, to meet the needs of their pupils.

Joanne Snee- Educational Psychologist

I am new to the role and I have found all members of the team extremely helpful and have gone out of their way to support me.

School SENCo

This is great and I am so appreciative of your support. We have nothing but fantastic things to say about the Salford SALT team and the support that you have given to both of our children.

Parent