Children's Speech and Language Therapy

Good communication skills allow us to play our part in family, education, work and community life. Speech and language therapy supports children and young people with communication difficulties to reach their potential.

We offer support to children and young people of all ages: from newborn babies to children in school, through to the transition to adult services.

We work with children and young people who have speech, language and communication needs or difficulties with eating, drinking and swallowing. As well as occurring on their own, these difficulties are common in children who have other diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorder, learning difficulties or cerebral palsy.

Speech, language and communication needs might include difficulties in:

  • making the sounds needed for your speech to be understood by other people
  • putting words and sentences together to ask for something, tell a story or hold a conversation
  • making sense of what other people say to you
  • understanding and using body language and eye contact
  • stammering, where sounds or words are repeated or need a lot of effort to produce
  • a persistently unusual voice quality, which might sound harsh, breathy or hoarse

As well as working directly with children and young people we support their families and carers, their teachers and other adults around them. We aim to help children and young people to develop their best possible communication skills, taking into account their individual abilities and needs.

We also aim to help educate the wider population to understand and promote children’s language and communication development, and we provide training and support to a wide range of professionals who work with children and young people.
 
Our friendly and highly skilled team of speech and language therapists and assistant practitioners provide support in a variety of settings. We aim to tailor our service around each individual and their needs.

We work in clinics, schools, hospitals and clients’ own homes across the locality.

Who to contact

Contact name
Children’s Speech and Language Therapy
Telephone
01429 522 717
E-mail
nth-tr.childrenservicesadminhub@nhs.net
Website
Children’s Speech and Language Therapy

Where to go

Other details

Referral required?
Yes
Referral and availability notes

While most of our referrals come from GPs, schools, hospitals and health visitors, we run an open referral system. This means you can refer yourself or your child by contacting us directly.

If a professional is referring on behalf of a parent, they should obtain consent from the parent/carer before the referral is passed on.

Age range
0-19 years
Disclaimer

Durham County Council's Families Information Service does not promote nor endorse the services advertised on this website. Anyone seeking to use/access such services does so at their own risk and may make all appropriate enquiries about fitness for purpose and suitability to meet their needs.
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