Caring for your Child

Caring for your Child

Speech, language, and communication advice

Advice and useful websites for parents and children.

The child/young person may:

  • Use some or no spoken language
  • Get frustrated when they cannot express their wants/needs
  • Express themselves in other ways such as pointing, hand-leading or gesturing

Advice sheets:

  • What is AAC
  • Using Core Words
  • Using a Communication Board

Useful websites:

The child/young person may:

  • Not use many words in their home language and English
  • Have difficulty following instructions in their home language and English
  • Not speak as much as their siblings did, or as much as other bilingual children of the same age
  • Have had more than two years' exposure but haven’t developed basic English

Advice sheets:

Useful websites:

The child/young person may:

  • Require tailored, holistic support from the adults working with them
  • Be communicating in a variety of different ways, for example, through body language or sign
  • Be supported to understand using objects, signs, symbols, and pictures

Advice Sheets

See also Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

The child/young person may:

  • Not be using any or many words yet
  • Find it difficult to follow simple instructions

Advice sheets

Useful websites

See also Bilingual/EAL children

The child/young person may:

  • Have a temporary or permanent hearing loss
  • Show delays in speech, language and/or social communication development
  • Experience difficulties with emerging literacy and speech sound awareness

Advice sheets

Useful websites

Dysphagia is a difficulty with swallowing. Your child may be referred to a speech and language therapist if they have problems with eating, drinking, or swallowing. 

The child/young person may:

  • Frequently cough or choke with food and or drink
  • Parental/professional concern about the mechanics of eating or drinking
  • Gag or choke on age-appropriate textures
  • Be tube fed and require support to develop the oral skills necessary for food progression

Useful websites

Understanding language

The child/young person may:

  • Struggle to understand what is said to them
  • Appear to not listen, which is interpreted as unacceptable behaviour
  • Misinterpret what has been said
  • Struggle to access what is being taught in the classroom 

Using language

The child/young person may:

  • Be unable to express basic needs
  • Have difficulties expressing their thoughts
  • Struggle to find the right words
  • Mix up word order, making them difficult to understand
  • Use short simple sentences when speaking (this may affect writing)

Advice sheets

Useful websites

See also Bilingual/EAL children

The child/young person may:

  • Be very anxious about speaking in some situations
  • Be able to speak freely with people they feel comfortable with in certain places
  • Also have difficulty using other forms of communication (e.g. nodding, pointing)
  • Want to avoid situations where they feel they might be expected to speak

Advice sheets

Useful websites

Let’s Make Sense Together is a virtual service that has been developed by our Occupational Therapists. It is part of our sensory processing pathway, supporting children and young people who have a physical and functional difficulty due to sensory processing differences.

For further information and advice, visit the Lets Make Sense Together webpage.

The child/young person may:

  • Struggle to play with others
  • Find it difficult to start and maintain interactions with others
  • Have language but not know how to use it to communicate
  • Have no words and also not use non-verbal communication

Advice sheets

Useful websites

See also Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

The child/young person may:

  • Have difficulty recognising emotions in others
  • Have difficulty communicating their feelings verbally
  • Have difficulty paying attention and processing language
  • Have difficulty adapting their language to different situations
  • Misunderstand sarcasm or idioms, e.g. ‘pull your socks up’
  • Have low mood and frequent school absences
  • Lose their temper or shut down often

Useful websites

The child/young person may:

  • Have speech that is difficult to understand
  • Talk like a younger child
  • Get frustrated when they cannot express their wants/needs
  • Mix sounds when they talk (this may affect reading/writing)
  • Be reluctant to talk because they are aware others can't understand them

Advice sheets

Useful websites

The child/young person may:

  • Give up when their words get stuck
  • Avoid speaking or change what they want say as they are worried about stammering
  • Feel frustrated when others respond unhelpfully when they stammer.
  • Experience a range of emotions/behaviours linked to their stammer

Advice sheets

Useful websites

 

The child/young person may:

  • Present with a hoarse, croaky, strained, breathy or weak voice
  • Be unable to control volume, so it may be difficult to be heard by other people
  • Experience pain in their throat when talking

Advice sheets

Useful websites

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