Children's speech and language therapy
The Children's Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) team supports the children and young people in Gateshead who struggle to communicate.
We enable them to maximise their communication skills, to access education, to increase their social participation and ultimately to achieve independence. Where possible, we work closely with their families and with other professionals.
Contact us on 0191 445 6667
Gateshead Children's SLT Service has two clinical teams:
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The Community Paediatric SLT Team are based in a number of clinics and health centres across the Gateshead area. We support children and young people presenting with a diverse range of communication disorders including speech sound difficulties, developmental language disorder, stammering, social communication and voice disorders.
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The Special Needs SLT team are based at Dunston Health Centre and work across four main areas; pre-school children with additional and complex needs, Gateshead Special Schools, Hearing Impairment and assessment and intervention for children with feeding/swallowing difficulties across the district.
Referrals
Both teams operate an open referral system for children and young people aged 0-18 years presenting with speech, language and communication difficulties.
This means you can refer yourself or your child, or you can be referred by your doctor, health visitor, school nurse or school. We assess, diagnose and treat children and young people in a variety of settings including service user’s homes, clinics/health centres, schools and nurseries.
What we offer
The needs of our service users are at the heart of service delivery and the teams provide specialist knowledge, skills and experience to meet these needs with a number of specialist care pathways including:
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Triage – initial assessment and diagnosis
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Early years intervention
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Community clinic based intervention
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Group therapy
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Developmental Language Disorders (DLD) –specialist assessment and intervention
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Complex Social Communication disorders including Autism
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Secondary school children with persistent speech, language and communication needs
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Stammering
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Voice Disorders
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Cleft lip and palate
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Alternative and Augmentative Communication systems
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Joint assessments as part of the Gateshead Child Development Team and Feeding clinics
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Joint SLT and Education therapy groups
Helpful Information
Talking Point is a charity with information on children's communication
The Communication Trust has resources for parents on children's communication