Children's Speech & Language Therapy

Speech and Language Therapy is concerned with the management of disorders of speech, language, communication and swallowing. 

Speech and language therapists (SLTs) are allied health professionals. We work closely with parents, carers and other professionals such as teachers, early years practitioners, nurses, occupational therapists and doctors.  

Children’s speech and language therapists work mainly in Community Health Centres, mainstream and special schools and nurseries, Surestart Children's Centres and family homes. 

Speech and language therapists work with infants and children with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties to assess what might be going wrong and suggest changes which will make the process safer and help the child to develop their skills. 

Children may be seen individually or in groups by the SLT, or programmes of work may be delivered by other child care workers or parents under the direction of the SLT.

The School and Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Therapy Core NHS Service documents have more details about what treatments the service provide and who they are able to treat.

School Speech and Language Therapy Core NHS Service Offer

Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Core NHS Service Offer

How to get help

Find details on how to contact the service for advice and information on the Children's Speech and Language Therapy page. 

For any other general enquiries, please contact your local Speech and Language area office using the telephone numbers below.  Please note these lines are operated by administrators and they cannot offer any clinical advice:

• Bristol and South Gloucestershire: 0300 125 5145
• North Somerset: 0300 1256710

Talk To Me campaign

You can support your child's language development by chatting, singing, playing and reading to them throughout the day. Our Talk To Me campaign offers tips on ways to interact with your child so they can develop their communication skills.

Check out the resources at the bottom of the page to find out more.

Videos

Our Speech and Language Therapists have made a series of videos to help parents support their child's speech and language development at home.

View our full playlist of videos to learn more on topics such as communication, language development, singing and playing with your child.