Special and Complex Needs Schools, Special Support Centres and Units

What does this service provide?

The Special Schools Speech and Language Therapy Team consists of Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) and Speech and Language Therapy Assistants (SALTAs) who are based within the schools.

What we do

We work with teachers, parents and other professionals to support the students within the school environment. We provide support through training, demonstration and modelling of therapy approaches as well as assessing the children’s functional communication needs.

How we work

We provide a service for students with speech, language and communication needs at three different levels – Universal, Targeted and Specialist. All students will access the Universal Service for their whole school life. Some students require periods of support at Targeted or Specialist levels to address specific clinical needs identified by the Speech and Language Therapist. This support will be tailored to meet the students needs and reviewed periodically.

What is the Universal service?

Universal support within a Special School enables the school team to modify the environment to meet the needs of children with a range of speech, language, communication and learning needs. This could include the Speech and Language therapy team working with teaching staff to:

• Encourage the use of signing, symbols and visuals to support understanding and communication in the classroom.
• Ensure the students’ main mode of communication is embedded into the school day, e.g., Makaton and Aided Language Boards.
• Support with target setting as requested.
• Provide training to contribute to the skill development of the staff.

What is the Targeted service?

Targeted support will be provided in partnership with school staff. The SLT team will model therapy and train school staff to deliver specific interventions. Targeted interventions are expected to become self-sustaining once modelling/training has taken place. This could include the Speech and Language therapy team:

• Training school staff to deliver intervention/approaches recommended by the Speech and Language Therapy team, e.g., Lego therapy, Narrative therapy.
• Sign posting staff to training run by other agencies.
• Support with target setting.

What is the Specialist Service?

Specialist support will be required by a small number of children whose needs cannot be met through Universal or Targeted provisions. The Therapist will provide direct and/or individualised therapy for a defined period of time to address the needs of the children. The Speech and Language Therapy team may provide:

• Specific targets which will be set jointly between class team and SLT.
• Therapy sessions to work on agreed targets, these may take place within the classroom environment.
• Joint working with external specialist services, e.g., Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) hub, Specialist Hospitals

How can I contact this service?

The speech and language therapist will see your child in school. You are welcome to speak to the speech and language therapist. Please contact your child’s school for further details.