Speech and language therapy referral guidelines - 7 years to 10 years, 11 months

Refer to Speech and Language Therapy, if:

• Setting have accessed and implemented the following targeted support for 3 months and there has been no/minimal progress:
  • Completion of an appropriate targeted language group or other structured language intervention  
  • Implementation of activities and strategies to support specific language needs through ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ process.
• AND the child has difficulty with  more than one of the following: 
  • follows only part of instruction given   
  • learning and understanding new vocabulary and concepts in the classroom  
  • understanding ‘what’, ‘where’, who’, ‘when’, ‘how’ questions in conversation for example, ‘when do we brush our teeth?’
  • understanding conversations about things in the past or future 
  • understanding spoken language at home or in school that has a functional impact, for example, impacting on the child’s ability to fully participate in classroom or social opportunities

Refer to Speech and Language Therapy, if: 

• Setting have accessed and implemented the following targeted support for 3 months and there has been no/minimal progress: 
  • Completion of an appropriate targeted language group or other structured targeted language intervention 
  • Implementation of activities and strategies to support specific language needs through ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ process.
• AND the child has difficulty with more than one of the following:
  • retelling a story or experience with enough detail, or giving an explanation 
  • using longer, complete sentences and misses words out or uses words in the wrong order 
  • using a range of verbs and uses empty verbs such as ‘do’, ‘get’, e.g. ‘girl do football,’ (instead of girl kicking football) ‘Dad get flowers’ (instead of Dad buying flowers)
  • using complex and descriptive vocabulary
  • not being able to make themselves understood due to difficulties with selecting words and forming sentences to express their needs and ideas leading to frustration
  • finding the correct word to use or naming items correctly.

Refer to Speech and Language Therapy, if the child does not meet exclusion criteria* below, plus: 

• Setting have accessed and implemented the following targeted support for 3 months and there has been no/minimal progress: 
  • attended 'Supporting social communication in school aged children' training
  • implementation of activities and strategies to support specific communication and interaction needs through ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ process.
• AND the child has any of the following:
  • is not using a communication system (i.e. spoken words/phrases, sign, pictures or other symbolic system) with a key adult 
  • is not communicating for a variety of reasons (for example rejecting, requesting, responding, commenting, self advocate)
  • is not having conversations about topics of interest to them. 

*Exclusion criteria:   

• Child who presents with differences in their communication skills linked to a possible or diagnosed neurodivergence such as Autism. Neurodivergent communication (for example, taking longer turns in conversation, speaking about a small range of topics, talking in detail about a topic, eye contact differences) does not need to be changed, but accepted within an inclusive environment.  For more information on neurodivergent communication watch our Celebrating Autistic Neurodivergence webinar.
• Child has differences in their social skills that appear to relate to the child’s general developmental level.

 

Refer to SLT if...

• Setting have accessed and implemented a phonological awareness assessment and intervention for 3 months, for example, Newcastle Assessment and Intervention for Phonological Awareness (NAPA/NIPA)
• Setting has completed the speech screen (either the word document or PDF version).
• Adults find it difficult to understand what the child is saying
• AND the child is having any of the difficulties below:
  • misses out or swaps sounds with other sounds, for example on speech screen they may say “tea” instead of “key”, or “nake” instead of “snake”
  • literacy/behaviour/confidence/participation due to impact of speech sound difficulties
  • says the same word in a different way every time
  • often says the same word in a different way, for example, fish may be said as “fis”, “pish”, “bi”, or "Bobby" may be said as “goggy”, “bo-ee”, “boddy”
  • only using one or two consonants, for example, if trying to say “Grandad fell over" they say “Danda dell oder”
  • vowel errors, for example, says “raddy” for “ready” or “mer” for “more” (not due to any accent differences)
  • only using vowels, for example, “ar” for “car” “eh” for “bed”, “uh-ee” for “funny”, “uh-er” for “jumper”
• OR the child has cleft related speech concerns and referral is from a specialist cleft centre or other relevant professionals or the child has cleft related speech errors or nasal speech in the absence of identified cleft palate (phonological awareness assessment and intervention/speech screen do not apply for cleft‑related referrals).