Speech and language therapy

Speech and language therapists can:

• Assess communication to find any difficulties and offer advice to help support communication.
• Work with families, carers, and schools to find the best ways to support a child's communication through meetings, training, and workshops.
• Train education staff on how to run activities that support children's communication in their daily environment.
• Provide direct therapy to children, either one-on-one or in groups, with parents and/or staff observing to continue the support throughout the day.
• Assess eating, drinking, and swallowing (dysphagia) to identify any difficulties and give advice on how to ensure safety whilst eating and drinking and offer improvements, where possible.

If any of these sound like your child, don’t wait. Ask for a referral to speech and language therapy.

Is your child:

• Appearing not to understand what’s being said to them even by 18 months old?
• Having difficulties playing or interacting with other people?
• Having difficulties speaking fluently, such as a stammer?
• Have continuing eating, drinking or swallowing difficulties?
• Not putting two words together at two and a half years old?
• Challenging to understand (relatively speaking) by three and a half years old?
• Not speaking in a setting such as a nursery after a settling-in period of six weeks or more? 
• Not using any words at 18 months old?
• Showing signs of frustration about getting their message across?
• Using less than 50 words at two years old (these can be a mixture of languages)?
• Very quietly spoken, hoarse, or unable to talk loudly at all?

To learn more about whether you think your child may need a referral, use this progress tracker.

Early Years SLT Team

This team provides a service for children before they start school (pre-school) who are registered with a GP in Ealing, by:  

• Assessing children who've been referred to the service. Referrals can be made by any health or education professional. Download the referral form.
• Following assessment, individual and group therapy sessions are offered for children who would benefit from this support.  
• Running communication workshops for parents/carers to learn more about how to help their child’s communication skills

Mainstream Schools SLT Team

This team provides a service for children aged three to 18 who attend a mainstream primary school, secondary school, or college across Ealing by:

• Supporting children who have a referral to speech and language therapy. Referrals can be made by the school’s Special Educational Need’s Co-Ordinator (SENCo). Download the referral form.
• Setting up groups for children who don’t have a referral, but who need some extra support.
• Training school staff on how to identify and support different speech and language needs.
• Working with school staff to create communication-supportive environments.
• Running free training sessions for parents/carers and staff in Ealing on a variety of topics. To find out more email wlm-tr.ealingslt.training@nhs.net

Special Schools SLT Team

This team provides a service for children aged three to 18 who attend a special school in Ealing (who pay for our service) by

• Supporting children who have a referral to speech and language therapy. A referral can be made by the school’s Special Educational Need’s Co-Ordinator (SENCo). Download the referral form
• Training school staff on how to support different speech and language needs
• Working with school staff to create classroom environments that support communication
• Running workshops for parents/carers and professionals on how to support communication.

Dysphagia SLT Team

This team provides a service for children aged three to 18 who have eating, drinking and/or swallowing difficulties, by:

• Supporting children who have a referral to speech and language therapy. Referrals can be made by any health or education professional using an EHAP. Parent/carers can make a referral using our referral form.
• Carrying out assessments of children’s eating, drinking or swallowing
• Supporting children with eating, drinking or swallowing needs
• Working with parents, carers and professionals to give advice and tips. 

Ealing Community Partners' children's speech and language therapy team is committed to providing inclusive care and services and treating everyone with respect. 

We have a committed equality, diversity, and inclusion group ethos, working to make sure we are an actively anti-racist team. We are fortunate to work in Ealing, one of the most ethnically diverse boroughs in the UK, and we are striving to ensure our team reflects the communities we serve. We seek to ensure we are allies to our LGBTQ+ colleagues and families as well as our neurodivergent colleagues and families.  

Parents and carers can access support from the Ealing Speech and Language Therapy's Universal Service. No referral is needed. We run lots of free training sessions for parents and carers:

• For our sessions for parents and carers of children under five, click here.

Additionally, you can:

• Follow us on Facebook to find out what’s coming up.
• Contact our advice line via email wlm.tr-ealing.sltadvice@nhs.net
• Ealing Children's Services is on YouTube, you can watch webinars on a range of subjects relating to speech, language and communication, including autism, selective mutism, language development and speech sounds Visit the YouTube channel.

There are lots of other services that can also support, including:

• Ealing Local Offer signposts to services and support in Ealing for children and families who’re living with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). Visit the Local Offer website.
• Contact Ealing provides support, advice and information for families with disabled children, whatever their condition or disability. Visit the Contact Ealing website.
• Ealing Parent and Carer Forum work to ensure that Ealing Council, local health and other service providers understand what children and young adults with additional needs require for their development. Visit the Ealing Parent and Carer Forum website.
• Hungry Little Minds share ideas and activities to develop communication from 0 to five years old. Visit the Hungry Little Minds website.

We’re a dynamic and friendly team based in Ealing.

We’re always looking to bring new skills and experience into our growing team.

You can find out more about what it’s like to work with us here.

• What is speech and language therapy?
• Keeping your language alive
• Sing and rhyme anytime
• Watch less, talk more
• Selective mutism / situational speaking anxiety
• Supporting your child's attention and learning
• Helping children with language
• Supporting your child's social communication
• Speech sound (pronunciation) information and advice
• Supporting your child who is stammering