Specialist Support
Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership
Our Specialist Pathway
Every child is different, and our specialist services are tailored to suit the needs of you and your child. If your child is referred to our service, it is likely that a Speech and Language Therapist will make contact with you initially by phone, to gather more detail about your child and discuss your concerns. Once that has happened, you will usually be invited to attend an initial appointment, which might be at your home, at school / nursery or in our of our community clinics. Once a Speech and Language Therapist has made an assessment of your child’s communication skills, you will receive a report outlining the plan for their specialist support. Communication support can be delivered in multiple formats and might include 1:1 support from a therapist, parent training, staff training or therapy groups.
Make a Request for Assistance
If you are concerned about a child, we would encourage you to get in touch with us by phoning our advice line in the first instance and speaking to a Speech and Language Therapist, who will be able to advise if a request for assistance is appropriate. Alternatively, you can complete our request for assistance form and return it to us by post or dropping it at one of our bases. It may be helpful for you to look at the Ages and Stages of Children’s Communication Development and/or the Checklist for Request for Assistance below before filling out a request. If you have an email address that has one of the following extensions nhs.scot, gsi.gov.uk, gse.gov.uk, gsx.gov.uk, scn.gov.uk, cjsm.net, pnn.police.uk, mod.uk, mod.gov.uk or hscic.gov.uk you can securely e-mail the forms to us at gram.saltnewrequestforassistance@nhs.scot
If you do not have one of these addresses, be aware that the information you send electronically is not secure and confidentiality may be compromised. You may prefer to post rather than email your request for assistance.
Request For Assistance Form
Checklist for Request for Assistance
Your First Appointment
We understand that seeing a professional to discuss your child's communication concerns for the first time can be stressful. We have put together some information on what you can expect from your first Speech and Language Therapy appointment, and things that you can do to prepare.
Asking Questions: the therapist will ask you to describe your concerns regarding your child’s communication. It can sometimes be helpful for you to write these concerns down and bring them with you.
Case History: you will be asked questions about your child’s birth and medical history, developmental milestones, family history and current communication skills. This information allows the therapist to pick up on any possible underlying reasons for your child’s speech and language difficulties. The therapist may advise you that a referral to another professional is appropriate e.g. a referral to audiology for a hearing assessment or to a paediatrician for developmental review.
Assessment: this may be carried out informally using toys and other exciting play activities, or it may be carried out more formally e.g. by completing an assessment with your child at a table with a picture book and scoring sheet. The approach we take will depend on what your concerns are, what the child’s difficulty is, and their age and level of attention.
Next steps: Often, the therapist may need to observe your child in another setting e.g. at school or home. They may also need to discuss their progress with relevant others e.g. their health visitor or teacher. Once assessment is fully completed, a report will be shared with you and all the professionals who support your child (we will always check with you before we send this report to other professionals). This helps us to make sure that all the professionals working with your child are on the same page.
The type of support your child receives will depend on their age and individual difficulties. Support may be offered directly through individual or group sessions or indirectly through the provision of advice or training others. If your child does not need any further support from us, they will be discharged. Once your child’s assessment is complete, you can expect the therapist to give you clear information about the type of support your child will need, including how often they plan to see your child and where this will be (home, clinic or school). This will reviewed on a regular basis, and you will be consulted as part of the decision-making process.
As a parent / carer you know your child the best, and you have an extremely important role to play in the success of your child’s therapy. The Speech and Language Therapist will usually only spend around 30 minutes with your child during a therapy session, so what really makes the difference in supporting your child’s progress is the work that you continue to do at home. You can help us to support your child by bringing them to therapy sessions (or making sure you contact us if you can’t come) and completing all of the advice and strategies that the therapist gives you to do at home.
