Speech and Language Therapy

We support children and young people who find it difficult to produce the sounds needed for clear speech, understand what’s being said to them, or express themselves using appropriate words and sentences. We also help them with social communication skills and interacting with others, as well as specific conditions such as stammering or hearing impairment.

We help them develop the skills they need to learn, play and socialise with others, and express their wants, needs and thoughts.

Optimum speech and language development has a positive effect on your child’s education, behaviour and ability to socialise so we work together with families, education staff and other professionals to achieve positive outcomes. We do this by working towards agreed goals that are functional, meaningful and important for your child.

We do this by:

• Providing training and advice for parents, carers and other individuals (such as education staff) to support your child
• Providing approaches and activities to be carried out by various people to support your child in different environments
• Providing advice and recommendations for specialist equipment such as communication aids when needed
• Contributing to Educational Healthcare plans and transition planning
• Providing direct therapy with your child individually or in a group when needed. 

We work closely with you, your family, education staff and a range of professionals to help your child achieve the goals we’ve agreed with you.

We work with school staff and families to give speech, language and communication support to children and young people attending mainstream schools across Berkshire. We support from their entry into reception until they leave secondary school.

In Slough we offer this service to children and young people attending a mainstream school as long as they have an Education Health and Care Plan. 

We start by talking to you and your child’s teachers about concerns they might have about speech and language development, and the impact these difficulties have at home and school.

The support we offer might include:

• Training and advice for school staff in how to spot when your child needs support, and the best ways to help them use their communication skills well to learn
• Setting targets with parents/carers and school staff to make sure your child gets the best outcome
• Designing programmes of activities.

We might also provide support to your child in small groups, in pairs or on a one-to-one basis.

If you have a scheduled appointment with one of our teams and either you or a member of your family have symptoms of Covid-19, please call to reschedule your appointment on one of the contact numbers in the Contact Us section. 

Our Early Years team are pleased to introduce our monthly online workshops covering early language development. They are designed for parents and carers and those working within early years settings. Please see below for more information on the sessions and how to register.

Communication Foundations

Does your child struggle to pay attention to you?
Does your child pay fleeting attention to you or their toys?
Does your child find it difficult to allow or tolerate you sitting next to them?
Does your child struggle to use words to communicate?

The Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Team will be talking about different strategies that may support your child. Choose from the following dates. 

Communication Building Blocks 

Does your child have a limited number of words?
Does your child only use short phrases?

The Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Team will be sharing ways you can support your child’s early language development. Choose from the following dates. 

Scaffolding Communication 

The Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Team will provide an overview of how we can use gestures, objects and pictures to support language development. Choose from the following dates. 

Important information about your personal data

When you visit the link for the training session, Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust will use the information you provide for service development purposes. Your email address will only be accessible to those Berkshire Healthcare staff involved in the delivery of the training. 

Personal data will be deleted after the webinar, your information will not be shared with any third party and you will not be contacted by Berkshire Healthcare as a result of this training, unless safeguarding concerns arise from the session around your own, or your child’s wellbeing. If this is the case, data will be used to escalate appropriately to the safeguarding team.

Cameras and microphones will remain disabled throughout the session, however, please note that if you do not select ‘Join as a guest’ at the time of the training, your name will be visible to other attendees. Please select ‘Join as a guest’ when you enter and choose a name unrelated to you.

 If your child/young person is already known to our service and you have a query, concern, or need advice, or you need to cancel/re-arrange a scheduled appointment, please call your local administration team:

• Slough: 0118 9044802
• Bracknell: 0118 9044803
• Windsor and Maidenhead: 0118 9044801
• Reading: 0300 3654000
• Wokingham: 01189 495093
• West Berkshire (Newbury): 01635 273706 

If you would like some advice from your local early years’ speech and language therapy team (for pre-school children), you can also email the team: 

• Reading – ADMINREADING@berkshire.nhs.uk
• West Berkshire (Newbury) – ADMINNEWBURY@berkshire.nhs.uk
• Wokingham– ADMINBRWOK@berkshire.nhs.uk
• Bracknell -  CYPITBRACKAdmin@berkshire.nhs.uk
• Slough –   CYPITSLOUGHAdmin@berkshire.nhs.uk
• Windsor and Maidenhead – Please contact our Triage team as above for advice and support on 0118 904 3700 or alternatively complete our online referral form.

Please include your child’s name and date of birth or NHS number in the email so that we can access your child’s records, along with the best telephone number to contact you on. It is also helpful if you can let us know the best day(s) to contact you. We aim for all families to be called back by a speech and language therapist within a few weeks, but it can take longer if lots of requests have been received.