Children’s Speech
and Language Therapy
– Speech, Language and
Communication Toolkit
This section of our website holds useful information and ideas on how to work on a range of speech and language difficulties before you need help from a Speech and Language Therapist. All parents/carers and settings would benefit from starting with the “start here for some top tips” section, which is found under “help for parents and carers”. We would recommend trying some of these ideas consistently for 3 – 6 months before requesting further support from the service.
Help for Parents and Carers
Here you will find some top tips and activities you can carry out with your child based on what they are finding tricky. We recommend you start with “start here for some top tips”. After this, read through the descriptions and if this sounds like your child, have a browse of the advice in the drop down menu. Every child is different, but the advice in these sections is generally in order of when we expect those skills to develop.
Start here for some top tips
Read this advice:
My child plays with the same toys in the same way and often plays on their own
My child isn’t talking yet and doesn’t have a way of showing me what they want
This might look like…
- Not yet waving or pointing
Try these to help:
My child can only listen for a short time
This might look like…
- Playing with a toy for a short time
- Flitting between play activities
- Fidgets in their seat
- Prefers active games to still ones
My child needs help to learn more words
This might look like…
- They have few words
- They use gestures and show me rather than using words
- They use the wrong word.
Try these to help:
My child doesn’t understand what I say to them
This might look like..
- Does a bit of what they are asked but not everything
- Doesn’t seem to have heard me
- Doesn’t answer questions
- Can’t always work out what I am asking them to do
My child needs increase the number of words they say in a sentence
This might look like…
- Their sentences are shorter than their friends
- It is hard for them to share trickier ideas
- They get frustrated expressing themselves
When my child talks their speech isn’t very easy to understand
This might look like…
- Changing sounds in words
- Missing some speech sounds out of words
- They get frustrated when others don’t understand what they are saying
Try these to help:
My child stumbles on their words
This might look like…
- Repeating sounds in words
- Pausing in words
Try these to help:
- How to support a young child with a stammer
- The British Stammering Association has a wide range of resources available.
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- Information section of the British Stammering Association website
- Information and leaflets for parents of under 5s
- Information and leaflets for parents with school-aged children
My child is quiet and shy in some places and with some people
Try these to help:
My child is learning more than one language at home
Read this advice:
Help for Health and Education Professionals
Here you will find some information and ideas to support speech and language and communication difficulties in school. These are ideas you can try before you need to refer to us, or while you are waiting for a child to be seen.
Ideas to work on Attention and Listening
- When children learn how to listen and attend
- How to work on early attention and listening skills
- How to work on Attention & Listening
- How to use first-then to work on following tasks
- How to use a ‘now – next’ board
- How to use visual timetables to help children understand their routine
- How to make good listening environments
Ideas to promote language use
- How to work on early communication
- When children learn how to use words and sentences
- How to work on vocabulary and using simple sentences
- How to work on simple sentences and grammar
- How to work on using grammar – tenses and pronouns
- How to work on irregular plurals like mice or leaves
- How to work on plurals
- When children learn how to tell stories
- How to work on joining words like ‘and’
- How to help a child learning more than one language
