Welcome to Guernsey's Children and Young People's Speech and Language Therapy Service. We are a dedicated team with a range of experience and specialisms. We work with children and young people with a range of speech, language, communication and swallowing difficulties. Every therapist is Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered and a member of The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).
Within our team there are nine paediatric speech and language therapists and two speech and language therapy assistants
What is Speech and Language Therapy?
- Speech and language therapists (SLTs) provide life-improving treatment, support and care for children who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking or swallowing.
- Using specialist skills, SLTs work directly with clients and their carers and provide them with tailored support. They also work closely with teachers and other health professionals, such as doctors, nurses, other allied health professionals and psychologists to develop individual treatment programmes.
(RCSLT, 2021)
How Common are Speech and Language Therapy Needs?
- Speech, language and communication needs are the most common type of special educational need in 4-11 year old children
- 7% of children aged five years have specific speech and language impairment and a further 1.8% have speech, language and communication needs linked to other conditions such as learning disability, cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder
- More than 60% of young offenders can have difficulties with speech, language or communication.
(RCSLT, 2021)
Our Aims
- To support children and young people to maximise their communication potential.
- To work collaboratively in order to meet the communication and/or eating and drinking needs of children and young people.
- To promote awareness of communication and/or eating and drinking needs.
Who We Support and Where We work
- All children and young people should have the opportunity to access support at a time they need to help them reach their full potential. We work with children and young people from birth to 18 years with a wide range of speech, language. communication and swallowing needs needs.
- Preschool
- Some children may have difficulties with paying attention and listening to others, or difficulties with play and interacting with other people. As your child develops they begin to understand the world around them and the words they hear, we call this "receptive language' or their 'understanding' - some children have difficulties understanding daily communication or language. Some children may have difficulties saying first words, putting words together or expressing themselves, we call this expressive language. Some children may have difficulties with their speech sounds, which can make them hard to understand. Some children may have difficulties with talking smoothly, which is known as a stammer. Some children may have difficulties with their voice.
- School
- Some children may have difficulties focusing on activities or other people. They may have difficulties understanding language in and outside of class. They may have difficulties using language to express themselves verbally and in written work. It may be difficult for other's to understand them due to how their speech sounds, voice sounds or fluency of speech.
- Who Else We Support
- We support infants, children and young people who have difficulties with social communication, or who have a diagnosis of Autism.
- We support infants, children and young people who have hearing impairments, learning disabilities and complex needs.
- We also work with infants, children and young people who have difficulties with eating, drinking and swallowing.
- Where We Work
- We work in a variety of settings and environments to ensure we are providing a fully supportive service.
Our clinic is based at Les Marais Centre - please see "Contact us" for location information.
We also work with children and young people at home, preschools, schools, child development centre, Princess Elizabeth Hospital, children centres and the Guille-Alles Library.Levels of Support
- Pre-School Children:
- During your initial assessment at Let's Talk Assessment Clinic, the Speech and Language Therapist will meet your child and discuss any concerns.
- School and College (4-18 years):
- When a concern is raised, a discussion between parents/carers, education staff and the school/college's link Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) will occur. Following this, the SLT will make recommendations as to the most appropriate action to take.
Accessing the Service and Where to Ask for Help
- Anyone can ask for us for help and advice.
- If your child is pre-school age (0-4 years old), as a first point of access we recommend you attend one of the offered Let's Talk Assessment Clinics. See the downloads section on the right for more information with details of times and locations.
- If your child is between 4 and 18 years of age, please speak to the Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCo) at your child's school or college who will be able to give you more information.
- If you have any questions or would like to speak to a member of our team, please feel free to call our service. We are happy to help in anyway we can.
- National support for parents - The Balanced System Pathway
- National support for professionals - The Balanced System Pathway
Contact Us
- Les Marais Centre, Le Grand Bouet, St Peter Port, GY1 2SB (A map is available by following the link in the downloads section)
- Tel: 44 1481 227760. A voicemail service is available for out of hours calls.
- Open 8:30am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday and 8:30am to 1pm on a Friday. Open during school holidays.
- We aim to respond to enquiries within five working days, however this is not always possible.
- All members of the team speak English as a first language, however interpreters are available should they be required
Local Therapy Input
- Advice Handouts
- Attention and Listening Skills
- Understanding Language
- Helping Your Child Use More Words
- Having Creative Conversations
- Speech Sound Development
- Supporting Speech Sound Development
- Promoting Sound Awareness
- Positive Corrective Feedback
- Developing Social Skills
- Dysfluency and Stammering
- Dummy Use
- Drooling
- Voice
- Top Tips for Hearing Impairment
- Group Information
- Building Communication
- Signalong
- Phonological Awareness
- Helping Your Child To Communicate
- Fun With Words
- Fun With Sounds
Useful Websites
- Speech and Language Resources and Support
- The Balanced System resources
- Stages of Speech and Language Development
- The Hanen Centre
- RCSLT
- Signalong
- Language Link - Activities and Games
- Speech Link - Activities and Games
- RADLD - Language
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
- PECs
- Pregnancy, Babies and Toddlers
- Tiny Happy People
- Voice and Stammering
- British Stammering Association
- Michael Palin Centre for Stammering
- British Voice Association
- Deafness and Hearing Impairment
- National Deaf Children's Society
- Autism
- National Autistic Society
- Selective Mutism and Anxiety
- Selective Mutism
- Eating and Drinking
- Down Syndrome Feeding
- Feeding Information
What people are saying about our service?
"I've found this block to be so effective and I have seen a big difference in my child, thank you"
"We can't fault the support we have received from speech and language"
"So proud, I didn't think he would get it (PECS) so quickly"
"She came home beaming and told me how lovely and fabulous you all are, how comfortable she felt with you"
"We were really pleased because they spoke in front of some friends that we have not seen in a while"
