We are made up of a wide range of generalist and specialist teams.
Generalist locality teams
We are based in the localities below and provide a service for children up to the age of 18 who attend mainstream preschool and mainstream school based settings.
These children and young people have mild and moderate speech and language difficulties.
We work closely with our health visiting colleagues and nursery staff in the early years and with education staff when children are in full time school. We see children with a wide range of communication difficulties and are often the first member of the team to see your child. If we feel your child has more specialist needs, we transfer their care to one of our colleagues who we feel can support them best.
Our localities
North Middlesbrough
Abingdon, Ayresome, Breckon Hill, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough Centre, Middlehaven, North Ormesby, West Lane, Whinney Banks.
South Middlesbrough
Acklam, Brookfield, Coulby Newham , Hemlington, Marton, Nunthorpe, Stainton, Thornton.
East Middlesbrough
Beckfield, Beechwood, Berwick Hills, Brambles Farm, Easterside, Grove Hill, Netherfields, Pallister Park, Park End, Thorntree.
Eston
Eston , Grangetown, Normanby , South Bank.
Redcar
Marske, New Marske, Redcar, Dormanstown, Yearby.
East Cleveland
Boosbeck, Brotton, Carlin How, Lingdale, Loftus, Guisborough, Saltburn, Skelton, Skinningrove
Specialist teams
Children and young people who require more specialist interventions are referred to an appropriate specialist team for assessment and support.
Our specialist teams are described below.
AAC or communication aids (augmentative and alternative communication)
We work with children and young people who require an alternative means of communication or a means to support their speech using symbol books or electronic communication aids. We work with children and young people from pre-school age.
Autism
We offer a specialist service to children and young people of all ages.
We offer assessment, therapy, advice and training to children, young people and their families who present with difficulties with their social communication skills.
Some of these children may have or go on to receive a diagnosis of Autism.
Our team works within the Multi-agency Autism Assessment Teams (MAAT) in both Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland, supporting the team to consider whether children and young people are to receive a diagnosis of Autism.
More support and information is available from autism.org.
Multilingualism
We ensure that the wider team has a good understanding of speech and language development in children and young people with English as an additional language. We make sure that we are up to date with current research in this area and share best practice with the wider team.
Cleft palate
We work together with the Northern and Yorkshire Regional Cleft Lip and Palate Team, who provide an expert and specialist service to children and young people born with cleft lip and/or palate.
A child might be referred to us for therapy by the specialist regional team or we might assess a child who we think has speech problems that are like cleft palate and we would refer them to the specialist regional team.
The following links may also be useful:
Dysfluency (stammering)
We are a team of highly trained Speech and Language Therapists who specialise in assessing, treating and supporting children and young people (from birth to late teens) who stammer (also known as ‘stuttering’ or ‘dysfluency’) and their families.
Two in every five young children will go through phases of sounding ‘bumpy’ as if they are stammering.
With the right advice and guided management of this common developmental stage, parents can skilfully help their child to either move effortlessly through it or to minimise its impact.
We know for certain that the earlier we can start to advise and support parents, the more likely we are to prevent your child from developing long term stammering difficulties.
Dysphagia (eating, drinking and swallowing)
We work with babies and children and young people from birth to 18 who experience problems with feeding and swallowing.
We can also see young adults with complex needs and an EHCP up to age 25, in partnership with adult therapy teams.
We provide home visits or may see children at clinics. We also provide an inpatients service to the Neonatal Unit and Paediatric wards at James Cook University Hospital.
Hearing impairment team
We work with babies, children and young people who have a hearing loss and communication difficulties.
We offer support to parents following diagnosis of a hearing loss, and then work directly with young children at home, in nursery and then at mainstream schools and schools with specialist resource bases for hearing loss.
We also work closely with other services such as audiology, cochlear implant team, hearing impaired service and school teachers.
We can work with young people up to the age of 25 if they have an Education Health Care Plan.
The Royal National Institute for the Deaf also has some useful information.
Preschool SEND (special educational needs and disability)
We work with children from birth until they move into full time school.
The children we work with may have an identified diagnosis indicating Special Educational Needs.
We also work with children who are presenting with delayed development in several areas.
Supporting parents to communicate with their children is key in the early years and we work with families and childcare settings to make sure that they are confident in developing their child’s communication.
We work closely with early years support services in both Redcar and Cleveland and Middlesbrough.
Contact, for families with disabled children may also have some useful information, as well as Parents 4 Change.
School aged SEND
We work with children and young people in special schools and mainstream schools who have additional needs such as a learning disability, autism alongside communication difficulties.
We start work with children once they begin full time school. We can work with young people up to the age of 25 if they have an Education Health Care Plan.
Alongside our assessment and direct therapy, we work closely with our specialist education colleagues and provide training which enables them to provide regular intervention to their pupils.
Contact, for families with disabled children may also have some useful information.
Specialist language team
The team work with children and young people who have significant difficulties understanding and using language (also known as developmental language disorder, or DLD).
We work closely with specialist teaching staff supporting children and young people with significant language difficulties in a specialist language unit within a local mainstream primary school.
We also support children and young people within their own mainstream primary schools.
Other useful links may include:
- Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder website.
- National organisation of teachers, speech and language therapists and other professionals resources on DLD.
Specialist speech team
We work in mainstream schools, support bases and the specialist language unit with children and young people with speech disorder, severe speech delay and persistent speech errors.
Children receive direct therapy to help them improve their speech sound production.
It is important that the children receive daily practice at home and in school to support the development of their speech sounds.
Information on speec difficulties is also available n the AFASIC website.
Voice
Some children have problems with their voice quality – where it can sound hoarse, croaky or whispery, as though they have a sore throat but lasting for a long time.
We can assess their voice and talk with parents/carers to get more information.
We will offer advice and often we refer to a specialist ear, nose & throat (ENT) consultant at James Cook University Hospital.
The British Voice Association may also be a good source of help and support.
How to contact us
You can call us on 01642 944488 or email us on [email protected]
Our main office base is 2 Trinity Mews, North Ormesby Health Village, Middlesbrough, TS3 6AL.
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