Referring to Speech and Language Therapy
The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2015) highlights the importance of Early Years Settings and Schools following the Graduated Approach to supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
It’s therefore important for SENCos, teachers and practitioners to feel confident in identifying supporting speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and putting support in place at a universal and targeted level.
Universal support for SLCN may include teachers adapting the environment and their own communication. Targeted support for SLCN may include children and young people accessing group support to develop their language and communication skills. Your SEND Speech and Language Therapist can offer guidance, advice and support to enable you to meet the need of the children and young people in your setting through drop in sessions.
For some children and young people, having universal and targeted provision in place will be enough to support their SLCN. You will be able to monitor progress through your Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycles.
Some children and young people will not make expected progress with just universal and targeted provision and will need access to specialist Speech and Language Therapy support. These children and young people require a referral to Speech and Language Therapy (SaLT).