Speech, language and communication

Universal Offer

The speech, language and communication universal services are available for every child living in Coventry up to the age of 18 and age of 25 if the child has special educational needs.

There are fantastic services in Coventry which can support parents, carers, and professionals with their child’s development.

You can also find a useful map of resources for universal services under our  A-Z universal services for speech language and communication.

Targeted Offer

The speech, language and communication targeted services, are there to support you if you have some concerns or worries about your child’s speech, language, or communication development.

Some children need input from the speech and language therapy service for a period following on from the universal support, if this is the case, a child can be referred directly to the speech and language therapy service.

The person making the referral will be asked to provide details on what universal support has already been offered to the child, this information helps the therapy team to understand what support has been put in place already.

What if my child needs a referral to a Speech and Language Therapist? (SLT)

Please use the referral form to refer a child into this service. Anyone who knows or works with a child/young person can refer to our service (with parental consent), the referral system is open to all children and young people with a Coventry GP.

All referrals are looked at by a qualified speech and language therapist to ensure the most appropriate management is offered to the child.

All children/young people accepted to the service will be offered an assessment with a speech & language therapist. If we need to carry out an initial assessment, we will contact the family/carer directly to arrange this.

The initial assessment mainly take place in clinic at the city of Coventry Health Centre. 

Following the initial assessment the therapist will discuss the findings and next steps with you. On some occasions, the therapist may need time to score the assessments before contacting you to discuss the outcome.

The Speech and Language Therapy Service provide intervention and support for children and young people who meet service criteria. 

To get the most out of intervention the speech language therapy service work together with the child, family, education setting and other important people surrounding the child.

Intervention can be indirect where advice and activities are suggested, these are carried out by families/carers and other professionals such as school staff.

Speech Language and Therapist Poster and Leaflet offers guidance for families, carers and professionals. 

Specialist Offer

The specialist offer has information and resources are either to support more complicated speech, language, and communication needs or to provide more specialist information and help.

Some children and young people and their families will need specialist level support as well as targeted and universal levels for them to make the progress they wish to make with speech, language, and communication.

Specialist level may not be needed all the time and may be helpful at certain points on a child or young person's journey, this could be direct work with the speech and language therapist. 

We recognise that not all children will fall into one category and as the child gets older they may move up and down between universal, targeted and specialist offer, if you are concerned about a child’s speech, language and communication please ensure you seek help from our Information and resources page.