Helping children communicate, understand and connect with confidence

Speech and language therapy helps children develop the skills needed to understand language, express themselves, speak clearly and take part in everyday interactions at home, at school and with other children.

Consider an assessment when your child is not meeting communication milestones, is difficult for others to understand, becomes frustrated trying to communicate, uses fewer words than children of a similar age, or when a teacher or doctor has raised a concern. Earlier support is usually shorter and more play-based.

Speech is how sounds and words are produced — clarity, articulation and fluency. Language is what a child understands and how they put words together to share meaning. A child may have strong language but unclear speech, or clear speech with limited language.

Professionals look at the whole picture: how much your child understands, how they express themselves, how clearly they speak, whether they use gestures, and whether new skills keep appearing. Fewer than around 20 words by 18 months, no two-word phrases by around two years, or speech that unfamiliar adults cannot understand after age three are all reasons to seek guidance.

Yes. Strong understanding alongside limited spoken language is a common profile. Therapy builds expressive language through play, modelling, gestures, choices and structured opportunities to communicate, while checking that understanding is as strong as it appears.

Yes. For autistic children, therapy may address functional communication, understanding, expressive language, social communication and play, including supportive communication methods such as gestures, pictures or devices where these help.

Yes. A therapist assesses which sounds are affected and why, then works on producing those sounds, hearing the difference between them, and using them in words, sentences and everyday conversation.

Receptive language is what a child understands — following instructions, understanding questions, vocabulary, concepts and spoken information. It usually develops ahead of expressive language.

Expressive language is how a child shares meaning — using sounds, words, sentences, gestures or other communication methods to express needs, ideas and experiences.

Yes. Therapy can build the underlying skills — attention and listening, vocabulary, concepts and processing longer instructions — and give parents and teachers practical strategies such as simplifying language, pausing and pairing words with gestures or visuals.

Yes. Support may include starting and maintaining interactions, taking turns, staying on topic, repairing misunderstandings, understanding non-verbal cues and adapting communication to different situations.

The therapist discusses your concerns and developmental history, observes your child in play and structured tasks, and assesses understanding, expression, speech clarity and social communication. Hearing is considered as part of the picture. You receive the findings in plain language with clear recommendations.

It varies. Duration depends on your child's profile, the goals agreed with the family, how consistently strategies are used at home and how your child responds. Progress is reviewed at set intervals rather than assumed.

No. Therapy can be considered whenever communication difficulties are affecting everyday participation, with or without a formal diagnosis.

Yes. For children who are not yet talking, therapy focuses on the foundations of communication — attention, interaction, imitation, play, gestures and understanding — and establishes a functional way to communicate, which may include gestures, pictures or a device alongside spoken language.