If you contact any of our child therapy teams, you may be encouraged to try some of the ideas from our Children's Therapy Toolkit before you're referred to one of our services. 

If you're concerned about your child’s speech and language development and you're unsure if your child needs to see a speech and language therapist, take a look at the speech and language checklist below. 

Observation Advice/Action

Supporting transition and general classroom advice.

General early development advice.

Unable to sit without causing a disturbance or fiddling. Difficulty maintaining concentration.

Easily excitable or frustrated and has difficulties calming down.

Can not maintain an upright sitting posture for more than 10 minutes.

Trips and falls or bumps into people and objects. 

Low energy levels, poor stamina or gives up easily. 

Difficulties using hands and fingers during activities. Including handwriting and pre-writing activities and development of pencil grip. 

Difficulty using scissors.

Difficulty coordinating both hands together for an activity. 

Struggles with sequencing movements and organising his or herself and their belongings. 

Difficulties with dressing and undressing and doing fastenings.

Difficulties using eating utensils.

Difficulty learning to ride a bike.

My child has back or neck pain. 

Advice available from:

My child has knee pain.

Advice available from:
My child has heel pain.

I am worried about my child’s walking.

I am worried that my child has bendy, clicky or painful joints and, or they fall over easily.
My child has Down's syndrome.

Advice available from:
Physical activity. 
Screentime health impacts on children and families.