Children's Speech and Language Therapy

About us

The Croydon Children’s Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) service provide specialist support to:

Children under 5 with speech, language and communication difficulties
Children and young people with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties
Children and young people who stammer
Children and young people who have a permanent deafness

Where requested by the Local Authority, we will provide advice to Local Authority as part of the statutory assessment process for Education and Health Care Plans

To access the service, children and young people must have a Croydon address or are registered with a Croydon GP.

Please click on each service for more information

Early Years Service

Who is this service for?

Children up to the age of 5 (or the term before starting reception at school), who have/may have speech, language or communication difficulties.

If your child has reached the term before starting reception; please contact the school SENCO to discuss any concerns about your child’s speech/language/communication difficulties once your child’s school place is confirmed.

How to access this service?

Parent and carers should attend Chatterbox groups, with their child. Chatterbox are drop-in sessions that run at various locations across the borough on a weekly basis.

By attending Chatterbox, you will access appropriate support, advice and activities to support your child’s communication skills at a targeted level. Targeted support is aimed at children and young people who have a communication need and require some support to develop their speech, language and communication, but the impact of these needs can be met by key people in their environment (e.g. parents/carers/setting staff).

At Chatterbox, you can speak to a member of the Speech and Language Therapy Team, who can work with you to support your child’s communication development and will decide whether a specialist assessment is required.

See more information on Chatterbox here

If you have been advised to access our workshops:

Child led interactions
Attention building
People games and communicate intentions

Please click here

What to expect:

early years service

Deafness Service

Who is this service for?

Children and young people aged 0 to 19 years old, who have a permanent deafness. For school-aged children, communication difficulties associated with deafness must be their primary need.

Who can make a referral?

We accept self-referrals/parents/carers and referrals made by education or other professionals (such as Teachers of the Deaf, Audiologists, GP, Paediatricians, Social Workers).

For a referral form, please contact: ch-tr.sltcroydonchildren@nhs.net , 0208 714 2594

What to expect:

deafness service

Eating, Drinking and Swallowing (EDS) Service

Who is this service for?

Babies, children and young people (0-19 years) who present with signs of aspiration when eating and drinking, in addition to respiratory health concerns/ recurrent chest infections.

Children presenting with overt signs of aspiration who have an underlying diagnosis that increases vulnerability to dysphagia (e.g. prematurity, cardiac, cerebral palsy, epilepsy etc)

Children experiencing poor respiratory health where silent aspiration is suspected or confirmed by their medical team.

Children who currently have a feeding tube and are showing readiness for weaning, where there have been previous concerns regarding aspiration, but have the potential to develop some oral skills or wean off their tube

Aspiration is having difficulty swallowing, which results in food or liquids going "down the wrong pipe" into your airway and lungs instead of your stomach.

Who can make a referral?

We accept self-referrals/parents/carers and referrals made by education or other professionals (such as GPs, Paediatricians, Early Years Practitioners and SLTs in other hospitals/boroughs). For a referral form, please contact: ch-tr.sltcroydonchildren@nhs.net , 0208 714 2594

What to expect:

EDS service

If you have been advised to access our workshops, please watch our Understanding Eating and Drinking and Swallowing workshop.

Stammering Service

Who is this service for?

Children and young people from the term before starting school (Reception) to 19th birthday, who have a stammer or cluttering (a speech pattern that is perceived as being too fast, too irregular or jerky, or both).