Barnsley Children’s Speech and Language Therapy is part of
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
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Barnsley Children’s Speech and Language Therapy

Your first eating and drinking appointment with us

Your first contact with us will be a telephone call with a speech and language therapist. This will be from a mobile number. This a telephone case history appointment.

The first time we call, we will not have arranged a time to call you. If we cannot get hold of you, we will:

  • Leave a message on your voicemail
  • Send you a text message asking you to let us know a good time to call you

We ask parents to send us a message within 2 working days. If you do not reply during this time, we will discharge your child

What happens in the telephone appointment?

We will ask you some questions about your child and how they eat and drink. We may ask you:

  • What worries you about your child’s eating and drinking
  • What your child eats and drinks in a typical day
  • If your child finds it difficult to chew, if they cough, gag or choke when eating and drinking
  • If your child has any medical problems and who helps them with these
  • If your child is putting on weight and growing well
  • If your child gets upset around food and drink

The speech and language therapist will also need to ask you about:

  • other professionals who see your child e.g. doctors, physiotherapists or occupational therapists
  • who lives at home – to keep our records up to date
  • the name of your child’s school or nursery if they go to one
  • getting your consent to share information with other people that know your child e.g. school, health visitors
  • your child’s medical history, general development, vision and hearing skills

At the end of the appointment

The speech and language therapist will let you know what will happen next:

  • We will discharge your child if we are not worried about their skills
  • We may give you some advice to help your child with eating and drinking. We may suggest watching our YouTube channel or the Toolkit on our website
  • We may ask you to take some videos of your child eating and drinking and send them to us by an agreed date.
  • We may offer you a further appointment by phone of video. Your therapist will arrange this with you

Getting ready for your telephone appointment

When we ring to do your telephone appointment it helps to:

  • Be somewhere quiet so you can hear us. Turn off TVs and radios
  • Make sure the mobile or phone we are calling you on is charged
  • The appointment will take around 45 – 60 minutes – make sure you are able to do the full length of the call
  • You will be giving us confidential information about your child. Make sure only the people you want to hear this information are present
  • It helps to have some examples of how your child manages their food and drink

Sending videos for assessment

  • This is an important part of our assessment of your child’s skills.
  • We are not able to give advice without seeing your child eat and drink
  • We will give you a date of when to send videos by
  • If you do not send the videos by this date or let us know if there is a problem, we will discharge your child

Remember

Phone and video appointments are NHS appointments. If you can’t keep your appointment you can cancel by:

  • Ringing 01226 644331 or ring your therapist’s mobile number
  • Emailing: barnsley.speechtherapy@swyt.nhs.uk

 

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