0-2 years: Who can help me as a parent? - More help

Answer:

Midwives support woman through pregnancy, birth and the early days of parenthood.

Your midwife will:

  • check the health of you and your baby
  • help with advice on feeding
  • provide information and answer any questions you may have
  • Provide care to mother’s, babies and families up to the first 28 days after birth

More information

More information can be accessed to help with advice on the early days after birth.

Answer:

Health Visitors work with parents and carers who have new babies. They offer support from the ante-natal period until the child starts school at five years.

The service includes a team of:

  • Health Visitors
  • School Nurses
  • Staff Nurses
  • Nursery Nurses and
  • Parent Support workers.

They work with families to help support children’s health and development. This is to make sure they have the best possible start in life.

You as parents/carers know your child better than anyone. As your child grows and develops you will soon start to notice many changes. Their experiences of their first 2 years of life will help set the foundations for their future.

They will work in partnership with you from the antenatal period through to the Early Years. They will work with you to promote your child's health, development and well-being. Providing you with support, advice and guidance.

All families are offered routine health and development reviews. These assess the growth, health and development of your child in the early years. They can identify any problems or issues as soon as possible. You can also discuss any health and well-being questions or concerns that you may have.

You will receive an appointment for:

  • A New Birth Visit between 10 – 14 days after delivery
  • 3 – 4 month review
  • 9 – 12 month growth and development review

Support is available from the service until the young person reaches 19 years of age. The team can offer advice and guidance on many topics. This might include:

  • parent’s mental health
  • feeding
  • sleep
  • behaviour
  • potty training
  • child development or
  • emotional well-being.

What Can I Do? 

  • Make sure you attend your health checks

  • Discuss any concerns with your Health Visitors 

Staffordshire residents

In Staffordshire the team is called the Families, Health and Wellbeing 0-19  service. The team are available, either via the telephone HUB, one to one appointments, Chat Health or at child health clinic. Further information can be found on the MPFT website

Contact Details

  • West Hub - 0300 303 3923 (covering Moorlands, Newcastle, Stafford, Stone, Seisdon)

  • East Hub - 0300 303 3924 (covering East Staffs, Cannock, Lichfield, Rugeley, Tamworth)

  • Chat Health Text 07520 615722 (answered in office hours only)

Stoke on Trent residents

The team are available, either via the telephone HUB, one to one appointments or at child health clinic. More information can be gained on the Health Visiting Team covering Stoke on Trent

Contact Details

  • Stoke-on-Trent Health Visiting and School Nursing HUB – 0300 404 2993

You as parents/carers know your child better than anyone. As your child grows and develops you will soon start to notice many changes. Their experiences of their first 2 years of life will help set the foundations for their future.

Answer:

Does your child go to an Early Years setting or childminder? If so, they will check your child's communication development. This is part of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. The setting will talk to you about your child's development. They will also put in place activities to support their development.

What happens if my child is not reaching typical development?

The early years practitioner will observe them. They will make notes of the areas in which your child is having difficulty.  

They will speak to you about the needs of your child. They may ask about:

  • your child's medical history. For example, prematurity, ear, nose and throat difficulties, such as Glue ear.
  • if your child has had a hearing test and
  • if there is any family history of speech, language and communication needs.

The Practitioner will discuss any concerns with the Early Years Setting SENCo. They will then make a targeted plan to support your child and share their targets with you.

Activities will be planned to support the area of difficulty. They will follow a process to see how your child is progressing and if they need any other support. This is called a Staged Pathway.  The Plan will be reviewed after a period of time. It will look at how your child is progressing and if they need any other support.

Who can tell me more about the support being put in place for my child? 

Speak to the Early Years Setting Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). It can be a good idea to replicate this support at home.

Answer:

Find out if you could receive help with childcare costs

Funded education for 2 year olds 

Staffordshire Think 2 and Stoke on Trent  Best start

Find out more about help with childcare costs.

Answer:

Hearing difficulties can impact on many areas of development, including language and communication.

Every child has a hearing assessment soon after birth. 

If you have concerns about your child’s hearing speak to your health visitor or your GP. If required, a referral can be made to audiology.

Signs to look out for

  • Constantly asking you to repeat what you have said

  • Mishearing comments made to them

  • Difficulty locating your voice in a large or noisy area

  • Wanting the TV / music to be turned up loud, particularly if returning the volume to normal causes your child to lose interest

  • Needing to repeatedly raise your voice to get a response

  • Your child watching your faces/lips intently

  • Tires quickly and becomes easily frustrated

  • Talks louder or more softly than expected

  • Persistent symptoms of congestion. This can include:

    • constant mouth breathing
    • snoring
    • repeated ear infections or
    • non waxy discharge from ears.

  • Concerns in relation to speech and language development e.g. limited vocabulary, nasal speech

Often temporary hearing loss in children is caused by Glue ear (fluid in the middle part of the ear). With Glue ear the level of hearing loss can change. This means children may display some of the signs above on some days but not others. Further information is available on Glue ear

There are things you can do to help!

Improving the listening environment: 

  • Reduce background noise where possible
  • Consider where in the room is quietist or if another room will be quieter
  • Always speak to your child when in the same room as them
  • Rooms with soft furnishings reduce echo
  • Sit where the light falls on the speaker’s face, rather than where they have their back to the light
  • Sit where any distractions from behind the speaker will be reduced 

Further information

Answer:

The local Speech and Language Therapy team is provided by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Speech and Language Therapists have completed a degree in Speech and Language Therapy. They are registered by the Health and Care Professions Council. Their professional body is the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.


They work with children from birth to 19 (in some cases 25 years) with a range of difficulties such as:

  • understanding language

  • interacting and communicating

  • speech sounds

  • voice difficulties and

  • stammering. 

How can they help? 

  • They are qualified to assess and treat Speech, Language and Communication Needs

  • Give advice to you, and the setting your child attends, on how to meet your child’s needs.

  • may support you in getting a diagnosis or refer you on to other relevant services for support. 

Some Therapists hold an extra qualification to support children with feeding and swallowing difficulties. Their main role is as a consultant. They will guide you to support your child’s speech, language and communication needs. They will do this through assessment and target setting. 

Who can refer? 

The Speech and Language Therapy service is open to everyone.  It is essential all steps have been taken to ensure any contributing factors have been dealt with before referral.

If you are concerned it is always best to discuss with your Health Visitor, nursery or school first. They will be able to share some early advice and ideas to minimise any contributing factors. They have received training from the Speech and Language Therapy Service for early support.  Once this advice has been followed, they may suggest a referral to the Speech and Language Therapy Service. They can only make the referral with the parent’s consent. They will need to ask you some questions about your child’s development to complete this. 

Following a referral, the service will contact you to provide more information on the support they can provide locally.

They will usually ask you to ‘opt in’ to an available assessment slot. The initial contact may be by telephone, video call or face to face. 

At the first appointment:

The Therapist will ask you questions about your child’s development. They will want to know any factors which may help him/her assess your child’s needs.  They may assess your child at this first session or may book a further appointment following this discussion with you.  When they meet your child they will usually use toys and pictures to assess how well your child interacts, what they are understanding and what kinds of things your child can say. 

It may look like the Therapist is ‘just playing’ but this is an informal way of assessing your child’s communication skills. They may use some more detailed assessments or may book further appointments to complete these. They will tell you if they need to see your child again and may give you advice on things to try at home. 

Once your child has been assessed:

The Therapist will give you advice of things to try at home. They may want to contact your child’s school or setting to advise on things for the setting too. The role of the Therapist is to assess and guide you to support your child. You are the best person to carry out this practise with your child. The Therapist will set ‘targets’ which are next steps for your child to achieve. The better you practise the targets at home and at a school or nursery the more likely your child will achieve the targets. The Therapist will give you a time frame for how long each target should take and whether a next target is needed. This is unlikely to be weekly as targets take time and practise to achieve. 

Some children need extra support to communicate by using signs, symbols, or communication aids. A Speech and Language Therapist will be able to assess if this is necessary and support the child in accessing relevant support systems.

The Therapist may allocate a Speech and Language Therapy Assistant Practitioner to support your child’s targets.  They hold a childcare qualification and have received extensive training from the Speech and Language Therapy service. They always work in partnership with your child’s named therapist. They have a wealth of experience working with children with speech, language and communication difficulties.

The Speech and Language Therapy service is a small specialist Service.  It is provided for children with very specific speech, language, communication or feeding needs.  If your child’s needs can be met by another agency they will be ‘discharged’ or referred elsewhere. When your child no longer needs support from the Service they will be discharged. This means that no input is required at that point. The Therapist will tell you what you should be expecting in the future and, if necessary, at what point a re-referral will be accepted.  Discharge should be seen as a positive step and means that all children who need the Service can access it when they need it with no ‘waiting lists’.

What can you do to help?

  • Follow any advice your Health Visitor, school nurse or setting give you to build up early communication skills.

  • Look up activities and games for younger children on the BBC’s Tiny Happy People website and Stoke Speaks website.

  • Share as much relevant information with your Speech Therapist to ensure they can set the right targets.

  • Make sure you attend appointments with specialist services and follow any advice they give you. Let them know if you are unable to attend so that your appointment can be re-arranged.

  • Practise the things they suggest regularly with your child –this can really help them to progress.

  • Make sure your child’s early years setting is in contact with the speech and language therapist so they can put in place the things the Speech and language therapist suggests as part of day-to-day learning. It is good for the early years setting to attend the appointment with the speech and language therapist either ‘virtually’ or face to face.
Answer:

Parent/carer Support Groups

There are a number of parent and carer support groups in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent

SENDIASS

SENDIASS are an Information, Advice and Support Service for parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disability. SENDIASS - Staffordshire and SENDIASS - Stoke on Trent provide an impartial and confidential service on matters relating to a child or young person’s special educational needs or disability from birth to 25 years. 

Answer:

Staffordshire SEND Local Offer and Stoke SEND Local Offer – provide information on local services and support available for children with a range of different needs.

Answer:
If your baby is born very prematurely they sometimes need additional support to develop some of their early skills. This may involve a range of professionals including speech and language therapists. Information and advice is available on supporting your premature baby.
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