One to one treatment

Following an assessment our speech and language therapist can offer one to one intervention to directly increase the effectiveness and safety of your child's eating, drinking or swallowing difficulty. Our speech and language therapist may also work on reducing the level of anxiety around meal times and compensatory strategies if this is appropriate to the individual. Each session will work on the child’s goals and priorities identified from the assessment process.

One to one treatment is suitable for any child that requires therapeutic input to improve their eating, drinking and swallowing ability. One to one treatment can be highly beneficial for those children with unsafe or ineffective swallowing skills. One to one treatment is suitable for those looking for the following benefits:

• Improved eating, drinking and swallowing ability.
• Increased confidence at meal times.
• Reduced stress and anxiety for the child during meal times and feeding.
• Reduced stress and anxiety for the family and others during meal times and feeding.
• Improved oral motor movements.

Each child will be discussed with their parent or carer on a case by case basis in order to discover whether one to one treatment would be appropriate for them in terms of their needs and goals.

There are many different one to one treatment options that our speech and language therapists can offer to children with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties. Each child will be considered individually in terms of their needs and goals when deciding which one to one treatment is suitable for them.

One to one treatment may involve:

• Implementing strategies for a safer and more effective swallow.
• Oral motor exercises to directly strengthen and increase a child's lip and mouth movement.
• Implementing compensatory strategies for the child.
• Advice and education to the child and parent on awareness of the child's difficulties and how to deal with these.
• Exercises to directly strengthen a child's swallow.
• Implementing specialist eating and drinking equipment, with training on how to use these.

In some cases, it may be more appropriate for your child to receive therapy input from another professional, in this case our speech and language therapists are able to refer you to another professional in our feeding team and they will be able to provide you with the correct eating, drinking and swallowing support.

One to one therapy with one of our speech and language therapists can take place in the home, clinic or school environments dependent on what is more convenient for you. Usually a session will last around 1 hour depending on the child’s needs. A speech and language therapist will take your child through some fun and engaging exercises to improve their swallow or the session may focus on providing advice or implementing strategies with parents or other professional staff.

All of our therapy is tailored to suit the individual needs of the child and will differ depending on the type of eating, drinking and swallowing difficulty the child has. All of the options for therapy will be discussed beforehand in detail.

If you would like any more information on the one to one treatment we offer do not hesitate to contact one of our speech and language therapists on office@sltforkids.co.uk or call 0330 088 2298.