Group therapy

We offer group therapy for both children and their parents to attend. The group takes a play and multi-sensory approach to therapy. The group aims to provide a relaxed environment where children can increase their sensory tolerance and awareness of different types of food. The group allows parent to take an active part in the therapy process. It also provides parents with a support network with other like minded people who are experiencing similar difficulties.

Group therapy is suitable for any child that requires input to improve their eating, drinking and swallowing ability. Group therapy can be highly beneficial for those children or parents that have anxiety during meal times. Group therapy 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.
• Sharing experiences with others to discover advice.

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

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

Group therapy may involve:

• Exercises to increase the strength and range of oral motor movements of the mouth, tongue and lips.
• Strategies and advice from the speech and language therapist.
• Parent support group for an opportunity to share experiences and ideas supervised by a speech and language therapist.
• Groups ran by different health professionals on a different area of expertise e.g. physiotherapy, dietetics, occupational therapy, psychology.

You will be invited to group therapy if it is appropriate for the child, this will be assessed on a case by case basis and will be discussed with the family prior to the group therapy session.

The group therapy sessions will be ran by one of our speech and language therapists. Dependent on the type of therapy being delivered or the size of the group in attendance, the group may be ran by two speech and language therapists. In some cases, if the group is delivered from another area of expertise, another health professional may run the group therapy session for the benefit of the child and their family.

The group therapy sessions will last for approximately one to two hours depending on the content. Both parents and children will be invited to the session, some sessions may only be for parents and the child may not be required to attend for some group therapy sessions. The group therapy will then consist of some group activities or demonstrations, and may contain some aspects of counselling and support. Parents may get the opportunity to share their experiences if they wish and share advice. This will be supported and supervised by the speech therapists.

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