Specialist support and services

Your child may be eligible for specialist services such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, mental health support or otherwise to support them alongside their schooling. If you believe this to be the case, speak to your school, GP or assessment team if you think your child needs this support.

These services can be incredibly important to support children reaching their full potential.

Occupational therapists work with children who have physical, sensory or learning disabilities to help them gain independence in all areas of life. They assess a child's fine motor skills, coordination, balance, ability to process sensory information as well as self-care, play and school skills. Based on this, they will set goals and activities to improve skills. For example, they may use fun games or adaptive equipment to help a child with handwriting or getting dressed independently. If you are unsure what occupational therapy is, and whether it could help your child, please check out this article for more information.

Speech and language therapists assess and treat children who have difficulties with communication or swallowing. This could include problems with speech sound production, expressing their thoughts through language, understanding what others say or social communication. The therapist will set goals to improve the child's speech clarity, build their vocabulary, help them construct sentences or converse with peers. Activities may include language games, role play or reading books. If you are unsure what speech and language therapy is, and whether it could help your child, please check out this article for more information.

Other therapies that may be offered include physiotherapy to improve movement and physical skills, assistive technology to aid communication and independence as well as mental health services such as art or music therapy. Close collaboration occurs between the therapist, parents, teachers and most importantly, the child themselves.