If you're concerned about your child's speech, language or communication talk to your Health Visitor or GP.

If your child attends an early years setting you can also speak to the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. If your child is at school speak to their teacher or Special Educational needs Co-Ordinator.

Your child may be affected in different ways and a referral to The Speech and Language Therapy Service (SALT) may be required.

Specially trained staff at our family hubs may be able to support you in the first instance click here to find your local family hub.

Educational settings in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole follow a Graduated Response to ensure they are providing the right level of support for children and young people with special educational needs, including communication and interaction needs.

Details of the approach taken to support children and young people can be found in the Graduated Response and Toolkit.

The BCP Council Early Help Programmes Team provide a range of programmes to support families with under five year old, including those focused on communication, language and literacy. You can find details of the programmes here. Contact your local Family Hub to find out more.

If you're at the early stages of finding out about speech, language and communication needs, you might find the document titled Information about Speech Language and Communication Needs listed under Helpful Publications useful.

Speech and Language UK have also produced a number of resources for parents including a guide entitled Misunderstood which can be found in the Downloads section.  They offer an enquiry service which is free and gives parents, carers and practitioners the chance to discuss questions and concerns about a child's speech, language and communication development with a speech and language therapist.

Their Talking Point resource gives parents and carers the information they need to help children develop their speech, language and communication skills.

STAMMA provide support and information on stammering.

AFASIC have a range of resources and a parent helpline.

NHS Learning to talk has a range of fun activities to help develop communication skills in children aged 0 to 5.

The National Literacy Trust also have resources for families and teachers.

The BBC's Tiny Happy People has tips, advice and activities for developing language and communication skills.

Raa Raa The Noisy Lion are television programmes designed for 2-4-year-olds. The series explores children's communication skills using Raa Raa's 4 Rs - repetition, rhyme, rhythm and retelling.

LuCiD - The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development is a research collaboration working with partners from across the world to transform our understanding of how children learn to communicate with language.

Useful YouTube clips:

Let’s Get moving with Action Words
Supporting Early Interaction and Communication
Helping your child understand language: one information carrying word
Visual supports

NHS Dorset have commissioned a new online speech, language and communication need (SLCN) education and information resource available to all.

The Balanced System® framework is a way of making sure that in a setting, school or local area, the right provisions are available for parents, carers and professionals to help children and young people develop their speech, language and communication.

Our new Dorset speech, language and communication pathway is a journey to support children and young people for parents, carers and professionals.