School Aged Learning and Dysphagia team (SALD)

Who we are

We are a team of specialist speech and language therapists that work with children with complex needs in Specialist Inclusive Learning Centre (SILC) settings in Leeds.

We also occasionally offer consultations for children with complex needs who are not yet in a specialist setting.

What do we do

Children can be referred to the team by the SILC setting, community paediatricians, parents, carers or independent SLTs.

The SALD team offers support for communication including assessment of needs, advice, intervention, coaching and liaison with parents and other professionals. We also offer training workshops for parents or carers. We work in an episodes of care model with clear discharge and re-referral criteria.

We also offer support with feeding see information on our eating, drinking and feeding difficulties webpage.

Where will you or your child be seen

Our visits will usually be in the SILC settings, and sometimes home visits where appropriate.

Who do we work alongside

We work closely alongside other professionals such as:

• community paediatricians
• other professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and dieticians
• independent SLTs. Many of the SILCs employ their own independent SLTs and decisions about SLT interventions in school are made together with each SILC.