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Parent Portal - Speech and Language Link

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Support your child’s speech and language development with expert advice, activities, and resources in our award-winning Parent Portal.

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The complete writing solution for the primary classroom

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A selection of videos, books and fun stuff aimed at primary school aged children to help them understand more about their bowel or bladder problem.

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Newington and Lower Halstow Makaton brochure

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Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives

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Speech and Language UK: Changing young lives

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We are Speech and Language UK - we want every child to face the future with confidence. For 1.7 million children in the UK, learning to talk and understand words feel like an impossible hurdle.

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Strong social, emotional and mental health is key to leading a happy, fulfilled and independent life. We are working with our partners to ensure that we can help children tackle SEMH needs to unlock their full potential and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

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1 in 2

Pupils who are permanently excluded have a diagnosis of SEMH needs

What Are SEMH Needs?

SEMH (Social, Emotional & Mental Health) is a term that was introduced in the Special Educational Need and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice in 2014. It replaced the terms BESD (Behaviour Emotional Social Development) and EBD (Emotional & Behaviour Difficulties). The new abbreviation, SEMH, was the first term to drop the word 'behaviour', in an attempt to emphasise that behaviour is only ever a way of communicating something more significant. In other words, referring to behaviour meant that many practitioners were focusing on the behaviours on display, rather than the needs behind the behaviour. Another key change to the term is the inclusion of mental health. Although the use of this term needs to be carefully managed, (not least with the young people themselves) it has increased the focus on tackling issues which have an impact on the mental health of children.

1 in 3

1 in 3 families include someone who is mentally ill

What Are The Causes Of SEMH Needs?

The most common causes of SEMH are believed to include the following: Attachment history (lack of acceptance /needs being met /emotional warmth / positive feedback / managing emotional response by caregiver); Trauma history (domestic violence, abuse, neglect, bullying, violent crime, social exclusion, hate prejudice, loss); Current family dynamics; Other systems around the child (school, community, society).

99%

Of children with a SEMH diagnoses do not make the national average academic progress of their peers

How Are SEMH Needs Expressed?

Children and young people who have difficulties with their emotional and social development may have immature social skills and find it difficult to make and sustain healthy relationships. These difficulties may be displayed through the young person becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as through challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. SEMH can manifest as difficulties relating to problems of mood (anxiety or depression), problems of conduct (oppositional defiance and more severe conduct problems including aggression), self-harming, substance abuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Some children and young people may have recognised disorders such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) attachment disorder, pervasive development disorder, an anxiety disorder, or, more rarely, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

By the age of 20

Impact on life chances

National data shows that children with any Special Educational Need are significantly more likely to leave school without any qualifications, to get stuck in a cycle of unemployment, to develop drug problems, to become involved in criminal behaviour, to become homeless and to be vulnerable to sexual exploitation. If the child is also from an economically disadvantaged household all of these risk factors increase significantly. In London, if the child is also from a Black or Ethnic Minority background, the predicted outcomes for life chances are even worse. Children and young people with SEMH are often the most likely to be affected by one, and often a number, of these risks. This is because they are more at risk of being excluded from school, they are more at risk of being branded as 'bad' children due to behaviour which is seen as anti-social by ill-prepared professionals and others due to the lack of really joined-up thinking on how to help these young people in most cases.

Transforming Life Chances For Children

We are committed to breaking the negative cycles which can limit children's life chances and to ensuring that all children can make excellent progress.

Find Out More

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Strong social, emotional and mental health is key to leading a happy, fulfilled and independent life. We are working with our partners to ensure that we can help children tackle SEMH needs to unlock their full potential and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

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Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) DLD (Developmental Language Disorder) is a relatively new term used to describe a severe ongoing difficulty with talking and/or understanding what other people say for which there is no obvious cause.

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Includes stress, anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

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Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

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Some children may need further sessions focused to support the development of their speech, language and communication. This will be determined by a number of factors such as; area of need; service criteria; child's motivation.

Your child will be discharged when they no longer need our service / meet the service criteria. The main reasons (but not all) include;

- The child / young person has achieved the therapy aims and no longer requires intervention

- They no longer meet the service criteria

- Their speech, language and communication needs can be met via universal (everyday) and targeted approaches within the setting

- The family or setting are unable to carry out the activities at that period of time

- The child / young person is not ready or motivated for therapy

- Family have moved out of area or have not attended appointments

Children can be re referred at a later stage if there is evidence of speech and language needing to be involved.

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Children's TherapiesThe Pod Speech and language therapy Speech and language therapy provides treatment, support and care for children and young people who have difficulties with communication, or with eating, drinking and swallowing. Our aim is to work in partnership with key people (parents, carers, teachers, pre-schools, occupational therapist, physiotherapists, nurses and doctors) in your child's [...]

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The British Dyslexia Association is the voice for the 10% of the population that are dyslexic

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Parent Guide for Working Together with Your Child's School

Elective Home Education in England

The impact of Covid-19 on home education guidelines and useful links to relevant legislation.

Top Tips, Strategies and Resources for Parents

A collection of 10 practical strategies and additional tips to support parents of autistic children and young people.

A guide to help parents navigate equality law, rights and entitlements when their autistic child is excluded or at risk of exclusion from school

This resource outlines the legal duties the Equality Act 2010 places on your child's school in relation to the exclusion of disabled pupils.

The examples given relate specifically to autistic pupils and are intended to help you and your child's school avoid disability discrimination claims, where possible.

Exclusions

Advice and support on exclusions, explore the Autism Education Trust Exclusions resources

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Are you a parent or care of an autistic child or young person looking for guidance and advice? Explore our Parent Resources.

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Kent PACT is a parent carer forum set up for parents of children and young adults with disabilities and additional needs.

They offer a way for you to have your say and influence us, local health services and other organisations in improving local services. Some of the parents on the forum are also key members of the joint KCC/NHS SEND Improvement Board.

Parent carer forums

A parent carer forum is a group of parents and carers of disabled children and young people. Their aim is to make sure services in their local area meet the needs of disabled children and their families.

To do this, they gather your views and work in partnership with us, education settings and health providers to highlight:

what's working well and what's not

changes or improvements to be made.

Watch this video to understand what Kent PACT can do for you.

Meet the Kent PACT team

Kent PACT are there to support you. They know how daunting the SEND world can be to navigate. Therefore, they are inviting SEND service professionals to join them in virtual meetings where you can meet them to understand the roles and ask them questions.

You can find out more about the team, their work and how to join the forum - meet the team on the Kent PACT website.

Find out about the latest events on the Kent PACT website.

Follow Kent PACT on YouTube to watch recorded events.

Working together with Kent PACT

We want to make sure that as a local authority we listen to the parents and carers of children and young people with SEND. By working collaboratively together, we can listen to their views and opinions, those of which are crucial in shaping and developing our service.

Here are some of the positive ways in which Kent PACT have helped us:

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Kent PACT is the parent carer forum for parents of children and young people with disabilities. Join their forum to help get your voice heard.

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1st Sittingbourne Boys' Brigade and Girls' Association are a uniformed organisation offering a fun, challenging and rewarding programme of activities for young people (both Boys and Girls) aged 5-18. Our sections are split into 4 age groups: Anchors for children aged 5-8 years Juniors for children aged...

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sen; send; special education needs; special educational needs; special needs; disabled children; children with disabilities; kent sen; kent send; special edicational needs in kent; local offer; kent local offer; kent's local offer; sen local offer; sen offer; send offer; send local offer; send information hub; send newsletter; sen information hub; kcc send; kcc sen

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Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

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SEND information hub (local offer) providing services and support for children and young people (0 to 25) with special educational needs and disabilities.

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IASK - Information Advice and Support Kent

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IASK - Information Advice and Support Kent