The Early Years Service
Initial assessments usually take place at health centres or via video call. Most therapy sessions take place in health centres. Some children may be seen at home or in nursery if necessary. Therapy sessions may be group or individual and may be led by a Therapist or a Therapy Technician/Assistant.
Families are expected and encouraged to be an active part of the therapy process by incorporating recommendations into daily life.
Referrals can be made using the Integrated Therapies Referral Form .
Children must have a Greenwich GP to access our Early Years Service.
For help or further information please contact us
Occupational Therapy
Our Early Years Occupational Therapy team works with children from birth (where appropriate) to aged 5, supporting them to get the very best out of daily activities.
Daily activities include learning through play, dressing, washing and mealtimes. We work with families to identify why these activities may be difficult and help to improve children’s skills and independence. This may be by providing advice and recommendations for home and nursery or by working directly with the child and their family.
We see children with functional concerns, for example using cutlery, dressing, pencil skills and using scissors. We can offer advice for children experiencing sensory difficulties.
We look at the seating needs for those children that require support with posture, enabling them to be able to engage in functional daily activities.
We can accept referrals for children being discharged from hospital that need on-going support, or for children with a high level of complex need.
Physiotherapy
Our Early Years Physiotherapy team sees children from birth (where appropriate) to aged 5. We provide specialist assessment, advice and intervention to assist children with positioning, movement and balance.
Interventions are always target based and goal focused.
We aim to educate and empower families, supporting them to manage their child’s difficulties. Support and advice are provided to help children to integrate into community groups such as swimming and soft play.
We provide information and reassurance around the development of normal gross motor skills.
Our Rapid Response team provides a service for children in Greenwich, who present with certain conditions, namely: as a newborn, those that require respiratory assessment and treatment, those that require a short intensive block of specific rehabilitation or to facilitate a safe early discharge home from hospital.
Move Programme
The MOVE Programme is an activity-based framework that combines family life, education and therapy to enable young people to gain independent sitting, standing, walking and transferring skills.
Our MOVE team have been awarded a MOVE Centre of Excellence accredited status. This is awarded to organisations who have demonstrated, through extensive and robust evidence, that they are using the MOVE Programme in the most effective way. Our MOVE Team is the first Health Service to achieve this in both the UK and Europe.
Speech and Language Therapy
Specialist SLT service
Our Early Years Speech and Language Therapy team provides assessment and specialist therapy for children from birth (where appropriate) until the end of nursery.
We see children who are having significant difficulty with:
- Pronunciation
- Understanding and using words and sentences
- Social communication difficulties and/or Autism
- Stammering
- Refusing to talk in certain situations
- Swallowing
- Hearing Impairment/deafness
A family may attend for;
- assessment only
- assessment and review
- assessment and a short set of therapy sessions
Dysphagia and complex needs
The DCN team support children with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties or with more complex communication needs. Many of the children have additional diagnoses such as Downs Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy.
Some children have specific difficulties with eating and drinking relating to early feeding difficulties or circumstances such as premature or complex birth history. Others may have difficulties with coordination of the movements needed for eating and drinking.
We work closely with colleagues from other therapies and dietetics.
Hearing impairment / deafness team
The HI/deafness team supports pre-school children with a profound permanent hearing loss in both ears as well as their families and any other key people in their lives such as childcare staff and extended family members.
We support children who wear a range of hearing technology including hearing-aids, cochlear implants, bone-anchored hearing-aids, and children using a range of communication methods such as spoken language, sign language or speech and sign together.
We also support the Early Years SLT team who work with children with other kinds of hearing loss such as hearing loss caused by glue ear.
Early Communication Together Team
For children, aged 3-4, with Autism or Social Communication difficulties, the Royal Borough of Greenwich Early Communication Together Team is running drop in stay and plays on Mondays at Fossdene school. Please speak to your Speech and Language Therapist or contact the team directly on ecthubs@poundpark.greenwich.sch.uk for further information.
Universal SLT services
Speech and Language groups in Children’s Centres
These activities do not require a referral to the SLT service. Parents and carers can book a place at their local Children’s Centre.
Tiny Talk – (led by the SLT team) a small group for babies aged 0-12 months to demonstrate games to support communication development.
Small Talk – (led by the SLT team) a small group for children aged 13-24 months to demonstrate games to support communication development.
Bump to Babble – (led by the SLT team) an advice session for expectant families on how to help communication while pregnant and shortly after birth.
Tots Talking – a targeted language intervention for 2 year olds who need some extra support with understanding and/or talking. This group is for 2 year olds and is run by Children’s Centre staff. Parents and carers should speak to their Health Visitor or local Children’s Centre for further information.
Well Baby clinics - We are attending Well Baby clinics with the Health Visiting Team – For details please see Speech and Language Drop-ins :: Greenwich 0 to 4 https://www.greenwich0to4.co.uk/drop-clinics/speech-and-language-drop-ins
For further information about Children’s Centres and Family Hubs please see
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