Our SALT teams (including our therapy assistants and assistant practitioners) work in partnership with children and young people, their families and other professionals to reduce the impact of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) using evidence-based pathways  that focus on activity, wellbeing and participation as well as the impairment.

Outcomes in these four domains are measured using Therapy Outcome Measures (TOMS).

Our Child Development Centre Team includes:

• Our Early Identification Team for children under 3years  with the highest  clinical/ social needs including those with safeguarding needs and low engagement with services.
• Our Dysphagia team for children and young people with eating, drinking and swallowing needs.
• Our complex communication needs team for children with long-term significant needs, including those requiring alternative and augmentative communication (AAC)  and those with significant communication difficulties relating to: Physical difficulties (e.g. Cerebral Palsy, Cleft Palate, craniofacial abnormalities), Social communication difficulties (including Autism) and Chromosomal and genetic conditions (e.g. Down Syndrome).

Our Community Team includes:

• Our under 6s advice service – a telephone appointment and triage service for parents with concerns about their child’s communication development.
• Our outpatient community clinic service – for further assessment and interventions for children under 6 and assessment and intervention for children and young people age 6 –  18, primarily with Developmental Language  Disorder/Speech Disorder/Dysfluency
• Our training programme for professionals and parent/carers.
• Members of this team include those with specialisms/special interests including stammering, hearing impairment, selective mutism and bilingualism.

Our Paediatric Physiotherapy team (including our therapy assistant and assistant practitioner)  work in partnership with children and young people aged 0-19, their families and other  professionals to maximise movement and function using evidence-based pathways that focus on activity, wellbeing and participation as well as the impairment.

The team see children and young people with difficulties affecting movement, coordination or breathing as outpatients at the Child Development Centre, at home  and/or in nursery or educational settings, depending on individual needs. They work closely with the occupational therapy team and colleagues in education and local authority.

Our therapists have expertise in child development, how patterns of movement develop from birth onwards and a range of clinical conditions and specialist equipment required to support, including:

• Moderate to severe developmental delay of gross motor skills
• Chromosomal and genetic conditions e.g Down Syndrome, Cystic Fybrosis
• Congenital conditions such as clubfoot (talipes equinovarus)
• Neurodisabilities such as cerebral palsy (CP)
• Neuromuscular conditions such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Myopathies
• Coordination difficulties/Developmental coordination Disorder (DCD)
•  Abnormal walking or movement patterns
•  Poor balance in sitting or standing
•  Musculoskeletal; conditions specific to childhood
• Orthopaedic conditions specific to childhood
•  Functional Neurological Disorder impacting on gross motor skills

Occupational Therapy focusses on improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people by enabling them to participate in occupations that are important to them.

The child or young person’s ability to perform these necessary activities and tasks (Occupational performance) is a consequence of a complex interaction between personal factors, the activity, and the environment.

The role of the occupational therapy team is to provide assessment and recommendations, to enable children and young people to maximise their occupational performance and participation in activities that are important to them in all aspects of daily life at home, school, and in the community.

Our  Paediatric Occupational Therapy  team  (including our therapy assistant and assistant practitioner) work in partnership with children and young people aged 0-19, their families and other  professionals  to  maximise participation and function in daily activities using evidence-based  pathways  that  focus on  activity, wellbeing and participation as well as presenting impairment.

The team see children and young people as outpatients at the Child Development Centre, at home  and/or in nursery or educational settings depending on the individual needs. They work closely with both the physiotherapy and speech and language therapy team and colleagues in education.

Our therapists have expertise in child development, how patterns of fine motor movement develop from birth onwards and  a range of clinical conditions  and the equipment required to support, such as:

• Moderate to severe developmental delay/impairment of fine motor skills impacting on  activities of daily living including dressing, eating, ability to record or communicate  (handwriting/access keyboard/switches etc), self care (washing, bathing, using toilet)    and independence, seating/positioning, sleeping
• Neurological  conditions e.g. Muscular dystrophy, Cerebral palsy
•  Chromosomal and genetic conditions
• Motor planning and Coordination difficulties/Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)
• Perceptual motor difficulties
• Sensory  processing difficulties/preferences with identified impact on  functional/occupational performance 
•  Poor balance in sitting or standing
•  Musculoskeletal conditions specific to childhood requiring postural management
• Orthopaedic conditions specific to childhood

Our Therapies team, along with Clinical psychology and Consultant Paediatrician colleagues provide the Airedale Neurodevelopmental Assessment team (NDAT) pathway for children aged 2 – 7 years.

This service provides differential diagnostic assessment for Autism, Developmental Language Disorder and other developmental conditions as part of the Bradford and Craven pathway.

We are currently opening assessments for children who have been waiting for “36 months +”. 

Please be aware that waiting times are unfortunately increasing.

Contact the team on 01535 292821 for further information

To refer to the team please complete all three forms below and email them to cdc.referrals@nhs.net.