Come Talk with Me communication language and support

These groups are for children aged two or three years who have a delay in their communication and language development.

They are run by Elklan trained early years practitioners in family hubs across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Please use your Communication Journeys to help you identify if a child would benefit from support and then complete a WellComm assessment. You will also find useful information on the Come Talk with Me flowchart which will help you identify the best referral route for children with communication and language difficulties.

If you feel Come Talk with Me is appropriate for a child, you must complete, with parental permission, an Early help request for involvement through the online portal. The first time of using this portal you will need to register as a user and then you can simply log in each time you need to. Please complete all relevant sections. If not relevant to your request please leave blank. Please ensure you upload the most recent WellComm assessment as part of the process. Please also ensure you scroll down to the section entitled ‘Come Talk with Me Programme for children aged 0 to 5 and complete the questions asked.

The family hub will then contact the parent to discuss the support they can access.

Please note the support is not appropriate for children with disordered speech, difficulties related to pronunciation or for delays of more than a year. In this instance, please use the BCP Graduated Response Toolkit to inform early intervention strategies and direct parents to attend one of the Speech Therapy Early Advice Drop Ins (Ready S.T.E.A.D.I Chat).

Ready S.T.E.A.D.I Chat

The Speech Therapy Early Advice Drop Ins is the new easy access pathway to speech and language therapy for early years children. Please see the Ready STEADI Chat website for information about where and when the sessions are taking place. The timetable for sessions running in the BCP area can be found under Dorset East & Central. Please ensure you signpost parents to these, using the poster and the website provided for you above.

The Christchurch and Bournemouth East Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Services have a Children's Speech Sounds guide. This will help you to know when children’s difficulties with pronunciation are actually age appropriate, and when a referral is needed. Please use this before making referrals to SALT.