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Playing together pathway

What is playing together?

Playing together is an early years pathway in the Sheffield speech and language therapy service. It is a block of up to 4 appointments.

During playing together sessions, we talk to parents and carers about different strategies to try with your child. These are practical ideas to use every day, using your child’s interests. Playing together is based on research about the best ways to support children’s early communication and interaction skills.

Who can attend playing together?

Playing together is for children who are in early years (aged 2 to 4 years) and their parents or carers.

Most children who are referred to playing together have also been referred for an autism assessment. There is a long wait for that assessment, but in the meantime you can access advice and resources from our autism support directory

How does playing together work?

When your child reaches the top of the playing together waiting list, we will get in touch. You will be invited to a face to face appointment in clinic with a speech and language therapist. During this appointment, we will talk about your child’s current communication and play. Together, we will think of targets to work on. You will also get a chance to ask questions.

The rest of the sessions are often held over video calls. We will talk about strategies you are trying and problem solve anything that has been tricky. We can also add in extra targets or strategies if things are going well.

We encourage families to take videos of what they are doing at home and share them with us. This helps us to reflect together on how things are going.

What happens next?

After the playing together sessions, we will write a report with targets for your child. We can share this with their nursery too, with your permission. This will be the end of your child’s current episode of care with speech and language therapy for now.

Your child can have more help from speech and language therapy if needed. Once they have achieved the targets in their report or you need more support, you can contact us to re-refer them.

Support for nurseries

Sometimes nurseries contact us for advice about children who are attending playing together. There may be the opportunity for liaison. This could include discussing how things are going in nursery and the strategies and targets from playing together.

What happens if I do not attend?

The speech and language therapy service is under significant pressure, and it is important that your child comes along to all of their appointments.

Information:

If your child is not brought to the appointment and you do not tell us, your child will be discharged from our service.

If you cancel more than one appointment your child will also be discharged from our service.

We are not able to rearrange cancelled appointments.

Contact us

If you have any questions about the Playing Together programme please contact us:

More information for autism about sleep, eating, communication and local support services

Is something missing from this resource that you think should be included? Please let us know

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Disclaimer

Please note: this is a generic information sheet relating to care at Sheffield Children’s NHS FT. These details may not reflect treatment at other hospitals. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Always follow your healthcare professionals’ instructions. If this resource relates to medicines, please read it alongside the medicine manufacturer’s patient information leaflet. If this information has been translated into another language from English, efforts have been made to maintain accuracy, but there may still be some translation errors. If you are unsure about any of the guidance in this resource or have specific questions about how it relates to your child, always ask your healthcare professional for further advice.

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NHS

Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TH

United Kingdom

Switchboard: 0114 271 7000

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