Building Blocks for Communication Course

Building Blocks with Attention & Listening, Play and Social Interaction

Your child was recently referred to the Speech and Language Therapy Service.

The referral information suggested your child may be:

Experiencing difficulties communicating socially with others
Finding it difficult to communicate their needs

Children experiencing these types of difficulties/differences may:

Have no or few words
Prefer to spend time on their own
Not start interaction very often
Use fewer facial expressions, eye contact and gestures as compensatory ways to communicate

These children can need extra help to learn to communicate effectively.
We do this by adapting our communication style and the environment.

What is Building Blocks?

Building Blocks for Communication is a parent workshop designed for the specific needs of your child. It aims to:

Provide you with a fuller understanding of your child’s communication level
Identify your child’s communication strengths
Increase your confidence in supporting your child’s communication needs at home.

During the workshop, we focus on developing your child’s ‘building blocks’ skills which are essential for communication/language development.

What does the Building Blocks course involve?

The workshops are carried out by local Speech and Language Therapists and includes:

4 x 90-minute group sessions. These are carried out face-to-face or virtually.
A parent workbook to work through alongside the sessions. (You can find this workbook below).
Signposting to other appropriate agencies.
Guidance on how and when to refer your child for further support from the Speech and Language Therapy Service.

How to Book

Please call 01685 351300 or email CTT_ChildrenSpeechandLanguage@wales.nhs.uk to book your place.

If you have any questions, please get in touch and we will be happy to help you.

What happens after the Building Blocks course?

The information given during the course should provide you with all the tools and strategies you need to support your child's communication needs at home at this moment in time. We recommend parents to continue using the skills and strategies and to rerefer them when are ready for direct input from the service.

Please find our information sheet below under Useful Documents titled 'Information on when and how to re-refer to SLT after attending Building Blocks Communication Course'. If you have any questions, please contact us to discuss further.

Building Blocks Training for Early Years settings

We have also carried out training for a range of people working with Early Years children including pre-school settings.

If you are an Early Years Setting or work in an Early Years Setting and have not had the Building Blocks Training – please contact the service to discuss this further.

The documents for this training are attached below.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Speech and Language Therapy Team