What is speech and language therapy?
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What is speech and language therapy?
Speech and language therapy provides treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, or with eating, drinking and swallowing.
Speech and language therapists (SLTs) are allied health professionals. They work with parents, carers and other professionals, such as teachers, nurses, occupational therapists and doctors.
There are over 18,300 practising SLTs in the UK working in a variety of settings.
- Download our What is speech and language therapy? factsheet (PDF).
- See the Welsh language version of this page.
What do speech and language therapists do?
Speech and language therapists provide treatment, support and care for people of all ages who have difficulties with speech, language, communication, eating, drinking and swallowing. Using specialist skills, SLTs work directly with clients and their carers to assess, treat and provide them with tailored support. They also work closely with teachers and other health professionals, such as doctors, nurses, other allied health professionals and psychologists to develop individual treatment programmes.
Who do speech and language therapists work with?
Speech and language therapists work with babies, children and adults:
Babies:
- Feeding and swallowing difficulties
Children:
- Autism/social interaction difficulties
- Cleft palate
- Dyslexia
- Deafness
- Dysfluency
- Language delay
- Language disorders
- Learning difficulties – mild, moderate or severe
- Physical disabilities
- Selective mutism
- Specific difficulties in producing sounds
- Stammering
- Voice disorders
Adults:
Communication or eating and swallowing problems following neurological impairments and degenerative conditions, including:
- Stroke
- Brain injury
- Parksinon’s Disease
- Dementia
- Head and neck cancer
- Deafness
- Learning disabilities
- Mental health (adults)
- Physical disabilities
- Stammering
- Voice
Full list of topic pages
- Acquired motor speech disorders
- Aphasia
- Augmentative and alternative communication
- Autism
- Bilingualism
- Brain injury
- Cleft lip and palate
- Craniofacial conditions
- Critical care
- Deafness
- Dementia
- Developmental speech difficulties
- Dysfluency
- Dysphagia
- Head and neck cancer
- Language disorder
- Learning disabilities
- Looked after children
- Mental health (adults)
- Motor disorders
- Multisensory impairment
- Neonatal care
- Progressive neurological disorders
- Public health
- Respiratory care adults
- Selective mutism
- Social communication disorder
- Social emotional mental health
- Stroke
- Trans voice
- Visual impairment
- Voice
Settings:
Related content
Become a speech and language therapist
Explore the different routes to becoming a speech and language therapist
How to find a speech and language therapist
Details on how you can find a speech and language therapist
Where speech and language therapists work
Explore the different settings SLTs work to learn about the varied roles
