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# Does a child/student require a speech and language pathology referral?

Concerns within any of the following areas support the need for a speech pathologist to be involved with a child’s development of skills:

* receptive language (understanding or comprehension)
* expressive language (oral language)
* attention
* literacy skills
* speech
* social skills

The following basic questionnaire is very useful. It identifies areas which support the need for a referral: [https://pld-literacy.org/product/observations-of-a-student-to-accompany-a-referral-to-a-sp/](https://pld-literacy.org/product/observations-of-a-student-to-accompany-a-referral-to-a-sp/)


In terms of ‘speech or articulation,’ the PLD articulation or speech sound production screen will also identify if students require speech pathology services. It can be found here: [https://pld-literacy.org/product/screen-of-speech-development/](https://pld-literacy.org/product/screen-of-speech-development/)


The government-funded system is limited, particularly when children are over 6 years of age. Often parents are faced with a long wait period for a limited government-funded service or the need to investigate private services. As a child ages, often schools are faced with attempting to cater for students who clearly require specialist support.