Rehabilitation for children with developmental language disorders
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This rehabilitation course is intended for children with developmental language disorders who are primary school age or younger. The child’s family also participates in the rehabilitation course. The rehabilitation course is offered partially online and partially on the service provider’s premises. Rehabilitation is primarily given in a group setting.
The rehabilitation course is free of charge.
Who is the rehabilitation course for?
This rehabilitation course is suited for children who have been diagnosed with a developmental language disorder and who are able to participate in group rehabilitation.
Rehabilitation is offered separately for the following target groups:
- children under the age of 6 and their families
- 6-year-olds and children of primary school age and their families
Aim of rehabilitation
The rehabilitation course helps the child and their family adapt to the challenges brought by the child’s developmental language disorder. The aim of rehabilitation is to
- secure the child’s functional capacity
- give the family better resources and support their life management skills
- support the self-treatment of the child’s language disorder
- help the family discover ways to continue to live as full a life as possible despite the child’s language disorder.
The rehabilitation course also offers the opportunity to get support from peers and to share experiences with other families.
How rehabilitation works
The rehabilitation course is offered partially online and partially on the service provider’s premises. Rehabilitation is primarily given in a group setting.
Rehabilitation takes the needs and goals of each child into account.
The child’s family accompanies the child for the entire duration of the rehabilitation course. The child can be accompanied by 1–2 adults and 1–2 siblings over the age of 2. All siblings under the age of 2 can accompany the child.
The service provider will contact the family after the rehabilitation course.
The rehabilitation course is usually offered in Finnish and Swedish. However, there is currently no course available in Swedish because there are no registered Swedish-language service providers.
If you speak one of the Sámi languages, Kela will provide an interpreter for you.
Remote rehabilitation consists of online rehabilitation and video calls.
The family can do the tasks assigned during online rehabilitation at their own pace. Professionals will provide guidance to the family during the online rehabilitation and give feedback on completed tasks.
In addition to the online rehabilitation, remote rehabilitation also includes video calls:
- An introductory video call before the rehabilitation course begins
- 2 video calls with the group.
The introductory video call is about 45 minutes. The group video calls are about 60–90 minutes each.
The family can borrow a device from the service provider if they need one to participate in the remote rehabilitation. Kela also offers help and guidance with accessing remote rehabilitation.
In-person rehabilitation will be given on the service provider’s premises. It lasts for 5 days. The family can stay overnight at the rehabilitation facility or travel there from home each day. The facility offers accommodation in a family room when family rooms are available.
During the rehabilitation course, the family will work in small groups, participate in group discussions and have one-on-one meetings with rehabilitation experts.
The experts involved in rehabilitation
The following experts will plan and manage the rehabilitation programme:
- a specialist in paediatric neurology, phoniatrics, general practice or paediatrics
- a speech therapist
- a registered nurse or public health nurse
- a social worker, Bachelor of Social Sciences or rehabilitation instructor.
Depending on the child's individual needs, other rehabilitation professionals and assisting personnel may also take part.
How to apply
This rehabilitation can be granted either as discretionary rehabilitation or as intensive medical rehabilitation.
- You need a medical statement B (B-lausunto) issued by a doctor for the child or some other statement on the child’s health if you want to apply for discretionary rehabilitation. For example, you can submit a copy of the child’s medical history (sairauskertomus). The medical statement B or health statement must be dated within the past year.
- If you want to apply for intensive medical rehabilitation, you must submit a rehabilitation plan (kuntoutussuunnitelma) that a doctor who works in public healthcare has drawn up for the child.
The medical statement B, health statement or rehabilitation plan must state what qualifies the child for rehabilitation, how well the child can function, what kind of rehabilitation is recommended for the child and why.
If you are not sure which type of rehabilitation you should apply for, please ask the doctor in charge of your child’s care.
If you apply for discretionary rehabilitation, we will contact you if your child may have the right to intensive medical rehabilitation instead.
Once you have a medical statement B, a health statement or a rehabilitation plan for the child, do as follows:
- Complete the application form for discretionary rehabilitation KU 132 (PDF, in Finnish) or the application form for intensive medical rehabilitation KU 104 (PDF, in Finnish).
- Save the blank form to your device. Do not fill in the form directly in the browser because some of the information may not be saved that way.
- Open the form with Adobe Reader and fill it in.
- Tell us in the application which service provider’s rehabilitation you want to participate in. The service provider you choose can be located anywhere in Finland. Use Kela’s service provider search to look up rehabilitation service providers. Information onservice providers will be available via the search as of 4 December 2025.
- Save the completed application form on your device. Note that the application must be in PDF format.
- Send the application in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish). The parents or guardians of a child under the age of 18 can apply for rehabilitation in OmaKela on behalf of their child.
- Log in to OmaKela and select Tee hakemus (File an application). If you are applying for rehabilitation for your child, go to Asioi toisen henkilön puolesta (Act on behalf of another person). Read more about acting on behalf of another person.
- First select Sairastaminen ja kuntoutus (Sickness and rehabilitation). Then select Kuntoutus – tee hakemus (Rehabilitation – Submit an application). Finally, select either Harkinnanvarainen kuntoutus (Discretionary rehabilitation) or Vaativa lääkinnällinen kuntoutus (Intensive medical rehabilitation).
- If you send your application to Kela in OmaKela, you do not need to sign it.
- If you have supporting documents, send them via OmaKela after you have submitted your application. If they are paper documents, you can photograph them.
- If you are applying for discretionary rehabilitation, send us a copy of the child’s medical statement B or health statement as a supporting document with your application.
- If you are applying for intensive medical rehabilitation, send us a copy of the child’s rehabilitation plan as a supporting document with your application.
- Visit OmaKela to see if Kela has made a decision on your application. You will also get a decision by post if you have not given up paper mail. We will also send the decision notice to the rehabilitation service provider. This tells the service provider that Kela will pay for the rehabilitation, and the service provider will reserve a place for the child on the rehabilitation course.
If you cannot use OmaKela, mail your application to Kela. Save the form to your device and fill it in after saving it. Print out the completed form and send it and any supporting documents to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.
Apply for rehabilitation
Submit your application and supporting documents online
Let us know if you cannot attend rehabilitation
Remember to tell Kela immediately if the child cannot participate in the rehabilitation course. Let us know that you have to cancel by sending a message to us in the OmaKela e-service or by calling our customer service number for rehabilitation clients.
We recommend that you also contact the service provider to let them know you have to cancel.
Check if you can get rehabilitation allowance and travel cost reimbursements
Kela pays rehabilitation allowance to give you financial security during rehabilitation. Kela may also reimburse you for rehabilitation-related travel costs.