I have been practising as a Speech and Language Therapist since 1992, working with children and young people to develop their communication skills. I primarily work with autistic children and young people.
This includes working with their families, carers and school staff to support their communication with the autistic child or young person.
I believe in a strengths-based approach to our work together and will focus on communication that stems from trust and connection.
We will work together to give everyone confidence with how they are communicating with your child.
We will follow your child’s interests and join in with what they are doing.
Communication comes from relationship and connection.
We will have fun together!
My work is neuro-affirming.
This means we will not be working to ‘fix’ communication to be neurotypical, instead we will celebrate the differences in how our brains work.
Our work will give space for communication to be real between you and your child, accepting and developing all the different ways your child may be communicating.
As a speech and language therapist, I believe in inclusive communication.
What is inclusive communication?
Inclusive communication is an approach to communication which enables as many people as possible to be included in that interaction.
This approach:
- Recognises that all human beings use many ways of understanding and expressing themselves.
- Encourages, supports and enables people to use whatever ways of understanding and expressing themselves which they find easiest.
It does not relate only to a specific activity for a particular group. It is an overarching approach which is relevant to:
- Everyone and in all situations, not just people with communication support needs.
- All communication at individual, organisation and population levels.
- All modes of communication – face-to-face, telephone, written, online.
What to expect
My aim will be to understand your child’s communication strengths and needs so that I can support you with your communication together.
Initial phone call (free of charge)
We will have an initial conversation on the phone (usually about 15 minutes) which will give you a chance to tell me about your child and what you are hoping from speech and language therapy.
If we decide I could support you, we will make a mutually convenient appointment for me to visit you at home with your child.
Before the initial assessment visit, I will send you some documents to complete. These explain my charges, how I work, my terms and conditions and my privacy policy. There is also a document for you to complete which gives me useful information about your child’s story so far including information about their school or nursery and any support in place.
Initial assessment at your home
I will be a new person for your child, so don’t worry if they behave differently from what you expect. I will bring some toys/activities with me, but will respond to what they are interested in at home.
I will observe you and your child communicating together with something that they enjoy doing (e.g. a toy, a book, a game or looking at some photos).
I will be looking at all their different ways of communicating (e.g. their facial expression, body position, gestures, pointing skills, vocalisations and speech)
I will also be looking at what they communicate about (e.g. asking for things, communicating they don’t want something or communicating how they are feeling).
I will be finding out how they respond to your communication and what they are understanding (e.g. responding to what you point tom or responding to what you say)
Occasionally I may bring a more formal assessment (for example some pictures with specific questions)
Deciding together
I will tell you what I think are the next steps to support your child’s communication. We will then decide whether you would like some further sessions.
These might be weekly initially, or they might be less frequently — for example, fortnightly or monthly. They will depend on what I have found out from the assessment and will be agreed together.
Summary assessment report
I will send you a written summary of the visit which will include my recommendations that we will have talked about.
Subsequent sessions
These will be at home, and you will need to be present throughout.
I will aim to make them fun and enjoyable for us all.
I use a child-led approach and will respond to what your child is interested.
We will agree together what we are hoping to achieve whilst recognising that your child is unique and will be full of surprises!
Where possible, we will share what we are doing with others in your child’s life (grandparents, staff at nursery or school) so that everyone can support your child and celebrate their communication journey.