About
"The ability to communicate is fundamental to learning, to relationships and to life chances. More than 10% of all children and young people, over 1.4 million in the UK, have communication difficulties."
Taken from Bercow: Ten Years On - a report published in 2018 by I CAN, the children's communication charity, and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
I qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2008, working for the NHS in London when I first graduated and subsequently for nearly 10 years at More House School in Frensham, Farnham. I have been working in independent practice since 2015 and made the decision to become fully independent in January 2021.
My role in the NHS was situated within the London Borough of Lambeth where I worked within clinics, mainstream primary schools and children’s centres with children aged 2-11 years old with a wide variety of speech and language difficulties. A large part of my role involved raising awareness of communication difficulties, and working with school and nursery staff to help them to support children within their settings with communication difficulties and encourage language development for every child.
I was privileged in my position at More House to be able to see the long term impact that Speech and Language Therapy intervention can have on a child's communication. In my role as a Lead Senior Speech and Language Therapist I supervised other Speech and Language Therapists as well as providing Speech and Language Therapy intervention for boys with Specific Learning Difficulties and Developmental Language Disorders.
My work in independent practice has included conducting assessments and delivering therapy for a range of speech and language difficulties, as well as running classes for parents and carers of babies and toddlers to promote and support early language development. I have also written and delivered training sessions for Early Years and school settings.
I am passionate about supporting children, their families and their educational settings. For me the most rewarding part of being a Speech and Language Therapist is not just witnessing the progress children make with their communication, but enabling them to recognise how much they are capable of.