It can be daunting to find the right therapist and input for your child and family. Take a look at some of the services I offer to get you started thinking about your therapeutic journey!
Initial assessment and reports
An initial assessment session will provide the opportunity for families and carers to discuss their concerns about their child's communication needs, beginning with a case history to provide foundational information about each individual child's communication skills and needs, as well as considering developmental history. The session will further involve an assessment of the child's overall speech, language, and communication skills and needs, combining the use of both formal and informal assessment as appropriate. Information gathered from the assessment session will be used to create a report outlining the child's individual strengths and areas of need as well as providing advice and recommendations to support the child's ongoing communication development and, where appropriate, supplying individualised targets.
Individual therapy
For some children or young people a block of more intensive, 1:1 therapeutic input may be what's needed to support their communication needs. Therapy goals will be set at the start of each block of therapy and sessions will be tailored to support an individuals' progress towards these goals. Sessions are dynamic, allowing for session aims to be amended to best support the changing needs of each individual and ensure that each session is supportive of the individual in the moment. Goals and targets will be reviewed at the end of each block and clear advice, discussions, and guidance will be offered regarding next steps.
Group therapy
Group therapy can be a valuable tool in helping both children and their families to support and develop those areas of communication they may find challenging. Group sessions further provide opportunities to formulate relationships with peers and share experiences. Group therapy can work to support and develop a variety of social communication skills, such as parallel and co-operative play, and turn-taking, as well as supporting those more specific, targeted, areas of need.
Group therapy sessions include groups supporting the following:
Interaction-focused approaches such as intensive interaction, which will focus on developing fundamental, early communication skills.
Early language strategies and supports, designed to provide information around supporting early language development and providing strategies and activities for developing these skills.
Each group therapy session will follow a clear structure and routine to support the children's understanding of the groups and what will, broadly, occur within each group. Information, advice, and resources will be provided to parents as part of the groups following which communication activities will be facilitated and completed. There will be opportunities throughout to ask questions and work together to troubleshoot any potential difficulties and adapt activities as needed.
AAC and early language support.
Not everyone communicates using verbal skills and cultivating a robust communication system means supporting individuals to access a range of communication strategies and supports to help communicate with a range of people across different activities and environments. This might mean getting an AAC (alternative and augmentative communication) system in place for the individual and AAC sessions will focus on identifying the right AAC and steps to introducing and embedding this system.
Sessions will also look at supporting other aspects of early language development and pre-linguistic skills.
The Listening Programme.
I am a certified provider for The Listening Program (TLP), a program developed by advanced brain technologies using acoustically adapted music to support the development of a range of skills including sensory processing, working memory and information retention, attention and listening, and communication skills, among others.
Follow the link to learn more and get in contact if you would like to discuss the possibility of introducing TLP with your child and family.
School support
If you are an educational setting or educator looking for some additional speech and language therapy support for your students and staff, get in touch and we can discuss the best ways to ensure your setting has everything you need for both your students and staff to thrive!
Free telephone screening
It is important to find the right therapist and input for you! In order to make sure that you are accessing the services that best support your child and family I offer free telephone screening for every new client or individual at the beginning of their therapeutic journey.
This telephone screening will provide the opportunity to discuss your concerns, talk through the therapeutic process, and determine what service will best serve your individual needs. It may be that your child's needs can be met with some advice and information, which will be provided as part of the telephone screening.
If you'd like a telephone screening let me know using my contact page and I'll be in touch with an appointment.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.