In the realm of Speech and Language Therapy, connecting with a child goes far beyond the mechanics of language and articulation. It’s about fostering a deep, meaningful relationship that nurtures growth, builds confidence, and unlocks the potential for effective communication.
As Speech and Language Therapists we embrace this art and invest in building authentic connections. We want to pave the way for children to embark on a path of communication success that will resonate throughout their lives.
Establishing rapport and trust is the foundation upon which effective communication and progress are built. In this blog, we explore the significance of making a connection with a child as an integral part of Speech and Language Therapy. We look at strategies, benefits, and the transformative impact it can have on a child’s journey to communication success.
The importance of connection
Every child is a unique individual with their own personality, experiences, and challenges. Recognising and respecting these individual differences lay the groundwork for forming a connection that goes beyond the clinical setting. A strong therapeutic alliance encourages a child to open up, engage actively in sessions, and make greater strides in their speech, language and communication development.
Strategies I use for establishing connection
Face to Face:
I always aim to get down and dirty: I sit on the floor with a child or at a low level so that it is easy for a child to look at me, even for a brief moment, here and there. When sitting at a table I position the child so that they can make eye contact with me should they be so inclined. Important: not every child wants to make eye contact! We must not be too focused on a child looking at our face or into our eyes. Sometimes some individuals find this disconcerting and off putting. They would rather look at what they are doing, and that does not mean that they are not aware of you or not listening!
Active listening:
I devote my full attention to the child. This demonstrates that they are important and that I am genuinely interested in their world. This is not always possible for longer periods of time, but I aim for 3-10 minutes of top-quality time before I might have a little break. I would encourage all parents and caregivers to try this out for 1 , then 2, then 3 minutes: turn off your phone and be 100% with your child no matter what. You will see your child really appreciates your undivided attention.
Shared interests:
I try to discover and engage in activities, topics, or hobbies that resonate with the child.
Play-based learning:
Play is a big part of all Speech and Language Therapy sessions. This is because it is a child’s natural mode of communication and all learning comes through play and fun.
Respect for autonomy:
Encouraging a child’s autonomy is important. Where possible, I involve children in decision-making about session goals, activities, and approaches. This also makes sessions more motivating for the child.
As the connection strengthens, communication barriers begin to dissolve. Children are more inclined to take risks (challenges that are within their reach), try new sounds or words, and explore new ways of doing things.
Long-term progress:
A solid connection sets the stage for ongoing progress. The child is more likely to continue practicing and engaging in speech, language and communication exercises outside of therapy, leading to sustained improvements.
The transformation that can occur through a strong therapeutic connection is nothing short of remarkable. A child who once hesitated to communicate might now eagerly share their thoughts and ideas. Those struggling with speech sounds before might gain the confidence to practise them frequently and thus master them. The bond forged between the child and the Speech and Language Therapist becomes a source of motivation, encouragement, and resilience.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
What is Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) and what does a Speech Therapist do?
Speech and language therapists provide treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking and swallowing. We help children and adults who have problems speaking and communicating.
How to find the perfect therapist for my child/client:
There are a huge number of speech and language difficulties, or feeding and swallowing problems that we can help with and the first thing to think about is what age group the person is you are seeking help for. Most SLT’s specialise in a range of disorders and treatments and they often treat specific age ranges. This could be, for instance, very young children up to 3 years, or school aged children, adolescents or just adults. Once you have narrowed it down to age and general area of difficulty you can then go and seek your perfect SLT match.
Generally it is my view that SLT’s with a narrow area of specialist interest are most likely to help you better if the problem you or your child/adult is having is significant and/or profound. For example, if your child has a very severe stutter/stammer but is otherwise developing fine and has good skills all round, then I would recommend to look for an SLT who only specialises in stammering/stuttering, or has only a small range of other specialist areas related to stammering , such as speech and language delay.
The reason is that it is a tall order for any professional to stay up to date with latest research, latest clinical developments and training for more than, say, five distinct areas of interest.
However, a more generalist Speech therapist who has lots of experience in many different areas could be a very good option for your child or adult who has more general speech and language delay in a number of areas, perhaps a global delay or a syndrome which means that their learning is delayed in general. It also means that your child might benefit from a Generalist SLT because they have many more tools in their SLT bag and your child might need a variety of approaches for several areas.
A good place to start is www.asltip.com which is the Association for Independent Speech and Language Therapists in the UK. Any SLT registered with ASLTIP will also be registered with the HCPC (Health Care Professionals Council), as well as RCSLT (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists). These two important UK professional regulatory bodies ensure all its members are fully qualified, and are fully up to date with latest developments within their areas of work.
Here you can enter your post code and look for a therapist near you and you can look for specific problems such as stammering for example and narrow down your search. Most therapists have a website which you can then access too. I would recommend you speak to a few therapists on your list and then go with the person you had the best rapport with. You and the therapist will be spending a lot of time together and you will need to feel that you trust them and that you can relax into the process.
How I can help you:
I have 3 main areas of specialism:
Parent Child Interaction Coaching
This is an amazing way to help children with the following difficulties:
Social Communication Difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Disordersand
Speech and Language Delay – for children under the age of 4 years old, this is my preferred way of working because it is so very effective and proven to work. If your child is not developing words or not interacting, has reduced attention and listening and you feel is not progressing or, in fact even regressing, then this way of working is the best. For anyone wanting to read a bit more about the efficacy of this method, below are some research articles. You may also like to check out www.hanen.org which is the mainstay of my work and method when it comes to Parent-Interaction Coaching. You can also look at my latest blog, entitled: Tele-therapy, does it work?
In brief, what’s so great about Parent Coaching is that it empowers you the parent to help your child in daily life! This is where speech, language and social communication develop typically, in a naturalistic way and environment. Simple steps and strategies are discussed and demonstrated every week and you are encouraged to use these strategies with your child in daily routines: getting dressed, having breakfast, on the school run, whilst out in the park or shopping or simply playing at home or having dinner or bath time. Whatever your family routine happens to be, every strategy I teach you will help create a responsive communication environment; generally, if your child is able to develop speech then they will do so in direct response to your changed interaction style.
Speech Sound Disorders, Verbal Dyspraxia, Phonology and Articulation
I love working with children of all ages on developing their speech sounds. Whether your child has a lisp, or a couple of tricky sounds they simply cannot produce quite right, or perhaps your child is really unintelligible because he/she is having lots of different sound errors, making it really hard to understand them. I typically work on getting “most bang for your buck” , meaning I address the sounds that cause the most problems and, therefore, when they are fixed your child/person’s speech becomes that much clearer fairly quickly.
Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties
Having worked for over 20 years in NHS Child Development Clinics and Special Needs Schools I trained and worked with feeding and swallowing difficulties early on in my SLT career. I later trained as a Lactation Consultant and so I am well placed helping and support all types of Infant feeding, both breast or bottle, as well as toddler weaning. I aim to ensure that your little one swallows the right kind of foods and drinks for their abilities. I am experienced in managing and supporting children with physical needs and mobility problems, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome or any other type of syndrome or presentation.
What does a speech therapy session look like?
All sessions differ slightly depending on the age of the child and the nature of the difficulties.
However, mostly our sessions look like FUN! After arrival and washing hands we tend to start off with the tricky work straight away whilst our child still has energy and the will to engage. So, for speech work we will focus on the target sounds first: this could be sitting at a table doing work sheets together, playing games using the target sound and really any type of activity that gives us around 70-100 repeats of the target pattern. For example, a child who is working towards saying a ‘K’ at the end of the word I will try and get around 100 productions of words like: pack/sack/lick/ pick/bike/lake and so on.
Then we often play a fun game where I might try for a ‘rhyming’ activity or other sound awareness type activities, for perhaps 10 minutes and within that time I aim to trial the next sound pattern we need to improve on; I will test which sound your child can do with help from me. During he last 10 minutes we might look at a book, again listening to and producing whatever sound we are working on. If I did not get 100 sounds earlier on in the session I will try and practice them now as part of the story. In total I aim to have about 40-45 minutes of activities, all aimed at the target sound we are working on.
What does a Coaching session look like?
During a Parent Coaching Session we meet online for about an hour and we discuss how the week has been for you trying out the strategies. Typically parents start off recalling what went well, what progress was made and what had been more tricky. We work through it all, and then follow on to the next strategies: I will show you examples and demonstrations of each strategy and I will get you to think about how you can use this with your child and in what situation you might use it. I will explain what we are doing and what the purpose is. You might want to write down what you are going to work on for the week. Over the course of about sessions we can cover all the major strategies that are proven to help kickstart spoken language and/or help your child to connect more with you. Through that connection spoken words most often develop.
Research Papers on the Efficacy of Parent Child Interaction Coaching
The It Takes Two to Talk Program has been shown to be effective in changing how parents interact with their children, and that children’s communication and language skills improve as a result.
Baumwell, L.B., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S. & Bornstein, M.H. (1997). Maternal verbal sensitivity and child language comprehension. Infant Behavior and Development, 20(2), 247-258.
Beckwith, L. & Cohen, S.E. (1989). Maternal responsiveness with preterm infants and later competency. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed.). Maternal responsiveness: Characteristics and consequences: New directions for child development (pp. 75-87). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Is early intervention effective? (Publication No. (CDH) 74-25). Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Child Development.
Girolametto, L. (1988). Improving the social-conversational skills of developmentally delayed children: An intervention study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 53, 156-167.
Sonja has been a real help for my 5 year old daughter. Due to her support, my daughter is now able to clearly and correctly enunciate ‘th’ ‘f’ and ’s’. She was also helpful in making positional changes to her seating to help her concentrate better and kept her engaged throughout all the lessons which is a feat in itself on zoom!
Helen, Mother of Catherine Age 5.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Does your child say “Dough” instead of “Go”? Or “Tea” instead of “Key”? Do you hear a /Sh/ instead of an /S/ does “see” sound more like “she”?
We Speechies call this a Fronting Pattern which means that a sound that should be produced at the back of the throat with the back of the tongue, like K or G , is said at the front of the mouth with the tip of the tongue, like a T or a D or SH. When this happens speech can be really hard to make out because these sounds are literally everywhere in everyday sentences. Just think how many K’s and G’s we hear in a simple sentence?
For example, I heard my little student say earlier today: “I know what game we can play in your garden? It’s the one with cones and rings and cushions! I know where it is I can get it.”
But it sounded like:
“I know what DAME we DAN play in the DARDEN! It’s the one with TONES and rings and TUSHIONS! I know where it is I TAN DED it.”
If that sounds familiar to you, here is a little overview of what we can do about it:
First up it’s always good to start with general speech sounds awareness: does a child hear syllables and intonation? Do they know words that rhyme? Can they follow or copy a simple beat with a drum? Can they listen and hear quiet sounds and loud sounds and can they copy those? Can they follow mouth and tongue movements:, for example : stick out your tongue, lick your lips, click your tongue, blow raspberries?
Then it really helps to talk about BACK and FRONT of things and to draw attention to the back of the mouth and the back of the tongue and the front tip of the tongue and how sounds are made in the mouth. I often use a puppet to show this or a model of a mouth like this one here in the picture.
Next we try and listen to words starting with a BACK sounds like a K or a G , and I read out a list of words with those sounds: COW, CORE, CAT, CONE, KEY etc or ARK, EEK, OAK, ACHE…
Or GOO GUY GUM GONE
After that we try and see if a student can actually produce a single sound like a K or a G just by itself. If they can, that’s a really great start and if they can’t I help them to produce one – over a few sessions we usually get there. We call this Sound production in isolation.
Once a child can produce a sound correctly, on its own, we try and start working on very simple words that are really powerful like “GO”!!!!! in a motivating game or “CAR” for little ones who love a car racing track.
Now that we have established the back sounds and are using it in short words, we can gradually re-train brain pathways and oral- motor/movement pathways to use these new sounds in many words and then short phrases. That can take time!! This is called generalisation and it is not uncommon for it to take up a whole year for fluent speech to be error-free .
Why does it take so long? Being able to produce a correct and clear K or G sound does not mean it will be used easily. Our brain pathways are fixated or habituated to the error sound. It takes time for habits to change. A child might be able to hear the word TIGER with a G in the middle and she knows that it is not a TIDER but when saying it her tongue automatically moves forward rather than lifts up at the back. It’s a bit like a person who has a rounded back: the brain knows to stand upright and how not to slouch, but when we don’t focus on it, ooops we have slouched again because that is what we are comfortable doing and our body moves with our habit.
It takes effort and motivation to change our movement patterns and that includes our tongue and lip patterns! We usually get there through a huge variety of games and practice. Lots and lots of repetition is key as is motivation to change.
Parents and carers are crucial in the success of Speech Therapy!
We need your feedback at home, the regular short and sweet exercises, the constant positive encouragement and great modelling of speech sounds. We often find that parents are tuned into their child’s error sounds and can understand them much better than anyone else. This is great of course in many ways, however, it also means that the child has less motivation to change: if mummy understands me then my world is ok.
I will give you a short outline of what different speech therapy models I use in my practice, be it in clinic face to face or on-line in my future blogs soon.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
The festive season is a wonderful time for many families, but for children with feeding challenges, sensory differences, or autism traits, December can feel overwhelming. Changes in routine, busier environments, travel, new foods, disrupted sleep, and well-meaning relatives giving ‘advice’ can all affect a child’s feeding, communication and overall regulation.
As a speech and language therapist specialising in Early Years, I see the same pattern each year: children often make progress during the term, only to struggle in late December when everything becomes unpredictable. The good news? With a bit of preparation, children can not only cope better, but they can actually make significant developmental gains during the holidays.
This blog will help you feel confident, supported and prepared for the transition from ‘festive mode’ to a smoother, regulated start in January.
1. Why routines matter so much. Especially now
Young children thrive on predictability. For neurodivergent children or those with sensory, feeding or communication needs, routine isn’t just helpful: it’s the backbone of emotional regulation.
In December, typical patterns change:
Mealtimes shift or become irregular
Bedtime slides
New foods appear
Loud social gatherings overwhelm
Travel disrupts naps and comfort routines
Therapies pause
Childcare closes
Any one of these can lead to feeding refusals, more meltdowns, increased stimming, reduced communication attempts or regression in speech sounds.
It’s simply the nervous system responding to too much change.
2. Protecting feeding progress during holiday mealtimes
My last blog and insta post have a nice social story on festive meals. They are often the trickiest part of the season for families I support. Children with sensory-based feeding challenges, or ARFID traits may find holiday foods completely unfamiliar and challenging.
What helps:
Offer one ‘safe food’ at every meal
Keep portion sizes tiny
Use the ‘buffet rule’
Rehearse tricky moments
3. Supporting communication when routines are disrupted
Holiday time actually offers more opportunities for communication, just in different ways.
Strategies:
Slow down and follow your child’s lead
Use everyday routines as language opportunities
Keep AAC going even if casually
4. Understanding holiday ‘regressions’ and know they’re temporary
This is almost always due to nervous system overload. Children don’t truly ‘lose’ skills; they temporarily prioritise regulation over learning.
5. A gentle January reset: How to start the New Year smoothly
Re-establish predictability early
Return to preferred foods
Book early support if needed
Focus on regulation first
Sonja McGeachie
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
SIMPLE SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY TIPS you can try out at home in daily life!
So many new referrals come to me from parents of toddlers saying help, my little one does not speak yet, what can I do? Consider trying out those strategies, they really help:
Increase playing with your child and try to have MORE FUN. Try and resist the urge to ‘teach’ your child. Fun activities are naturally more motivating and your child will learn new words more easily if you are both having fun together. Try and act goofy to get your child’s attention and make them laugh.
Respect all play forms your child is interested in, not just play with typical/shop bought toys. Be a PLAY PARTNER instead of a PLAY DIRECTOR.
Go With What Your Child Is Interested In
Go with what your child is interested in even if it isn’t that new toy you bought the other day! If you follow your child’s lead by watching him closely, you will discover what they are interested in. Then, if you wait and observe your little one he or she may try to communicate something about that favourite toy or activity.
Use simple words and short phrases with correct grammar about your child’s interests. For example, if he gives you a toy and wants to play, use words to describe that activity, e.g. : “spinning”! “that’s spinning round and round” “wheee” “wow it’s spinning fast!”
Your child is likely to learn the words that match activities he’s motivated and interested in.
Show your child what words mean
You can POINT to something as you say the word (e.g. point to a bird in the sky as you say “Look at the bird!”), ACT out what the word means (e.g. pretend to shiver as you talk about how “cold” it is), or HOLD UP OBJECT as you say it’s name (e.g. hold up your child’s coat as you say, “It’s time to put your coat on”).
Stress key words and repeat them often. Children need to hear words several times in different situations before they really understand what they mean. Try to repeat words that are familiar to your child during everyday activities and routines. For example, you might use the word “go” when you are talking about going outside and duringva “ready steady go” game. Using the same word in different situations gives your child more information about what the word means.
Stop asking too many questions, this is hard for adults to do as we often try to direct our children’s play.
Respond positively to your child’s attempts to communicate, even if these attempts aren’t perfect. As children are learning about words, they sometimes attempt to say a word but don’t pronounce it correctly, or they might use an action or gesture instead of the word. When you notice your child attempt to communicate with you, respond as if he said the word. This shows him you are listening and that you understand what he is trying to tell you. It also encourages him to keep trying to communicate with you.
Learning to say new words doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time for children to build their understanding enough that they can say a word and use it in the right situation. By using the tips above, you will give your child’s vocabulary a kickstart, and pave the way to new words.
Do get in touch with me if you need more help. I specialise in providing individual on-line virtual coaching with parents . This is helpful and often necessary given how complex our children are and how difficult it is to acquire speech and language when for one reason or another it is not your thing!
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
For all children every milestone achieved is a testament to the unique and intricate process unfolding within each young mind. For autistic children, this journey may present a distinct pattern, with some reaching developmental milestones like crawling, walking, and talking later than their neurotypical peers. Let’s have a look into the fascinating realm of Autism and explore why some autistic children might crawl, walk, and talk later, shedding light on the underlying factors contributing to this unique way of developing.
1. Individual Pacing:
Child development is not a one-size-fits-all journey. Each child, whether neurotypical or autistic, has a unique timeline for achieving milestones. Autistic children, like any other children, follow their own pacing. This individual rhythm might lead them to focus on one set of skills before they progress to others. Like some neurotypical children might focus on talking earlier than walking, autistic children might prioritise other areas before crawling or talking.
2. Neurodevelopmental Complexity:
The human brain is a remarkable entity, with a bewildering array of interconnected processes that lead to us achieving our developmental milestones. Autistic children often have variations in “neural wiring”, which can impact the balance between gross motor skills (crawling, walking) and fine motor skills. Speech and language acquisition falls under fine motor skills and may be momentarily disrupted due to the divergent neurological pathways at play in autism.
2. Sensory Processing Differences:
One of the hallmarks of autism is altered sensory processing. Autistic children often experience sensory stimuli differently than their neurotypical peers. This heightened or diminished sensitivity can influence a child’s desire or ability to engage in activities like crawling and walking. The sensation of movement while crawling or walking, for instance, might be overwhelming for some autistic children, causing them to either avoid or delay these activities.
3. Visual-Spatial Abilities:
Autistic children and adults frequently display excellent visual-spatial abilities. This strength might lead some children to focus more on activities that engage these skills, potentially delaying their engagement with activities like walking or talking. As they navigate their environment and process information visually, they might naturally invest more time in activities that stimulate this particular cognitive ability and strength.
4. Communication Challenges:
For many autistic children, speaking can be a really complex and difficult endeavour. Communication delays are a common feature of autism. This can affect both receptive and expressive language development. While some children might be physically capable of crawling or walking, they may not yet have the tools to communicate their desires and intentions. This leads to a temporary focus on non-speaking forms of expression. This does not mean that they do not communicate at all. But autistic individuals often start out using jargoning or echolalia as a form of communication as well as behaviours and physical forms of communication.
5. Executive Functioning and Motor Skills:
Executive functioning, or abilities for planning, organising, and carrying out tasks, can vary in autistic children. These skills are crucial for activities like crawling, walking, and talking, which need coordination and planning. About 40% of autistic persons have a motor planning difficulty.
6. Intense Interests and Routines:
Autistic children often develop intense interests in specific subjects, sometimes to the exclusion of other activities. These interests might become their primary mode of engagement. They might side-line milestones like crawling, walking, or talking. The mostly rigid adherence to routines and preferences might cause them to allocate more time to their preferred activities. This delays their engagement with other developmental tasks.
How can Speech and Language Therapy help:
Support and Intervention:
Early intervention and regular Speech and Language Therapy play a pivotal role in the developmental journey of autistic children. Therapies tailored to individual needs can aid in bridging the gaps between milestones. Occupational therapy, for example, can help address sensory sensitivities and motor skill challenges that might impact crawling and walking. Speech therapy can help communication development, gradually bridging the gap between non-verbal expressions and spoken language.
For example, we now know that echolalia or jargoning of longer phrases with intonation, repeating scripts from favourite tv shows or songs have many meanings and communicative functions. For example, a child who utters long strings of echolalic utterances, often difficult to understand, might want to do any one of the following:
Comment
greet
ask a question
make a request
express surprise
negate something.
We now understand that the way to support a child with echolalia is to acknowledge all utterances and try and find out what the meaning is behind these scripts. This is very supportive. Over time it will lead a child to move on to understanding and saying more clear and self-generated language. For more information about this Natural Language Acquisition here are some other great websites for you to look at:
In conclusion, the journey of an autistic child’s development is a testament to the uniqueness and complexity of the human mind. The delays or differences in achieving milestones like crawling, walking, and talking can be attributed to a range of factors, including
neurodevelopmental intricacies,
sensory processing variations,
and communication challenges.
It’s crucial to recognise that these delays are not indicative of a lack of potential, but rather a manifestation of the intricate interplay between an autistic child’s strengths and challenges. By embracing these differences and providing tailored support, we can help each autistic child unfold their potential at their own pace.
Do get in touch if you would like to book an appointment where we can explore how to help your child develop and thrive
Do get in touch if you would like to book an appointment where we can explore how to help your child develop and thrive
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
If you have ever wondered what happens when you bring your child to a speech and language therapy assessment, then this blog will shed light on the ins and outs of it for you.
At its heart, a speech and language therapy assessment is a systematic and thorough evaluation of your child’s communication or eating/swallowing abilities. It’s more than just asking a few questions. It is a carefully constructed process designed to identify strengths, pinpoint challenges, and ultimately pave the way for effective intervention.
Establishing a detailed profile – a few bullet points:
Identification of communication and swallowing difficulties: I aim to determine if a communication or swallowing disorder exists. I will establish if the difficulty is a delay or a more complex disorder.
Diagnosis of the specific disorder/autism: The assessment delves deeper to pinpoint the specific type and nature of the difficulty. For instance, is your child’s language delay due to a specific learning disability, a developmental delay, or another underlying condition?
Knowing the aetiology or what is causing a difficulty is crucial for targeted intervention. And whilst we are on the topic let’s talk about an autism assessment: I am trained and experienced in assessing and diagnosing autism. However, when it comes to the diagnosis of autism I provide a preliminary ‘working hypothesis’ rather than giving a definite final diagnosis. The reason for this is that it is considered the ‘gold standard’ and ‘best practice’ to diagnose autism in a multi-disciplinary setting and context. Since I work on my own, I always refer to highly recommended multi-disciplinary clinics for the ultimate diagnostic assessment.
Determination of severity: Understanding the severity of the difficulty is essential for prioritising intervention and measuring progress. Is your child’s difficulty mild, moderate, or severe? This helps me choose a particular approach and then tailor it to suit each individual child.
Identification of underlying strengths and weaknesses: An assessment doesn’t just focus on what’s wrong. It also highlights your child’s strengths and areas of relative ease. This information is invaluable for building upon existing skills during therapy. Understanding weaknesses provides specific targets for intervention.
Guiding intervention planning: The assessment provides the crucial information I need to develop an individualised intervention plan. The findings directly inform the selection of therapy goals, strategies, and techniques. Without a thorough assessment, therapy would be a shot in the dark.
A multi-faceted approach
A speech and language therapy assessment is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ procedure. The specific tools and techniques used will vary depending on a child’s age, the nature of the suspected difficulty, and other relevant factors. However, most comprehensive assessments incorporate several key components:
Case history: This involves gathering information about your child’s developmental, medical, social, and educational background. We will go through all the relevant milestones and throughout the process I will make notes which will help bring all the puzzle pieces together.
Observation: I will observe how parent and child play together and we also look at how the child plays by themselves. Additionally of interest is how a child plays with me, the therapist. Through discussion I will also endeavour to find out how your child plays with other children, be it at the nursery or within the family.
Standardised assessments: These are commercially available tests with specific administration and scoring procedures. They provide norm-referenced data, allowing to compare the individual child’s performance to that of his or her peers. Examples include articulation tests, language comprehension and production tests, and fluency assessments. I tend not to use these assessments a lot.
Instead, I use non-standardised assessments: These are more flexible and allow to probe specific areas of concern in more detail. This might include language samples (analysing spontaneous speech), dynamic assessment (testing and teaching to identify learning potential), and informal observation of play or interaction.
Immediate feedback and report writing: During and thenfollowing the assessment, I will bring all the gathered information together and I will discuss with the parents what my findings are and what my recommendations in the short term are. Parents always go home with a good handful of useful strategies that they can implement at home right away. In addition, I provide a comprehensive report outlining the findings, diagnosis (if applicable), severity, strengths and weaknesses, and recommendations for intervention.
In conclusion, a speech and language therapy assessment is a dynamic and essential process. It is a journey of discovery, aiming to understand a child and the child’s family and his or her unique communication or feeding profile. The assessment is usually the start of our wonderful learning journey together.
Below is a short video clip of an assessment where you see me in action explaining a particular therapy approach to a set of parents. It perhaps shows a tiny bit of how relaxed we are in our sessions and that assessment is not at all daunting, but a hugely informative event overall which will leave you feeling empowered and hopeful.
What happens after an assessment?
Please feel free to get in touch with me via my contact form if you wish to have an assessment for your child’s communication difficulties or feeding difficulties.
An assessment is always a stand-alone event and does not mean you need to automatically book follow up sessions at all. It will give a lot of information and based on this you can decide if you would like more therapy or follow up for you and your child. Many times ongoing therapy is not needed! I only recommend a course of therapy if it is really needed and where it would be immediately beneficial for your child.
Sonja McGeachie
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
