Empty Set and Phonology approaches

ByLondon Speech and Feeding

I have been avoiding the use of the Empty Set approach for the longest time as I was not sure if it would work seeing that I am challenging two sounds my student struggles with at the same time. But I decided to give it a go and it works a treat!

With this approach, we use two sounds that our student is struggling with. For example, in my video this student cannot produce /sh/ and /r/. Both sounds have different rules, so I decided to contrast them with each other.

  • The rules of /sh/ are: no voice, air is pushed out through teeth, produced at the front.
  • The rules for /r/ are: use your voice, produce the sound in the middle of the mouth by shaping your tongue in a particular way.

So I chose the words ‘shoes’ and ‘ruse’ as their rules are quite different. Contrasting two sounds the student does not know has been shown to lead to greater change in the child’s articulation. And I can certainly vouch for this as my student is making the best progress with this approach.

Phonology Therapy – what is it, why and how?

Phonology is the study of the sound system of a language. It’s distinct from articulation therapy which focuses on the physical production of sounds.

Phonology therapy focuses on rules. For example, sounds that are produced at the front of the mouth, in contrast to sounds that are produced at the back of the mouth, or sounds that are produced with a long air stream: /s/ or /f/ versus short sounds like /p/ or /t/; sounds are produced with voice or without voice.

Many children, and sometimes adults, are unaware of some of the speech rules and confuse and replace individual sounds. They might say TAT instead of CAT or SIP instead of SHIP.

A quick overview of phonology approaches I use:

Minimal Pairs:

This approach is good for single sound substitutions. We offer word pairs that differ by only one sound, like ‘ship’ and ‘sip.’ One of our first goal in therapy is to highlight the difference between the target sound (e.g., /sh/) and the sound the child uses (e.g., /s/). This helps discriminate and eventually produce the correct sound.

Multiple Oppositions:

A child might replace lots of sounds with a single sound like a /d/. So instead of ‘four’, ‘chore’ and ‘store’ our child says ‘door’, making speech very unintelligible.

The approach is typically geared towards shaking up the phonological system. Our goal is to choose two to four targets that are different from each other, and different from the substituted sound. If our child’s favourite sound is /d/ they can use their voice and make a short sound by stopping their airflow. So I will choose a different target sound to change up the speech system. For example I might choose an /f/, a /m/ and a /k/ sound. So I would contrast: ‘door’ with ‘four’, ‘more’ and ‘core’.

Maximal Oppositions:

In the Maximal Oppositions approach the treatment sets consists of words that are minimally contrasted and that have maximal or near maximal feature differences between each word pair. One word in a pair represents a sound the child ‘knows’ (can say at word level) and the other represents a sound the child does not know (cannot say).

For example, a child may ‘know’ /m/ and be able to say words like ‘man’, ‘mat’ and ‘mine’. However, the same child may be unable to say /f/ as in ‘fan’, ‘fat’ and ‘fine’. The consonants /f/ and /m/ are maximally opposed as follows.

I am always delighted to work on speech sound disorders, I love the challenge and the successes we can celebrate together. Get in touch with me!

Sonja McGeachie

Early Intervention Speech and Language Therapist

Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice

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.

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  • The art of selective care: My journey as a semi-retired private therapist

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding

    Welcome!

    Hello, and welcome. I’m writing this today to share a bit about my professional journey, a journey that has evolved over many years from a bustling, full-schedule practice to a more intentional, deeply fulfilling semi-retired life. This shift wasn’t born out of a desire to slow down, but rather an understanding of what truly matters: my time, your time, and the quality of the work we do together.

    For decades, I poured my energy into a full calendar, helping as many families as I possibly could. It was a wonderful, demanding, and rewarding time. I learned so much, grew immensely as a professional, and had the privilege of witnessing countless moments of breakthrough and success. But over recent months, I began to realise that the most impactful work wasn’t about quantity; it was about quality. It was about giving my whole, undivided attention to a select few, creating an environment where true progress could flourish.

    Change

    This realisation led to a significant change in my practice. I am now at a point in my career where my time is both valuable and precious. It is no longer a commodity to be filled, but a resource to be invested wisely. This doesn’t just apply to my personal life, but to my professional life as well. I’ve chosen to be more selective about the clients I see, and this selectivity is rooted in a single, powerful question: ‘Who can I truly, profoundly help?’

    I believe that successful therapy is a partnership. It requires commitment, trust, and a genuine connection between therapist and client. When I take on a new family, I am not just filling a slot in my schedule; I am making a deep commitment to them. I am dedicating a part of my precious time and decades of expertise to their child’s success. This is why I am now focusing on who I can really work with: families who are equally invested in the process, who understand that progress is a team effort, and who are ready to engage fully in the journey.

    My fees reflect this deep investment. You will find that my rates are higher than those of many other therapists, and I want to be transparent about why. It’s a reflection of the extensive experience I bring to the table. I have spent years honing my skills, navigating complex cases, and developing a unique, effective approach to speech, language and feeding challenges. This is not just a job for me. It is my life’s work, and I honour the value of that expertise and the time I dedicate to each family.

    I want to ensure that every minute you spend with me is productive, focused, and truly transformative. Therefore, I provide a ‘boutique style’ of care. Think of it as an exclusive, personalised experience where every detail is considered and your needs are at the forefront. You won’t feel like you’re just another appointment on a long list. You will feel that you have my full, undivided attention, as if you were my only client.

    This means less time spent on administrative tasks and more time dedicated to preparing for your sessions, reflecting on our progress, and providing you with the most thoughtful, tailored support possible. It means an environment of calm and focused expertise, where we can truly dive deep into the specific challenges and build a clear, effective path forward.

    New perspective

    For parents reading this, I hope this provides a new perspective. Choosing a therapist for your child is one of the most important decisions you can make. It’s about finding not just a professional, but a partner. I want you to feel that, if we choose to work together, you are entering into a unique partnership where your child’s growth is my singular focus.

    In this next chapter of my career, I am prioritising passion over pace, depth over breadth, and meaningful connections over a packed schedule. I am here to work with families who are ready for a truly collaborative and transformative experience. If you are seeking a level of care that goes beyond the standard, an approach that is both highly experienced and deeply personal, I would be honoured to speak with you.

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    Health Professions Council registered
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    Member of ASLTIP

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  • · ·

    Stage 2 NLA

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
    Image by Freepik

    Last time we asked: is our child ready tp move to Stage 2 NLA (Natural Language Acquisition stage 2) and we looked at how we can know. Now we know: he/she is ready, they are mixing and matching those scripts quite liberally! Hurrah!

    So for example we hear phrases like:

    • ‘let’s go’+ ‘downstairs’
    • ‘it’s’ + ‘downstairs’
    • ‘I see it’ + ‘downstairs‘
    • ‘I want to’ + ‘shoes downstairs’ (I want to put my shoes on downstairs)

    To recap, it’s important to listen out to a variety of contexts because if we only hear the single version of a gestalt —this is so great, hurrah!— but that’s not yet Stage 2.

    What we can now do on a daily basis to help and support at this time:

    1. We need to offer more ‘mix and match’ phrases to help our child establish this new way of communicating.

    Good phrases:

    • It’s … raining / cooking / eating / washing / brushing
    • That’s … great / cool / amazing / wow / so good
    • Let’s … see / look / go / run / chase
    • How’bout … some food / playing / I’ll chase / sleeping / we read a book
    • I see a … bird / large car / fire engine
    • I wanna … have a biscuit / have a book / have a snuggle
    • We’re … going out / going home / going in the car / going upstairs

    Here in my video clip of train play I use:

    • Let’s go
    • It’s going up the hill
    • It’s coming down
    • Ooops it falls!
    • It’s stopping
    • Let’s put on another parcel
    • Ready steady go
    • Off we go
    • It’s come off!
    • Let’s fix it
    • I can do it
    • I don’t need help

    You can offer these gestalts either with an AAC as you can see me do in the video clip or you can just verbally offer these.

    2. Watch out for Pronoun confusion or reversal:

    Gestalt kids repeat gestalts, so we don’t want to create ‘pronoun reversal’.

    Instead model from a:

    • first person perspective: ‘I’ / ‘Our’ / ‘Us’
    • joint perspective: ‘We’ / ‘Let’s’ or a
    • neutral perspective: ‘It’

    You can turn almost any sentence into a good language model once you get used to it. And you can avoid ‘you’ and ‘your’ at the same time!

    So instead of saying, ‘Do you want to go to the park?’

    You could say:

    • We wanna go to the park?
    • Let’s go out?
    • Shall we go out / to the park?

    3. Start providing ‘variation’ in your language modelling:

    Instead of just modelling something one way, start thinking about offering a pattern in a couple of other ways, in a couple of different situations, then several ways in several different situations.

    Example: once you hear your child saying: ‘it’s raining’ and you know it’s a mitigation, because you don’t often say ‘it’s raining’, or haven’t said it in a while and you know your child says other ‘it’s’ phrases.

    Repeat: ‘it’s raining!’

    Then: ‘it’s’ + ‘raining hard’ / ‘it’s wet out there’ / ‘It’s’ + ‘raining lot’s’.

    Then later think of other combinations for ‘it’s’ + ‘something’:

    • (rice) ‘It’s’ + ‘cooking’
    • (water/tap) ‘It’s’ + ‘running’
    • (radio) ‘It’s’ + ‘singing
    • (dog) ‘It’s’ + ‘peeing’ / ‘it’s’ + ‘running’ / ‘it’s’ + ‘jumping’

    In my train video clip:

    • Let’s go
    • It’s going
    • Let’s make it go
    • Ready steady go
    • Oops its gone

    4. Use natural intonation that shows you really mean what you’re saying.

    You can be animated or try for musical if your child prefers that / doesn’t mind you singing —they might not like it if their hearing is pitch perfect and your singing is off key…—

    • ‘I’m’ + ‘trying to find you!’ (animated, goofy face)
    • ‘I’m’ +’ getting tired!’ (exaggerated stretch and yawn)
    • ‘I’m’ + ‘catching up with you!’ (animated goofy)
    • ‘I’m’ + ‘gonna get you!’ (animated goofy)
    • ‘I’m’ + ‘sad right now’ (exaggerated face and tone of voice)

    5. USE SILENCE!

    Important, I might not have said this before but we need to hold back sometimes (hard I know) and not constantly offer models. Let our child sit in a bit of silence with us there just observing and waiting for their own offers. This is a very important point. Silence is golden sometimes. Try it out. I am not talking about the silence that comes with a person scrolling on their phone though, we do need to be present and receptive.

    You will see this works wonders!

    Do get in touch if you would like some in-person or on-line 1:1 support with this. It can be overwhelming to figure it all out alone.

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  • Explore the relationship between poor speech, language and communication and literacy skills

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding

    Communication skills are critical in all areas of communication throughout childhood and into adulthood. They are needed for understanding, narrating, making predictions and to develop social skills, for example in understanding everyday language or talking in the classroom or socialising with peers. Children with communication needs can experience low self-esteem, potential behavioural difficulties, lower school attendance and attainment.

    Communication skills have a strong impact on literacy. Let’s look at some of the facts:

    • 50% of children with language delays also have challenges with literacy (Burns et al, 1999).
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    Speech Therpaist in London

    The effect of expressive language on spelling and reading

    The ability to read is very much dependent on competent language skills. Furthermore, a limited vocabulary will also have an impact on literacy skills. The more we know about a word, the easier it is to retrieve, recall, understand and use. So, if a young person has a poorer vocabulary, it’s likely that they will not have the same decoding skills as a peer with a richer set of vocabulary. By decoding we mean the ability to apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships including pronunciation of words. Decoding is a vital skill used in literacy.

    Whilst learning to read is a key skill, it’s important to remember that a solid foundation is needed for success. We need to ensure that no steps are missed, otherwise there will be gaps in knowledge.

    As your child moves further through the education system, they will be “reading to learn”. This is where young people with poorer language skills may show literacy difficulties (for example, reading comprehensions become more challenging, and their expressive language skills impact on their written abilities).

    When should I seek advice or support?

    Always seek the advice from a qualified professional such as a Speech and Language Therapist. You need appropriate advice for the age and stage of your child’s development and early intervention is of course key to success. It is never too late to ask for advice. The earlier you seek support, the better the outcome for your child in all areas (language, literacy, and emotional well-being).

    Have you still got unanswered questions? Contact me here and we can have a look at your child’s phonemic awareness, auditory processing skills, verbal understanding and assess his/her ability and likelihood of reading and literacy struggles. If we find that your child has dyslexia I can refer on to a specialist colleague who can help you further.


    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.

  • Speech sound disorders

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
    Kids Speech Therapist London
    Speech Sound Disorders

    Treatment Approaches – A Typical Session

    There are various great ways to treat speech sound disorders and I use all the approaches available selectively; I decide what works with each individual child and I also vary the approach depending on the child’s frame of mind at any given time during my session.

    Some of the approaches are more “drill-based” and require a child to be able to pay attention and really participate actively in the therapy, and this is what I am showing you today with this video clip.

    My little student here has been working with me for some time and from only saying a handful of words which were not very easy to understand he has come a long way. He does have some features of Verbal Dyspraxia which I shall briefly outline here:

    • Making sounds in general is a struggle, especially when asked to copy certain sounds, example: ‘can you say: a ee ou oo?”
    • Repeating sound sequences or words sequences is hard, for example: “say p-t-k in sequence” or “say fish chips fish chips fish chips
    • When saying the same word again and again, different mistakes can be heard
    • Intonation difficulties: speech sounds monotonous
    • Vocabulary is very limited

    Some therapy approaches are more play based, for example the Core Word method: here we pick a few words at a time which are very significant to the child and therefore highly motivating to try and say. These could be characters of Pokemon or Minecraft for example, or simple words like “GO!”

    When you watch the video you will see that I use a lot of visual prompting, such as showing him where the tongue is moving to or from. I do this with my index finger and this approach is called Tactile Cueing or “Cued Articulation”. Part of the approach is to give a visual prompt and then reduce the prompt as the learner is more able to produce the correct sounds. Once he can produce the sound on its own, we quickly move to the sound within a word.

    I do mix and match my approaches and in fact here I am drilling but I also use the Core Word which for him (YELLOW) — it’s his favourite colour and I happen to have quite a few good games where a YELLOW something or other can be asked for….. WHO KNEW!? 🙂

    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.

  • One book, dozens of therapy opportunities: What speech therapy really looks like

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding

    As speech and language therapists, some of the most effective moments in therapy don’t come from flashcards, worksheets, or even drilling sounds (though to be fair I do drill quite a lot too! needs must…😊).

    By and large they happen in natural interaction — during shared attention, laughter, storytelling, and connection.

    This short video clip captures that.

    In under two minutes, while simply reading a book together with a three-year-old child, we naturally work on:

    • Speech sounds
    • Vowel production
    • Early phonological patterns
    • Motor planning
    • Signing and total communication
    • Visual cueing
    • Repetition and practice
    • Confidence building
    • And engagement through play

    To many people, it may just look like ‘reading a book’.

    But underneath that moment are years of specialist training, clinical decision-making, preparation, and therapeutic skill.

    Therapy hidden inside play

    One of the most important parts of paediatric speech therapy is knowing how to embed targets into meaningful interaction.

    Books are one of my favourite therapy tools! Why: because as speech therapists we need to prepare for our child and our sessions. And having a book gives me the structure to know beforehand what kind of sounds or words might be coming up. Then I can be prepared for providing extra support for them. As you can see in this clip, I had the sound cards just there because I had anticipated what might be coming up!

    A single story can provide opportunities for:

    • Speech sound practice
    • Vocabulary development
    • Sentence building
    • Turn-taking
    • Symbolic understanding
    • Attention and listening
    • Gesture and signing
    • Motor speech cueing
    • And social communication

    In this clip, I follow my little one’s interests while carefully weaving in her individual therapy targets.

    It looks relaxed and spontaneous — and it is — but it is also highly intentional.

    Catching opportunities in the moment

    One lovely example in the clip is when she says ‘yes’.

    She is now starting to say the final /S/ sound, so I immediately model and draw attention to it using the ‘snake sound’ visual cue, giving her positive feedback that she can now also try using this sound at the start of words.

    My gently shaping the word ‘yeSSSS.’ gives her:

    • Auditory feedback
    • Visual support
    • And an achievable opportunity to try again

    A few seconds later, we naturally practise it again.

    That’s responsive therapy.

    Speech therapists are constantly listening, analysing, adapting, and deciding:

    • When should I model?
    • When should I pause?
    • When should I repeat?
    • When should I let it go?
    • How can I keep confidence high while still targeting speech?

    These decisions happen in seconds.

    Working on speech without ‘stopping the play’

    Another moment in the clip focuses on the word ‘out’, where the vowel sound is one of her speech targets.

    Then we move into practising the word ‘open’, a word she has previously found difficult.

    Within this one word, we can support:

    • Sequencing
    • Motor planning
    • Lip shape
    • Vowel production
    • And speech sound accuracy

    We also briefly practise the /K/ sound — a sound produced at the back of the mouth which can be particularly tricky to produce.

    Instead of explaining it verbally (which is often too abstract for young children), I use:

    • Visual demonstration
    • Exaggerated mouth movements
    • Gesture/sign support
    • And playful modelling

    Children learn through seeing, hearing, doing, and experiencing.

    That is why Speech Therapists use multiple layers of cueing simultaneously.

    Why I use signs alongside speech

    Throughout the clip, I also use signs such as ‘book’ and ‘pig’.

    Using signs does not stop children talking.

    In fact, for many children, signs:

    • Reduce frustration
    • Support understanding
    • Increase participation
    • Reinforce vocabulary
    • And help bridge the gap while speech is developing

    Communication always comes first.

    Speech is only one part of communication.

    When children feel successful communicating, they are far more likely to keep trying.

    The skill behind ‘natural’ therapy

    One thing I often hear from parents is:

    ‘You make it look so easy.’

    That is actually one of the biggest compliments a therapist can receive. (Though we also often feel we need to justify our very existence with these thoughts because we don’t just play/just read but we know it can look like that!) 😊 this is the reason for this blog…

    High-quality paediatric therapy should feel warm, playful, responsive, and natural.

    But underneath that natural interaction is:

    • Clinical knowledge
    • Phonological analysis
    • Motor speech understanding
    • Language development expertise
    • Sensory awareness
    • Relationship-building
    • And careful session planning

    Before this session even began, I already knew:

    • Which speech patterns to target
    • Which words would likely appear in the book
    • What visual cues might help
    • Which signs to model
    • And how to adapt depending on the child’s responses

    That preparation allows therapy to stay child-led without losing therapeutic focus.

    Following the child while leading the therapy

    The best therapy is rarely rigid.

    Children do not learn communication through pressure or endless correction. They learn through interaction.

    That is exactly what this short clip demonstrates.

    One book.
    One conversation.
    Hundreds of tiny therapeutic decisions.

    And all within a joyful moment shared together.

    Because good speech therapy should never feel like hard work for a child.

    It should feel like connection, confidence, success — and fun.

    If you’re concerned about your child’s speech and language or wondering whether they might benefit from speech therapy, feel free to get in touch.

    Sonja McGeachie

    Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

    Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

    Health Professions Council registered
    Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists Member
    Member of ASLTIP

    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.

    3
  • ·

    Something that keeps surprising me…

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding

    After thirty years of helping children with lisps, you’d think very little would still surprise me. And yet…

    Girl looking at herself in a mirror and looking at her tongue

    Every few weeks, a lovely, and well-informed parent will describe their five, six, or seven year-old’s slushy, sideways /S/ and then ask ‘So, how many sessions do we need to fix this? Perhaps five–six? ‘

    And every time, I have to resist the urge to laugh, cry, and reach for the biscuits all at once. Because the honest answer, for an established lateral lisp in a school-aged child, is usually twenty sessions or more. Wait! Hear me out!…

    ‘Why so many?!’ … once you understand what’s actually going on inside your child’s mouth, the number 20+ does no longer sound outrageous and starts sounding rather reasonable.

    First: not all lisps are equal

    Most people picture a lisp as the gentle, even endearing /TH/ for /S/ — ‘thnake’ instead of ‘snake’. That’s an inter-dental lisp, where the tongue pokes forward between the teeth. It’s common, it’s developmentally normal in younger children, and this is the important bit, it’s usually visible. It’s still a bit tricky to correct at first but I often can show a child what to do, they can watch themselves in a mirror, and quite often we’re away. But it still takes a lot longer than parents think because just fixing the sound does not mean it will be produced correctly in normal, daily speech and conversation.

    Lateral lisp

    A lateral lisp on the other hand is an entirely different animal. Instead of the air flowing in a neat central stream down a groove in the middle of the tongue, it spills out over the sides, around the molars. The result is that wet, slushy, quality. It affects not just /S/ and /Z/, but very often /SH/, /CH/ and /J/ too which is a big chunk of English.

    Here’s the snag: it’s happening where nobody can see it. There’s no mirror in the world that shows you the sides of your tongue as you are speaking, or chewing for that matter. We’re teaching a child to control a movement they can’t see, can’t easily feel, and have never once performed correctly in their life.

    By five, six or even seven years old your child has said the /S/ sound about several hundred times a day, every day, for several years. It’s one of the most frequent sounds in English: it makes our plurals, our possessives, our verb endings. Every ‘cats’, ‘let’s’, ‘she runs’.

    So we are now talking about a deeply ingrained motor habit, rehearsed tens of thousands of times, that now feels completely normal and correct to the child producing it. We’re not teaching a new skill onto a blank page; we’re overwriting a very strong habit. Think of a tennis player with a flawed serve who’s played for five years… You don’t fix that in a fortnight, and nobody expects you to.

    The good news is: school children, seven-year-old and up, are brilliant at this work. They can self-monitor, they can practise independently, they can hear the difference. It just takes time.

    The quiet culprit: where the tongue lives at rest…

    Here’s the piece that most parents have never heard, and it explains a lot.

    When the mouth is at rest, the tongue should sit up — tip resting lightly behind the top front teeth, body gently suctioned to the roof of the mouth, lips together, breathing through the nose.

    Many children with a lateral lisp have a low, forward resting tongue posture. The tongue sits on the floor of the mouth, often with the lips slightly apart. This is frequently associated with a history of mouth breathing, blocked noses and allergies, enlarged tonsils or adenoids, prolonged dummy or thumb-sucking, and sometimes dental or orthodontic differences such as an open bite.

    Why does this matter so much? Because a good /S/ requires the tongue’s sides to brace firmly against the upper back teeth to form that central channel. A tongue that spends 23 hours a day flopped on the floor of the mouth simply doesn’t have the habitual strength, position or awareness to do that on demand. We can teach a beautiful /S/ in the clinic — but if the tongue’s default setting is ‘down’, we’re swimming upstream all week.

    So, for many children, part of the work is establishing a better resting posture alongside the sound itself. That’s foundational and it’s slow.

    So what does twenty-plus sessions actually achieve?

    Therapy for a lateral lisp moves through a strict hierarchy, and you cannot skip a rung:

    • Auditory discrimination: Can they hear the difference? (Often, initially, no.)
    • Eliciting the sound: Sometimes a single session, can be six.
    • Stabilisation: Building consistency in isolation, then syllables, then single words (beginning, middle, end).
    • Blends: Mastering challenging combinations like ‘spoon’, ‘street’, and ‘smile’.
    • Sentences: Moving to phrases, full sentences, and structured conversation.
    • Generalisation: Using it naturally with family, at school, when tired, or when telling a long story.
    • Self-monitoring: Training them to catch and correct themselves without therapist intervention.

    Rushing a level guarantees a collapse two levels later. I’ve never once regretted going slowly; I’ve frequently regretted going fast.

    The bit that decides everything: home practice

    Let me be blunt in a nice way 😊 The child who practises five to ten minutes a day, six days a week, will finish in half the time of the child who practises the night before their session.

    An hour with me per week is roughly 1% of your child’s waking life. The other 99% is where habits are made or unmade. What I need at home is:

    • Short and daily beats long and occasional: Five focused minutes, ideally at a consistent time.
    • Practise only at the set level: If we’re on words, don’t leap to sentences. That’s how we go backwards.
    • Give specific feedback: Say ‘that one was lovely and sharps or ‘that one slipped sideways, try again’.
    • Hold back on everyday corrections: Don’t correct them in normal conversation until we’re ready.
    • Record them occasionally: Children love hearing their own tangible progress.

    The bottom line

    I’m good at this. I’ve been doing it for thirty years and I love it. But I’m a therapist, not a magician, and the parents who get the best outcomes are the ones who view this as a partnership. When we work together—combining expert clinic guidance with steady, gentle practice at home, that ‘twenty-plus’ number isn’t a sentence. It’s simply the guideline to giving your child a clear, confident voice for the rest of their life.

    Do get in touch with me. I would love to hear from you and help you and your child.

    Sonja McGeachie

    Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

    Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

    Health Professions Council registered
    Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists Member
    Member of ASLTIP

    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.

    3