If your child is using echolalia and/or has a diagnosis of autism, then your child’s way of processing language is most likely different to the classic way children typically learn language. We call this process Natural Language Acquisition or Gestalt Language Processing.
Step by Step guide to Gestalt Learning
Let’s explore the following stages of Gestalt Processing:
Stage 1: communicative use of whole language gestalts
(e.g., “let’s get out of here”)
Children and young people in this stage use echolalia. They need to hear more gestalts or scripts. So, your job is to model, model, model and to use functional language that your child can repeat back.
Stage 2: mitigated into chunks and re-combining these chunks
(e.g., “let’s get” + “some more”) and (e.g., “let’s get” + “out of here”)
This is when you take parts of gestalts or phrases and then combine it with other parts.
Stage 3: further mitigation (single words recombining words, formulating two-word phrases)
(e.g., “get…more”)
They are going beyond their gestalts. Furthermore, they may begin to label different objects.
Stage 4: formulating first sentences
(e.g., “let’s get more toys”)
You may see more grammatical errors during this phase as they are creating unique sentences. Please don’t worry about this, it means they are playing and experimenting with language. As communication partners, you could model the correct form of the sentence.
Stages 5 & 6: formulating more complex sentences
(e.g., “how long do you want to play inside for?”)
You can see that language learning is a process, that is trialled and tested, used in different contexts for children to be able to learn and use language appropriately.
My next blog will give you activities ideas and how you might use them specifically with a Gestalt Language Processor.
Remember early intervention is vital. So, if you have any concerns, please seek the advice of a Speech and Language Therapist.
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.
Spinning and swinging are often observed behaviours in autistic children. While these actions might seem repetitive or unusual to some, they serve crucial functions for these children. Understanding the underlying reasons for spinning and swinging can provide valuable insights into how to support autistic children and incorporate these activities into therapeutic settings.
Why do children spin?
Spinning is a common sensory-seeking activity in autistic children. Sensory seeking means that the child actively looks for sensory input to regulate their nervous system. Here’s why spinning can be beneficial:
Vestibular input: Spinning stimulates the vestibular system, which is located in the inner ear and is responsible for balance and spatial orientation. For children with sensory processing difficulties, spinning can provide essential sensory input.
Calming effect: For some children, spinning can be a self-regulating strategy. The rhythmic motion can help to calm the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
Sensory exploration: Spinning allows children to explore their sensory experiences. It can help them understand their bodies and how they move in space.
The allure of swinging
The rhythmic back-and-forth motion of a swing offers several benefits:
Vestibular input: Like spinning, swinging stimulates the vestibular system, helping to improve balance and coordination.
Proprioceptive input: Swinging provides proprioceptive input, which is the sense of where your body is in space. This information is crucial for motor planning and coordination.
Calming and organising: The rhythmic motion of swinging can have a calming effect on the nervous system, helping to regulate emotions and improve focus.
Social interaction: Swinging can be a shared experience, fostering social interaction and communication.
Facilitating communication: While swinging, children are so much more relaxed and open to communication. The rhythmic motion can also help facilitate singing, humming, listening to my singing, non-verbal communication for sure but also more verbal and mouth words can be heard from children on my swing. If nothing else, it is so fun and helps build trust and rapport between my child and me.
Therapeutic Activities Combining Spinning, Swinging, and Speech and Language Therapy
Here are some therapeutic techniques that I use at London Speech and Feeding to combine movement with speech and language development:
Swinging with verbal prompts: While the child is swinging, I provide simple verbal prompts such as ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘fast’, and ‘slow.’ This helps to develop receptive language skills and improve auditory processing.
Sensory-motor play: I like to combine swinging with tactile activities like playing with textured balls or bean bags. This can facilitate language development through descriptive language, words and scripts like: ‘that’s so soft’, ‘oooh tickle tickle tickle!’
Storytelling on the swing: Often I manage to create a story while the child is swinging. This can improve narrative skills, vocabulary, and imagination. Recently I did the ‘Tiger who came to tea’ story and each time the swing stopped the tiger came and ‘ate some more cakes’ and ‘tickled their tummy’ whilst eating. It may make not much sense but my child loved it and we had ‘more tiger eat more’.
Song and rhyme time: Often I sing the ‘rumble in the jungle’ song while swinging my child to enhance phonological awareness, rhythm, and timing.
Visual supports always help: I use LAMP Words for Life AAC support during swinging and show core words such as: ‘go’ / ‘stop’/ ‘more’ / ‘tickle tickle’ etc. #lampwordsforlife #aac
Movement-based activities: We can incorporate activities that require sequencing, such as imitating animal movements or following simple commands while swinging. This can improve motor planning and language comprehension.
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.
If your child says ‘dar’ instead of ‘star’, you might be wondering if they will simply outgrow it or if they require specialised support. While ‘cluster reduction’—dropping one of the sounds in a blend—is a normal part of learning to talk, we typically expect these sounds to lock into place by age four years. If these errors persist as a child approaches school age, it often signals a speech sound delay that may now no longer pass without help. As a Speech and Language Therapist, I specialise in helping children bridge this gap using evidence-based techniques like backward chaining.
This isn’t about constant correction; it’s about providing the right clinical scaffolding to move a child from ‘frustrated’ to ‘fluent’ before they hit those critical early school years.
Dropping sounds from words is a common feature of speech sound difficulties, and while it can look small on the surface, it can have a big impact on how clearly a child is understood. In this short video clip, I’m working with a child on an /ST/ sound cluster, demonstrating how I use an evidence-based speech therapy technique called backward chaining to help children build clearer speech with confidence.
What’s actually happening when a child drops the ‘S’?
Clusters like /ST/, /SP/, and /SK/ are tricky. They require:
precise timing
careful airflow
and the ability to blend sounds smoothly
For many children, especially those with speech sound difficulties, this is a big ask.
So instead of hearing:
‘star’
we might hear:
‘tar’ or ‘dar’
This isn’t laziness or refusal. It’s the child simplifying the word to make it manageable.
Why I don’t start by saying ‘say star’
Telling a child to ‘just add the S’ rarely works.
Instead, I meet them where they are already successful.
In this clip, the child can already say ‘dar’ clearly. That’s our starting point.
Backward chaining: building speech from success
Backward chaining means we:
Start with the part of the word the child can already say
Gradually add the missing sound
Keep the child feeling successful at every step
So rather than jumping straight to ‘star’, we:
secure the ending
gently introduce the /S/
and blend it in a way that feels achievable
This approach reduces frustration, builds confidence, and helps the sound stick not just in the therapy room, but out in the real world.
Why this matters beyond one word
This isn’t just about saying ‘star’.
It’s about:
teaching the mouth a new movement pattern
giving the brain time to organise the sound sequence
and helping the child feel capable, not corrected
When therapy feels safe and successful, children are far more likely to generalise their new sounds into everyday speech.
Speech therapy works best when children feel supported not tested.
If your child struggles with speech clarity
If your child:
drops sounds from words
avoids longer or trickier words
or becomes frustrated when they’re not understood
This is the kind of work I do every day building speech step by step, in a way that respects each child’s pace and strengths.
Support can be gentle, effective, and empowering.
If you’d like to learn more about how speech therapy can support your child, you’re always welcome to get in touch.
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.
I am a neurodiversity affirming therapist and I love and endorse play-based therapy. I use it alongside a strengths-focused approach in all my sessions. Find out why we should use these transformative therapy methodologies in all our work and play with our children.
I always have a range of different toys and activities up my sleeve so that when one toy is no longer interesting, that’s fine. ‘Look here’s a new one, how about we try this one?’ When therapy feels like play, children are more likely to be engaged and attentive, which leads to better outcomes.
By using play as a context for Speech and Language Therapy we can create opportunities for children to use and practise their communication skills in a natural, real-life setting. This helps bridge the gap between the therapy room and everyday life.
Goals and targets
What about goals and targets I hear you say? Of course, as Speech and Language Therapists we always have our goals for any particular child. They can be speech goals (we want Bobbi to produce a ‘k’ sound at the end of words) or communication goals (we want Fatima to ask for something by pointing to it rather than grabbing it). And these goals can be achieved where there is a reciprocation and a positive, playful relationship between the adult and the child. That relationship comes through play and fun.
Play and fun
Play is how a child interacts and learns. If it’s fun, interesting, exciting or pleasurable then that is where the magic happens. And that is what we need to return to repeatedly and then see if we can fold our targets into the activity as we go.
As soon as we expect our child to do something and we try and shape their behaviours towards a certain outcome we no longer ‘play’. We are now in teaching mode, where we direct and where we are ‘in charge’. As a neurodiversity affirming therapist, I believe that all play is valid. We must not get into the trap of thinking that only functional play is valid, that there is only one way to play with that car ramp/puzzle/potato head. Our autistic children often need to play in a particular way to navigate their world and we must not try and stop that.
When we affirm and validate our child’s play and copy their play with enthusiasm and respect then, in my experience, all children regardless where they are on the neurodiversity spectrum will begin to engage with us, copy us, and learn how to communicate effectively about things that matter to them.
Play-based therapy allows therapists to tailor interventions to each child’s unique interests and abilities. This individualised approach increases the likelihood of success and progress.
Strengths-Focused Speech Therapy
Strengths-focused therapy emphasizes a child’s strengths and abilities rather than their deficits. It recognises that every person has unique strengths that can be harnessed to overcome challenges.
Focusing on strengths helps us build a positive self-image. This is especially important for children with communication disorders, as it can boost their confidence and self-esteem.
When we encourage children to play in ways that they enjoy and are good at they feel empowered and more in control of their lives and play. This can lead to increased motivation and a sense of ownership over their progress.
Now, imagine the powerful impact that can be achieved by combining play-based therapy and strengths-focused therapy in speech therapy sessions. This dynamic combination brings out the best of both worlds. It creates a therapeutic environment that is not only effective but also enjoyable for children and their families.
As Speech Therapists we can use the child’s strengths and interests as a foundation for play-based activities. This personalisation not only makes therapy more engaging but also more effective.
An example
Charlie, a 3-year-old with social communication challenges, had a deep interest in anything that spins. We used this strength and interest to create a variety of spinning activities. As he is allowed to engage in his spinners, we can practise lots of speech and language and provide great phrases alongside his interest and activities: Ready steady go! Stop! ‘another one’ ‘the red one’ ‘again again’ ‘I love it’ ‘it’s a spinner’ ‘Charlie loves this toy’ ‘it’s going fast’ ‘it’s so fun’ etc..
Over time Charlie started to copy some of these word models and then used them to create his own little phrases, such as ‘the blue one again’. When this occurred, we felt like celebrating because it had come naturally and appropriately to the situation without any coercion or direction. That is what communication is about! Well done Charlie!
Conclusion
Play-based and strengths-focused speech therapy approaches are powerful tools and by combining these approaches, we create a therapeutic environment that is not only effective but also enjoyable and empowering for our clients.
Contact me if you would like your child to have neurodiversity affirming speech and language therapy.
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.
As a Speech and Language Therapist specialising in infant feeding, I often hear from worried mums describing their breastfed baby’s fussiness. ‘My baby is so burpy and gassy,’ ‘might it be reflux?’ or ‘she just seems uncomfortable after every feed’. While these concerns are incredibly valid and distressing for both baby and mum (and dads!), the underlying cause isn’t always what you might think. Often, the culprit isn’t primarily a digestive issue, but rather a mechanical one: how effectively your baby is managing air during feeding.
Many parents are told their baby has ‘colic’ or ‘reflux’ and are offered solutions that don’t quite hit the mark because they overlook a fundamental aspect of feeding: the suck-swallow-breathe sequence. Understanding this intricate dance can be the key to unlocking a calmer, happier feeding experience for your baby and you.
Understanding the suck-swallow-breathe sequence
Your baby’s mouth, tongue, jaw, and throat muscles work together in a precise rhythm like a beautifully orchestrated symphony. First your baby draws milk, then swallows it, and then takes a breath, all without interruption. This is the ideal suck-swallow-breathe (SSB) sequence.
When the SSB sequence functions optimally, a baby latches deeply, creates good suction, draws milk, swallows efficiently, and then pauses just long enough to take a gentle breath before the next suck. This smooth, coordinated process minimises the amount of air swallowed.
However, for various reasons (it could be a shallow latch, oral motor challenges, an uncoordinated suck, or even an overly fast milk flow) this sequence can get a bit out of sync. Instead of a smooth rhythm, you might see:
Suck-suck-swallow-gasp!: Too much air pulled in with the swallow.
Rapid, shallow sucking followed by gulping: Inefficient milk transfer and air intake.
Clicking noises during feeding: Loss of suction, indicating air entry.
Frequent detaching and re-latching: Often to ‘catch a breath’ or because of discomfort.
Each of these patterns can lead to increased air intake.
The root cause: Air trapping leading to a gassy breastfed baby
When a baby swallows too much air during a feed, that air must go somewhere. It builds up in the stomach, causing bloating, discomfort, and often leads to the familiar reflux-like symptoms parents describe: arching, spitting up, burping excessively, or simply appearing distressed.
It’s a common misconception that all gassiness or reflux symptoms in a breastfed baby are due to something in the mother’s diet or a genuine digestive disorder. While these can be factors, as an SLT, we first look at the mechanics of the feed. If a baby is constantly struggling to maintain a seal, sucking inefficiently, or having to gulp to keep up with flow, he or she is inevitably swallowing air. This air then creates pressure, which can push milk back up (silent reflux) or out (visible reflux).
Think of it like trying to drink through a straw with a hole in it. You’re sucking, but you’re also pulling in air, making it harder to get the liquid and leaving you with more bubbles in your stomach.
Why mechanical speech therapy assessment is key
This is where the distinction between a medical diagnosis (true gastro oesophageal reflux disease or GORD) and a functional feeding challenge becomes critical. A paediatrician will assess for medical causes and may prescribe medication to reduce stomach acid. This can be appropriate for severe cases of GORD.
However, if the primary issue is air being trapped due to a suboptimal suck-swallow pattern, medication only treats the symptom (acid burning) and not the root cause (air intake). This is precisely where a Speech and Language Therapist specialising in infant feeding comes in.
My role is to meticulously observe and assess your baby’s oral motor skills, latch, tongue function, and the efficiency of their SSB sequence. I look for subtle signs of inefficiency that contribute to excessive air swallowing.
Is the tongue elevating correctly to create suction?
Is the jaw stable, or is it excessively moving?
Is the latch deep enough to prevent air leaks?
Can the baby coordinate suck, swallow, and breathe without gasping?
By identifying these mechanical challenges, I can then implement targeted strategies to improve feeding efficiency and reduce air intake, often leading to a significant reduction in reflux-like symptoms and overall discomfort.
Strategies to optimise air management during breastfeeding
The good news is that many babies can learn to feed more efficiently with the right support. Here are some general strategies we might explore:
Optimise latch and position: A deep, asymmetric latch is crucial. Experiment with different positions that allow for a deeper latch and better head/neck alignment, such as laid-back feeding or upright positions.
Paced feeding (even at the breast): If your milk flow is very fast, consider removing your baby from the breast briefly if you hear excessive gulping or see him or her struggling to breathe. This allows him or her to catch up and manage the flow.
Support the jaw and cheeks: Sometimes, gentle support to the baby’s jaw or cheeks can help them maintain a more stable, efficient suck. I can demonstrate specific techniques for this.
Burping effectively: While burping won’t get rid of all swallowed air, upright burping positions and gentle back rubs can help release some of it.
Pre-feed oral preparation: Gentle oral massage or stretches before a feed can sometimes ‘wake up’ the oral muscles and improve coordination.
Addressing the ‘Great Air Debate’ isn’t about blaming anyone; it’s about empowering parents with a deeper understanding of their baby’s feeding mechanics. By focusing on the how, not just the what, we can often resolve persistent feeding challenges, reduce discomfort, and make breastfeeding a more joyful, peaceful experience for both you and your little one.
If you suspect your baby’s gassiness or reflux symptoms are related to how they are managing air during feeds, don’t hesitate to reach out for a specialist assessment.
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.
Learning to produce new speech sounds can be a complex process for young children, especially those facing challenges with speech sound disorders or motor planning difficulties. It’s not just about knowing what a sound ‘should’ sound like; it’s about figuring out where to put your tongue, how to shape your lips, and how much air to push out. This is where the power of visual gestures comes in – literally helping children see how to make sounds.
As speech and language therapists, we frequently use visual cues and hand gestures to teach articulation. These techniques are incredibly effective, particularly when a child is struggling with the motor planning aspect of speech production.
In the video clip above you see me teaching
the /SH/ sound: the hand makes a C-shape and moves forward showing both how the lips are positioned and the air flowing forward
the /S/ sound: the index finger shows a snake like movement going forward- also showing the air flow again
the /W/ sound: my right hand moves forward and fingers splay out showing that the lips open up at the end of the sound
the /K/ sound: my finger points to the back of my throat where the tongue needs to raise.
An overview of motor planning for speech – what do we mean by that?
Think about learning to ride a bike or play a musical instrument. You don’t just know how to do it instantly. You have to plan the movements, practise them, and make adjustments. Speaking is similar! Our brains must:
Plan the sequence of movements needed for each sound and word (e.g., /B/ requires lips together, then release, while /T/ requires the tongue tip behind the top teeth, then release).
Execute those plans rapidly and precisely.
For some children, especially those with conditions like Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) or other severe articulation disorders, this motor planning process is disrupted. They know what they want to say, but their brain struggles to send the correct, consistent messages to their articulators (lips, tongue, jaw, velum). This can make speech sound learning incredibly frustrating.
Why use visual gestures?
Visual gestures provide an additional, powerful sensory input that can help bridge the gap between knowing a sound and producing it. Here’s how and why they are so beneficial:
1. Providing a visual map:
How it helps: Many speech sounds are ‘hidden’ inside the mouth. It’s hard for a child to see where their tongue needs to go for a /K/ sound (back of the tongue to the roof of the mouth) or a /T/ sound (tongue tip behind teeth). A simple hand gesture can visually represent this mouth movement. For example, a hand gesture for /K/ might involve sweeping the hand back towards the throat, while for /T/, it might be a tap on the chin.
Why it works: Children are highly visual learners. Seeing a physical representation of an abstract mouth movement gives them a concrete ‘map’ to follow, making the process less mysterious and more manageable.
2. Enhancing motor planning and memory:
How it helps: When a child simultaneously moves their hand (the visual gesture) and attempts to make the sound, they are engaging multiple sensory systems (visual, tactile, proprioceptive – body awareness). This multi-sensory input strengthens the neural pathways associated with that speech sound.
Why it works: This multi-modal learning helps to solidify the motor plan for the sound in the brain. It’s like having more ‘hooks’ to hang the information on, making the sound easier to recall and produce consistently. The gesture becomes a built-in reminder.
3. Reducing cognitive load:
How it helps: Instead of just hearing the sound and trying to figure out the complex motor sequence, the child has a visual cue to guide them. This reduces the mental effort required to decode the sound production.
Why it works: When cognitive load is lower, the child can focus more effectively on the specific motor execution of the sound, leading to faster progress and less frustration.
4. Increasing engagement and success:
How it helps: Gestures can make therapy more interactive and fun! When a child successfully produces a sound with the help of a gesture, it’s a tangible victory.
Why it works: Success is a powerful motivator. When children experience success, they are more likely to stay engaged, participate actively, and feel more confident in their ability to learn new sounds.
5. Supporting self-correction:
How it helps: Once a child learns the gesture associated with a sound, he or she can use it as a self-monitoring tool. If he or she makes an error, he or she can use the gesture to remind himself or herself of the correct mouth position or movement.
Why it works: This promotes independent learning and reduces reliance on constant adult prompting.
Conclusion
The journey of speech development can be challenging, but visual gestures offer a powerful and effective tool for teaching new sounds, especially when motor planning is a factor. By providing a clear visual map, strengthening motor memory, reducing cognitive load, and fostering engagement, these gestures pave the way for clearer communication and greater confidence. If your child is struggling with speech sounds, consider talking to a Speech and Language Therapist to get guidance on how visual gestures might be incorporated into the therapy plan. Because sometimes, seeing truly is believing (and speaking!).
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.
During the pandemic I wrote a blog on what my working day looked like. Now a good year has passed since coming back to some sort of normality and I thought I would update this ‘day in the life of an SLT’ as my working life has changed of course to reflect the ‘new normal’.
I have become truly busy, perhaps busier than I have ever been to be honest. It’s probably mostly due to the fact that I do most of the aspects of my work myself — though I want to mention two invaluable people here without whom I could not function as well as I do: the excellent Nathalie Mahieu (nathalie@nmediting.nemediting.co.uk) helps me with my SEO, Insta posts and blog uploading and the wonderful Sue Bainbridge (sueybee@btinternet.btinternet.com) makes sure that my accounts don’t get into trouble with His Majesty’s tax office.
Attached to our role as Speech and Language Therapists is an arguably enormous amount of administration/paperwork and preparation required for each and every client. This needs to be factored in when deciding how many families I can realistically see each working day. For me it works out as typically 3–5 clients a day, Monday to Friday.
So how does my day typically look? Each day varies a lot depending on what type of client I have, but on average it looks a bit like this:
First thing in the morning — after having a coffee and a quick check-in with my besties on WhatsApp — I do my Buddhist chanting for about an hour. My Buddhist prayers are the base of all I do and get me connected to my higher purpose and how to create value with each activity and each person I see that day. It sets me up for the day, I keep in mind who is going to come and see me and how I can best help them.
Next up, I do the daily ‘spring-clean’ of my therapy room (on all fours! no joke ???? those kids see every speck!), vacuum the floors, wipe down the toys with flash-wipes and tidy up all my boxes, making sure that the battery toys are working, and everything else is in place. On to the guest toilet, the hallway needs to be rid of all the men’s shoes and trainers and coats… It’s endless what needs tidying when you are living with three men… This takes about 45 minutes.
An articulation activity – packaging practice into a little game
Then I prep for all my clients that day. I have now got so much quicker about selecting therapy materials. For one thing I have purchased so many toys and materials over the past five years that I can literally now open a shop and need to consider building an extension! ???? The upside is that it is now very easy for me to select a good handful of toys or games for any one child, even at a minute’s notice. Though, on average, I spend about 30 minutes per child preparing activities.
Hurrah, it’s 11 am and my first client of the day arrives and the fun begins.
When they leave around an hour later, the cleaning and wiping down starts again, this time less extensively. I write up my notes and send homework whilst enjoying a cuppa.
The next client comes at 12.30 pm and once they have left, floor cleaned, toys wiped, notes written it is time for a quick lunch. No more than half an hour usually.
Afternoon clients tend to be one more little one (nursery age) at 2.15 pm and thereafter I see mostly older school children for a variety of reasons (mainly speech production but also some language-based activities). I tend to say farewell to my last client of the day around 6 pm. I spend another hour, sometimes more, on writing up notes, answering new enquiries, blogging and phone calls to keep my service fresh, inspirational and exciting.
And then dinner and the rest of the day rushes by. I tend to finish my day with some more Buddhist chanting, not a lot, perhaps 10–20 minutes to reflect on what has gone well and what could have been better — re-determine to improve or make better as needed.
Tele therapy activity using online materials plus a coreboard
In terms of where I provide a service, I still do a good mix of online clients (tele-therapy) and in-person clients in my clinic, which I love. Occasionally, I visit children in their nursery or at home but this service is now only available for long-standing clients.
Each client is hand-picked to make sure that we are a good fit: no one client gets the same treatment as another; each client is unique, we get to know one another well over the time we work together and they are always highly valued. That takes time and, in reality, each client gets about two hours of my time. That is the actual session plus all the preparation and aftercare, i.e., bespoke hand holding, tweaks, problem solving and reassurance in between sessions.
I absolutely love this way of working and would not ever want to do anything else. Nearly three decades of working both in the NHS and in private practice, countless courses (continual professional development) have enabled me to flourish as a therapist and I know that I offer something special and very valuable to my clients.
My unique way of working affords all my lovely clients the help they need to support their children to make progress; and it gives me the right balance of job satisfaction and work life balance for now. My lovely reviews and testimonials tell me that my clients appreciate my service and this at the end of the day is the most important.
If you are interested in exploring Buddhism/buddhist chanting then check out this link (https://sgi-uk.org/), and feel free to contact me about that specifically, regardless of whether you want speech therapy. I am always happy to chat about Buddhism, it has been so enriching for the last 43 years of my life.
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.
