I am passionate about connecting with people and helping them connect with one another. As such, the profession of speech pathology allows me to work alongside families to problem solve and help develop speech, language, literacy, fluency and social skills. My interest in this profession was sparked early on in my life, through my time volunteering at a local Aspect Autism Specialist School, leading me to find a path to make a genuine difference in the lives of other people, by empowering them towards a successful future. Since then, my love for speech pathology has grown.
Working with children who have minimal verbal communication is an area I have great interest in. I have been trained in the ‘Intensive Interaction’ method of teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults with severe learning difficulties and/or autism and who are still at an early stage of communication development. I am also a Hanen Certified speech pathologist, qualified to run the parent training program for early language development for children with language delays and other diagnoses. I am passionate about this area of speech pathology and have found the impact that these interventions have had on my clients to be incredibly rewarding.
At Talkshop, we provide advanced literacy intervention. All of our therapists have additional specialist literacy training to clearly diagnose and support reading and writing skills. This is an area which continues to fascinate me as I can see the results of clear diagnosis and targeted intervention. I like to work closely with teachers and thrive on helping our primary and high-school clients become more confident and enjoy success in their learning.
I pride myself on making my therapy sessions fun, engaging and filled with success for the child or adult. I understand the importance of home practice and I like to involve the families in our therapy sessions, giving them the confidence and skills needed to continue targeting our goals at home between sessions.