Areas of support

Some children are difficult to understand, leave sounds out of words, or swap one sound for another long after their friends have moved on. Others become frustrated and cross because people can't follow what they're saying.

I assess which sounds your child can and can't produce, work out the pattern behind the errors, and using the most up-to-date developmental guidelines, build a therapy plan that targets the sounds and patterns that will make the biggest difference to how well they're understood. Our goals are always based on their age and stage of development.

This includes Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), a motor speech disorder where the difficulty lies in planning, sequencing, and executing the movements for speech. Children with severe speech sound disorders and CAS usually make their best progress with weekly, or sometimes twice-weekly, therapy.

Language has two sides: understanding what is said, and being able to communicate your message. A child may struggle with one or both.

On the understanding side, that can look like difficulty following instructions, missing the point of a story, or needing everything repeated. On the talking / communicating side, it might be a late talker with few words, short or muddled sentences, or a child who knows what they want to say but can't find the words.

Language development is critical for learning.

Therapy builds vocabulary, sentence structure and comprehension through play and everyday routines, with strategies you can carry on using at home.

Some children hear perfectly well but need longer to process and act on what they've heard. Others can follow one instruction but not three, or lose the thread partway through a task.

These difficulties often show up at school as inattention or forgetfulness when the real issue is processing speed, working memory or verbal reasoning.

I assess what is really happening, then work on strategies that build the underlying skills — and share practical adjustments with parents and teachers so your child isn't set up to fail in the classroom.

Stuttering can appear suddenly, often between two and five years old, and it is genuinely distressing for families. It is not caused by anything you have done, and "wait and see" is not always the right advice.

Stuttering in preschool children is common, with about 5% of all children experiencing a period of stuttering.

If you are worried about your child's stuttering, why not give me a call to discuss your concerns? Many children outgrow this stage, depending on how their stutter presents.

I am a trained Lidcombe Programme therapist. Lidcombe is a parent-delivered, evidence-based approach for young children, where I coach you to deliver the therapy in everyday conversation at home — which is exactly why it works so well.

For older children and teenagers, therapy focuses on fluency strategies, confidence and managing the situations they find hardest.

A child's voice that is chronically hoarse, croaky, breathy or strained is worth investigating — it is often the result of vocal strain or habits that can be changed.

A referral to your child's doctor or Ear Nose and Throat Specialist is recommended before vocal therapy begins.

Assessment looks at how your child is using their voice across the day, and therapy focuses on healthier vocal habits and reducing the strain.

Communication is about far more than words — it's about connection, play, taking turns, reading other people and being part of what's going on.

Social Communication is about how we use language to take turns in conversations, read facial expressions, understand body language and understand sarcasm etc.

I have vast experience working with autistic children and their families, and I'm qualified to administer the ADOS autism assessment as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

I'm also trained to deliver and use More Than Words and TalkAbility (from the Hanen Centre) which are designed specifically for this work. These programs empower whanau to become the primary facilitators of their autistic child's social communication and language development through everyday routines.

I use strength-based approaches to help children develop meaningful communication, which may be verbal, or with signing or with Augmentative Communication.

Every child is capable, competent and full of potential to communicate — and speech is only one way of doing it. Signing, symbols, communication books and speech-generating devices are all valid, powerful ways to get a message across.

I support children who use, or would benefit from, augmentative and alternative communication, and I coach the adults around them so that the system is genuinely used across the day rather than left in a bag.

Using AAC does not stop a child from talking.

Mealtimes can become one of the most stressful parts of family life. Some children eat only a handful of foods, gag or refuse whole textures, or find eating genuinely difficult rather than simply being fussy.

I am a certified SOS Approach to Feeding therapist. SOS is a gradual, play-based, no-pressure programme that builds a child's comfort with new foods step by step, rather than trying to force the issue.

Therapy always includes practical support for parents, because what happens at every meal at home matters far more than what happens in a session.

Children with speech and language delays are at higher risk of developing difficulties with reading and spelling, because both are built on the same underlying language skills.

I offer structured literacy support that targets phonemic awareness, decoding (for reading), encoding (for spelling) and comprehension and reading fluency. I use a structured and systematic approach which ties in with your child's school literacy program.

I follow the Science of Reading and am trained in Orton-Gillingham, Jolly Phonics and the UFLI programme.

I support children with dyslexia — a language-based learning difficulty that affects how children process speech sounds — using structured, evidence-based intervention.