A question I get asked a lot by parents is "Does my child need to see a Speech Language Therapist?

The answer to this depends on a lot of factors. In this article, I list the most common signs your child may need an assessment by a qualified Speech Language Therapist.

Seeing a Speech-Language Therapist is a great idea, but it can be costly, inconvenient, or just plain old difficult to get anyone to see you right away. Trust me, I'm an experienced Speech Language Therapist myself!

To get around these issues, and so you can feel confident in making a start at home, I’ve put together three things that you can do with your child RIGHT NOW to help them fix their speech sound errors.

These are the very same strategies I teach to the families I work with.

A question I get asked a lot by concerned parents, is how they can help improve their child’s speech. 

I’ve already written about the first things I recommend to do in my first visit, so let’s get into the nitty gritty of how to help your child make those tricksy speech sounds they’re struggling with.

It can be awful if you don't understand what a child has said, can't it, so I've put together six things you can do to try and figure it out.

I've also put together nine strategies you can teach your child to use, if others don't understand them.

Is reading something you do with your child?

Read this article for ways you can work on speech, at the same time as you read together.

With the cost of living rising, and increasing weather-related events and pandemics affecting income and outgoing costs, paying for private Speech Language Therapy can be a luxury for many.

I want everyone who needs it, to have access to Speech Language Therapy, so I've put together six ways you can access support for your child for free, or very low cost.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that some children make way faster progress with fixing their speech sound errors than others. 

The reasons for this come down to a few things, and it might not be what you expect. 

We all know that to learn a new skill or change a habit, we need to practice consistently. This includes speech sound errors.

Learn my top three tips for getting your child practicing consistently and effectively to get the results you desire.

If we want to see results in whatever it is we're focusing on, whether it be speech sound errors, school subjects, or other things in our life, we do need some discipline, routines and consistent practice.

So, how do we start this, or if we were in a good routine, but it has fallen away, how can we get back to it?

Here are my top four tips for getting back into routine and practice after a break.

I've recently had several parents mention to me that their child is receiving speech support at school, but they haven't been given anything to do to support this at home.

Here's eight recommendations that I give to the parents of children I work with, to support speech progress at home.

A child's vocabulary is one of the strongest predictors of their future academic success, so learning how to teach your child new words in a way that works, is worth doing.

In this article, I teach you nine evidence-based ways to teach your child new words and make them stick.

Language Learning Walks are a great way to help your child learn new words and concepts while you are on your way somewhere. It doesn't cost any money and it shouldn't take much extra time.

You can take a language learning walk anywhere and anytime you are with your child. It doesn't need to be anywhere fancy: it can be on the way to or from the supermarket, childcare or school, or any other routine activities. You can even use the concepts in your own backyard or local park. 

There are lots of links between the skills that are taught at home, school and in speech language therapy that have an effect on learning to read and write.  

Being a skilled reader and writer relies on the learner's background knowledge, depth of vocabulary, language structures, reasoning skills, the ability to draw inferences, as well as prior exposure to books and the love of reading.