Speech & Language Therapy
In South London
Helping parents worried about the speech of a child who can’t be understood or has difficulty reading or writing.
I try to maximise FUN and the experience of success, minimise the sense of failure, and build CONFIDENCE.
I have been trained as a speech and language therapist and as a linguist.
My experience is in treating a wide variety of speech and language conditions in children and in adults.
I now specialise in the area where I have special training, experience and expertise – problems with the formation of sounds, words and sentences, where there is either no speech or language, or where the speech is limited or hard or impossible to understand. Linguistically motivated treatment gets the fastest results.
I can also help with related aspects of reading and writing.
I follow a tradition going back to the 1660s. This is now arguably the dominant approach to the study of speech and language. I am also active in research.
You want your child to do well, to be safe, happy, enjoying life, fitting in and making friends.
You may be worried about your child not seeming to follow the ‘normal’ schedule. But children are individuals. There are many reasons for them making up schedules of their own.
You don’t want your child to suffer because of a communication problem.
Are you worried about any of these things? 52 years ago, before I went to university, I was very worried about my own three year old who had only one word at the time.
If you’re worried and you want some information, this website is for you. There are things you can usefully do, there is a way of keeping useful notes, and there are various angles on what is at stake here.
There are three simple questions:
Are you worried?
Does your child seem to struggle?
Does your child avoid conversation?
If the answer to any of these questions is: Yes, some investigation may be useful. You can contact me.
Is the child lazy? Have parents done something wrong? These are common questions. But there are better ways of thinking about the issues here. Speech and language are are very complex. It is not surprising many children have problems learning to talk.
Problems often go together. Many children who have problems learning to talk later have problems learning to read and write. This is often diagnosed as dyslexia.
Being confident about talking is halfway to being able to read and write, although confidence is not the only factor.
These problems often run in families.
Reading & Writing
When it comes to reading, writing and spelling, schools and teachers do their best. But there can be different points of view. And here it helps to be well-informed.
Conversation
Reactions to news relevant to the issues here from a mainstream biolinguistics perspective. You are welcome to comment.