Speech and Language Therapy

I am an experienced Speech and Language Therapist offering services to children in the Tauranga area. My practice, Words, is based in Omokoroa and Tauranga.

I qualified with a BSc Logopaedics from the University of Cape Town in 1990. Since then, I have helped hundreds of children develop and grow their communication and literacy skills. I have worked in a wide range of settings – first in South Africa, then the United Kingdom, and then with the New Zealand Ministry of Education for 18 years from 1997 to 2015.

Services

I can assess and help children with a range of difficulties affecting their communication skills:

• Reading and Spelling – I can provide individual or small group intervention to help children master the concepts, skills and spelling code knowledge they need for success with reading and spelling. I am trained in Sounds-Write, a well established, evidence-based structured literacy approach. For younger children I can help develop phonological awareness skills. Children with speech sound disorders are more likely to have difficulty with these important building-blocks for literacy.
• Speech clarity – whether it is immature speech sound development, a speech sound disorder or Childhood Apraxia of Speech, I have a wealth of experience in helping children to be able to talk clearly and make themselves understood.
• Stuttering – very young children usually respond well to a parent-led approach which I can implement with you. Older children may need to learn to control their stuttering and build confidence in their speech ability. I am trained in the Lidcombe approach to help young children who stutter, and the Camperdown programme for adult and adolescent stutterers.
• Receptive and expressive language – this includes vocabulary and grammatical development, and the ability to use and understand language to function successfully and interact with others.
• Social communication skills – interacting and communicating with others successfully involves more than talking and understanding language. I offer help individually or in groups for children to assist with developing social communication skills.
• Hanen programmes – I am trained and certified to deliver It Takes Two to Talk, More Than Words and the Learning Language and Loving It and Teacher Talk programmes.
• Workshops – I am happy to deliver workshop sessions tailored to needs, for example to a group of educators or parents at an Early Childhood Centre.

If circumstances make it difficult to meet face-to-face, I also offer online services.

Please contact me to discuss any concerns you may have about your child’s communication skills and literacy development, and how I can help.