From the Mum of a child with speech sound difficulties...
Our son was really struggling at school to get himself understood. We had always been aware that his speech had been unclear but it wasn’t until he started at pre-school that we became aware of just how much we had adapted ourselves to cope with his communication issues. Whilst it was obvious to all that he was a clever little chap, he was getting more and more frustrated with the inability of others to understand him and this was impacting not only on his performance at school but also on his confidence; he was beginning to shrink back into his own world and dialogue of any sort was a stressful experience for him. Eventually we went through our GP who sent us to an NHS speech and language therapy group and, whilst this was helpful to a degree, he needed more regular and more one-to-one attention. After a year of very slow progress we contacted Suzanne and that is when things started to change. Her approach was different to the other speech therapists that we had seen in that she really took the time to understand what what was going on inside our son’s head. Her patience and calmness resulted in us getting a far better understanding of who our little boy was and, over the next year or so, we saw such an incredible change that we were astonished. As Suzanne worked her way throughout the basics of helping T with his delayed speech we were rewarded with an ever increasingly confident and talkative young man. No one would know that he had ever struggled to form words or was scared of entering into conversations; shutting him up is a struggle for us a lot of the time now! He has now gained a significant scholarship to a great school and I don’t believe this would have been possible had it not been for the help that Suzanne gave him, and us; we could not be more grateful.
From the parents of a child with glue ear...
We worked with Suzanne for around 18 months for our son who was 4 years old at the time. He had glue ear and as a result delayed speech which caused him to mispronounce some words. The sessions with Suzanne were always fun and playful which was really important for our son because we needed him to want to play and engage in the sessions. Suzanne is a calm and caring person who not only engages with the children she works with but also she relaxes the parents with reassurance everything will work out. Quickly we started to hear results with the techniques Suzanne used and importantly our son wanted to do his exercises because it was all a fun game to him.
Thanks Suzanne for all you help. He's a teenager now and recently appeared in school plays, delivered a public speech and won an award for academic excellence.
From the Mum of brothers who had speech sound difficulties...
I was recommended Suzanne via my health visitor and not only has she helped my sons speech development but also their confidence. The reception teacher informed me that my son was lacking in blending of words, he was a very quiet boy and sometimes stuttered. Suzanne assessed S and then came on a regular basis to teach him. Suzanne made the therapy fun and S looked forward to her visits. A year later S was the lead part in his school play and singing solo! The change in S was incredible.
A few years later I noticed his younger brother wasn't on par with his peers. A phone call to Suzanne and she reassured me again everything would be fine. He was more than comfortable in her company. Once again with Suzanne's expertise and wonderful, gentle manner his speech and confidence flourished.
I will be forever grateful to Suzanne for what she did for the boys.