Specialist Assessments
A specialist assessment can help you understand your child’s strengths and needs, and identify what support may be helpful.
I offer:
Speech, language and communication assessments
Assessments for EHCPs
Autism diagnostic assessments as part of an MDT.
Assessments are tailored to the individual and typically include formal assessment techniques, observations, discussions with families and schools, and always include my recommendations.
EHCP assessments
Some children have complex speech, language and communication needs that significantly affect their learning, social participation and everyday life. A detailed specialist assessment can help to build a clearer picture of those needs and the support required.
An EHCP assessment is tailored to the individual and may include formal assessment techniques, language sampling, observation and discussion with parents, school staff and other professionals. Where appropriate, I may also recommend observing your child at home or in their educational setting.
Following the assessment, I discuss my findings with you and provide a detailed, written report. This will describe your child’s communication strengths and needs and provide clear recommendations to help inform appropriate provision and outcomes.
Autism diagnostic assessments
I provide specialist speech, language and communication assessments as part multidisciplinary autism diagnostic assessments for children and young people.
A diagnosis of Autism is not based on a single test. Assessment brings together information about the child or young person’s development, communication, social interaction and everyday experiences across different settings.
I am trained and experienced in the use of ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule- second edition) and work alongside Clinicial Psychologists and other professionals as part of the diagnostic process.
My assessment considers not only whether a child’s communication profile is consistent with autism, but also their individual language and communication strengths and needs. This helps families and schools understand what may be helpful following assessment, whatever the diagnostic outcome.
If you’re in the Leeds/West Yorkshire area, contact:
Northern Clinical Psychology Service
Dr Adele Parker
info@ncps-uk.com
Want to know more about the ADOS-2?
Specialist technique assessments
Some children have very particular problems that need particular solutions. In my 35+ years I have learned and developed wide-ranging specific techniques and skills to create individual solutions to individual problems.
TalkTools
TalkTools can be beneficial for people of all ages and abilities. It is especially helpful for people who find it challenging to access more traditional approaches focusing on speech.
‘TalkTools’ or ‘Oral Placement Therapy is a therapy approach devised by an American Speech and Language Therapist called Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson. It combines auditory, visual and tactile (touch) stimulation to support the development of speech. It can also be used to support early feeding development, as this and speech development go hand in hand.
Over the years I have had huge success using TalkTools alongside traditional therapy approaches to support children and young people who have:
Dyspraxia
Dysarthria
Cerebral Palsy
Down’s Syndrome
Developmental delay
Hearing Impairment
Complex needs
Phonology delay and disorder
Autism Spectrum Condition
This is not an exhaustive list, if your child has a diagnosis or needs which are not listed above, please feel free to get in touch to discuss whether TalkTools may be helpful.
If you would like to know if TalkTools is suitable for you or your child, please give me call.
Want to know more about TalkTools? Check out my blog in my Getting to Grips with SLT series.
PROMPT
PROMPT stands for PROMPTs for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets.
It’s an approach which uses tactile (touch) and auditory stimuli to support speech development, with the therapist using their hands on the client’s face to guide their jaw, lips, and tongue to help them produce speech accurately.
Over the years, I have used PROMPT successfully to support children with complex communication difficulties such as:
Dyspraxia
Dysarthria
Developmental delay
Hearing Impairment
Cerebral Palsy
Down’s Syndrome
Complex needs
Phonology delay and disorder
Autism Spectrum Condition
If you would like to know if PROMPT is suitable for your child, please give me call.
Want to know more about PROMPT? Check out my blog in my Getting to Grips with SLT series.
Autism Therapy
The good news is that with the right therapy at the right time, children can make progress.
I can help:
Thoroughly and accurately assess your child’s communication
Devise the most effective, personalised intervention plan for your child
Make therapy fun and engaging
Work with families and teaching staff to provide practice programmes to support children with achieving their individual goals
Provide coaching and support to parents and teaching staff to support children with ASD
I include specialist therapy approaches such as:
TEACCH
Visual communication approaches – PECS, PODD
Social Communication Intervention Programme (SCIP)
Hanen
Parent-Child Interaction
Intensive Interaction
Using visual supports
Do you have a child with Autism and are completely confused about what is the best therapy approach? You have come to the right place. For the last 30 years I have specialised in treating children with Autism and am trained in and have experience of a wide range of Autism-specific interventions.
The complexity of ASD and its underlying causes is still being researched. This means that we don’t have a ‘one size fits all’ therapy. There are many interventions available, some have more evidence behind them than others and some will be more effective than others.
My therapy programmes are unique to your child and use a blended, holistic approach using a SCERTS (Social Communication, Emotional Regulation and Transactional Support) model to evaluate and measure progress.
I draw on evidence-based techniques as used in Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) and social interactive programmes such as ‘Intensive Interaction’, ‘Lego Therapy’ and ‘Social Thinking’ as well as incorporating ideas from other disciplines such as sensory integration to get the best outcomes for your child.
At The Talking House, you can be assured that you will receive the most up to date, research-based therapy for your child.
Want to know more about some of these techniques and approaches? Take a look at my blog.