Our 5 year old daughter has a speech impediment and we'd like to find her a speech therapist. We've decided to go private because the personality of the therapist she works with will be crucial for her success (knowing her as we do!).
Ideally we'd love to find a female speech therapist (sorry, we don't mean to be sexist - she just responds so much better to females than males) who is experienced, is familiar with gifted children and (here's the really important part) is very friendly, smiley and engaging. We're looking for someone who has a *real* affinity with, and passion for, children. Someone who will talk to our daughter on her level (not down to her) and be very gentle, encouraging and supportive.
If you know anyone who fits this description, we'd be incredibly grateful for their details.
Hiya
We used Moira nelson at 'just talking' In greenlane. Friendly & fun.
My son worked with her from about 2.5 yrs to 5.5 yrs on & off.
Gifted 'aware' & clear about what she does & why.
She also picked up on my boy's reading ability when I actually
hadn't noticed - oops!
We unfortunately found some teachers very unsympathetic re speech problems
which caused big set backs after school entry.
Good luck
Madelaine
Would reccomend Alison Owen at Voice Culture in Grammer School Road Pakuranga. Managed my gifted and dyxpraxic boy wonderfully, he still talks about her years later. She has also seen my younger boy. Seems to make speech therapy fun!
When I saw your initial question I wished I could remember the name of the therapist my son saw at age 4. Alison Owen is she!! I agree with Joanne - Alison was brilliant and totally understood my boy's giftedness. I remember her laughing and saying that it wasn't his grammar that he had difficulty with, rather trying to get his small mouth around all those large words!
