Sparking Speech

Testimonials

The work Aoife has been doing since September 2013, when I started working here, has been extremely effective. The children have made better than expected progress, as recorded in their EYFS profiles: Listening, Understanding and Speaking. She has made excellent relationships with parents and children in a highly professional way. The children’s key people, who attend Aoife’s sessions with their key children, have benefitted hugely from observing her work. They have been able to continue to re-enforce the work throughout the week, as well as use the techniques, learned from watching and discussion with Aoife to benefit other children in their care. As a teacher, with 37 years’ experience (10 of these as a SENCo), as well as having been involved in teacher and practitioner training over the past 5 years, I would like to say that I have never seen a more effective model of external expert involvement with children who have speech and language difficulties, than that being practiced in Canterbury Nursery by Aoife. I am very grateful for the skills and techniques I have learned from her, as are the other teachers and practitioners at Canterbury. The value that she has added to children’s lives by helping the children to gain the gift of speech and ability to express themselves cannot be over stated. As the children learn to express their needs they become less frustrated, which impacts hugely in the area of behaviour management for their parents. I know that the parents of the children who Aoife has worked hugely appreciate her work, which has been life-changing for them too.

Mrs. Jill Wallis

BSc PGCE SENCo at Canterbury Children’s Centre

Three years ago my son was diagnosed with selective mutism. I knew very little about this condition and was extremely worried about what this meant for him. I first met Aoife at my sons school in a meeting to discuss the best way to deal with my sons selective mutism. I found Aoife to to be extremely professional but also very friendly and approachable. She always put his best interests at heart and never advised moving forward before he was ready. With Aoife’s help and guidance my son went from barely whispering a word all day at school to speaking in a normal voice in front of his class. He can now talk to any child or adult, participate in class activities and has even joined the school lunchtime drama group. We are incredibly grateful to Aoife for everything she has done to improve our sons educational and personal life. One of our proudest moments was when he stood up in front of the rest of the school to receive an award. Such a simple thing for most children but previously impossible for our son.

Suzanne – Mum of Jacob (8)

Aoife has been amazing with her assessments and strategies for addressing our daughter’s selective mutism. Over the years that Aoife has been assisting her, we have seen wonderful improvements, which have helped her at school and at home and socially in the community. We are very grateful for all that Aoife has helped our daughter achieve.

Hanna – Mum of Faith (7)

I can confirm that I have known Aoife Tierney for nearly 3 years in a professional capacity. We have always found her to be a very hard-working and valuable member of our team. Aoife is highly organised, has great communication skills and I have always been very impressed with the way that she has approached work. Aoife has used her initiative and become involved in projects to support the work that we are doing in school. She has often suggested useful ideas for ways to improve the way that we support children with speech and language difficulties and has engaged successfully with staff and parents alike. I highly recommend Aoife as a Speech and Language Therapist and I’m sure that she would be a great asset for any workplace.

Mrs. Vicky Atkinson

Assistant Headteacher/Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator at Farfield Primary & Nursery School

We were extremely impressed with the excellent therapy Aoife worked on with Joshua. She has suggested and helped him with many targets and strategies to help him extend his skills to work towards being an independent young man. We found Aoife to be a very friendly, approachable and helpful young lady who took a genuine interest and great understanding of our profoundly deaf son.

Alison – Mum of Joshua (17)

Aoife was fantastic with our son Rían who had speech delay. She was a great source of encouragement for us and gave us the tools to help Rían at home, as we didn’t know what the best approach was to support his learning. She is patient, bubbly and very talented at what she does, Rían loved going to see Aoife each week and she has a brilliant way with kids. She hears things that we couldn’t and knew exactly what Rían needed in terms of developing his sounds, words and eventually his full chat! We are so grateful to Aoife for her support, knowledge and encouragement at each step. Would highly recommend her to any parent in the same situation.

Joanne – Mum of Rían (2)

I cannot thank Aoife enough for her support with our little boy Jasper who was diagnosed with self mutism at the age of 4. It was quite daunting at first as this wasn’t a condition that is well known or understood. Aoife took us through step by step about what to expect and how to manage behaviours, as well as building Jasper’s confidence and integrating him with other school friends and teachers. Aoife led the way with all the school meetings, which was critical, as so many of the teaching staff and assistants needed to understand the condition, the impact and, agree ways of combatting issues/obstacles, as well assessing both social interaction and academic progression. Having Aoife with us as Jasper’s advocate has given him a chance for his future and for that we will always be grateful. The professional support and advice has been simply amazing.

Danielle – Mum of Jasper (7)

Our son, Culann is a chatty boy who loves to talk, however many of his words were hard to understand and this was frustrating him. Once Culann began working with Aoife we saw immediate progress and development in his speech. Aoife led us through his assessments and identified a clear strategy for improving his speech. She worked concisely with him in a fun and encouraging way which created a great environment for him to develop his speech. She also gave us the resources and guidance we needed to work with Culann on his targets at home. Aoife was professional, approachable and flexible in all our dealings with her. We are so thankful for all of her work as Culann is now able to communicate confidently and clearly with ourselves and others and we would happily recommend her.

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Testimonials

Mrs. Jill Wallis

Suzanne – Mum of Jacob (8)

Hanna – Mum of Faith (7)

Mrs. Vicky Atkinson

Alison – Mum of Joshua (17)

Joanne – Mum of Rían (2)

Danielle – Mum of Jasper (7)

Mellissa and Philip – Parents of Culann (3)

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