Assessment

• Appointments are personalised to your preferences and best hopes. I do not offer a specific initial assessment appointment as stammering therapy evolves and an assessment is a snapshot of one moment which isn’t always reflective of other experiences and feelings which change day-to-day. 

• Your first appointment is booked as a ‘Therapy’ appointment instead of an assessment as unlike for a speech sound evaluation, I do not write a report for adults who stammer. You will receive information and resources after each sessions to further explore topics we have discussed.  

• You choose from a choice of topics at each appointment and we always check-in together at the start of each session to establish how you would like to spend your time with me.
• I am an advocate for the social model where the focus of therapy is not focused on achieving fluent speech but also exploring the impact of societal stigma and challenging ableist attitudes about stammering. 
• I am a proud board member of Stamily which is a worldwide network for people who stutter and allies. I highly recommend looking into joining the many wonderful stammering organisations as the sense of community, shared experiences and support is wonderful.   

• The sessions are led by your preferences. 
• If you would like some guidance, we can use the framework “The 3Es” by Luckman & Gore (2021) to help explore topics which might be interesting to you. Their blog series is really worthwhile reading: https://www.speechirl.com/the-3es-of-stuttering-presented-at-the-2021-oxford-dysfluency-conference                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Assessment

• A speech sound assessment will evaluate all speech sound patterns to find out what sounds are present and analyse any substitution patterns.

• Speech sounds are evaluated in words and sentence level for a thorough evaluation.

• If required, the session will also include therapy activities to work on any sounds that need adjustment. 

• A written speech sound assessment summary will be sent to you after your appointment along with a home therapy programme so that you can begin working on your speech straight away.