OUR SPEECH & LANGUAGE SESSIONS

We provide group sessions and one to one sessions

Monthly speech and language sessions take place at our Centre and need to be booked in advance. We currently have two independent therapists running group sessions and one to one sessions catering for up to 50 children and young people with Down syndrome.

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Download the evaluation report 2023 here

MEET OUR THERAPISTS

LAUREN DRAKE

Lauren is currently delivering groups for our younger children and started working for our charity in 2014.
Lauren is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, who works privately and within the NHS; she is also an associate of Trinity College London. Her experiences within Speech and Language Therapy have allowed her to work extensively with children who have Down syndrome, Autism and a range of other communication difficulties. Laurens's personal experiences have seen her overcome both disability and a communication disorder, meaning she is passionate about equipping individuals with skills to aid or enhance communication and participation. Over the years she has trained hundreds of parents and professionals in understanding communication in order to support and develop the communication abilities of the individuals they work with.

JESSICA FOLEY

Jess delivers our adult speech & language groups for people aged 18+ and has recently started to deliver one of our younger groups. Jess started working with the charity in 2018 as a Trainee assistant. In 2019 she graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Speech and Language Therapy from Leeds Beckett University. Jess now works in the Doncaster children’s team and supports children aged between 2 and 19, who have a range of speech, language and communication difficulties. Jess has completed Makaton training and regularly uses Makaton with service users. She has recently become the teletherapy champion for her team delivering effective and engaging speech and language therapy through video calls.

Speech & language: Programs

THE GROUP SESSIONS

Information

Parents /carers will be expected to stay in the room and take part in the sessions. This may take the form of:

· encouraging their child to join in.

· joining in and taking turns in activities with the children order to help the therapist demonstrate methods.

· listen and learn strategies and techniques to use at home.

Only one adult per child please.

SUPPORT STAFF: If you want to bring along a support assistant you are very welcome but one adult will have to remain outside the room.

HOMEWORK: Suggested activities for use at home will be provided at each session with the aim of enabling the parent to continue input at home. Only by consistent and continuous input can progress be made.

ABSENCE: If you are unable to attend please contact 07512346717 by phone/text. We will to cancel a session if we can, if not you may be charged for the therapists time.

GROUPS: Your child will be allocated to a group based on both age and ability. We aim to keep groups to a maximum of 5 children.

EVALUATION: Sessions will be evaluated annually when you will be able to tell us if you feel your child has made any progress. This is important for our funders.

SOME COMMENTS FROM PARENTS/CARERS:

· Extremely patient teacher who understands the needs of the children taught completely.

· We occasionally become surprised with how much more he knows than we assumed.

· He loves to see his friends, he feels quite confident while giving answers.

· He is more focussed, more independent, loves to interact with children, good waiting and listening.

· She has made new friends and it has helped her at school to speak up in class and really participate

· Most people can now understand him and his communication is much improved

Venue

The Pamela Sunter Centre Down Syndrome Training & Support Service Ltd
2 Whitley Street, Bingley, Bradford, BD16 4JH

Online zoom

Sessions are also available online and some families may prefer this. Please let us know

Private sessions

Private one to one therapy sessions and consultations are also available. Please contact the Office for details.

PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE IF YOU WOULD LIKE A PLACE FOR YOUR CHILD