Lisa Harding - Language Outreach

My name is Lisa Harding and I work for the Language Outreach team. I have been working as a speech and language therapist for many years, initially working in clinics, preschools and school settings, and then a language unit for children with severe speech and language difficulties.

My role now involves visiting children in their local school, assessing their speech and language skills and then providing them with regular therapy or liaising with the schools and supporting them by providing advice or programmes.

As part of my role I also work with the specialist language teachers (ECLIPS) as there are a number of children on our caseloads who benefit from the joint approach we provide.

Many of the children we share have a Developmental Language Disorder, which means they have significant and on-going difficulties understanding and/or using spoken language.

Some of the children on my caseload have very specific difficulties developing language and so occasionally it is necessary to introduce another means of communication such as Makaton signing. This has often ‘opened up their world’ and allowed them to communicate with their family and friends. The majority of these children will then ‘drop’ the Makaton signing once we have helped them to develop their speech and language skills.

Many of the children I work with initially have very few words or sounds and are often extremely difficult to understand. It is so rewarding to see their progress and, following intensive therapy, to hear them stringing words together and being easily understood by everyone.

I really enjoy my role as a specialist speech and language therapist and I love being able to make a difference to somebody’s life.

One of the nicest compliments I was given by a parent was being called the Mary Poppins of Speech Therapy!