About me

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

I qualified as a speech and language therapist in 2003 with a BSc (Hons) in Speech Sciences from University College London and completed my post qualification year working in special schools for Islington Primary Care Trust. I worked for 4 years in schools for children with physical disabilities and severe-profound learning disabilities including autism spectrum disorder.

I gained a P.G. Cert. in profound and multiple disabilities from the University of Manchester in 2007 and then moved to manage a specialist outreach family and education support service in the south-east region working for Sense, the National Deafblind and Rubella Association. I worked as part of a multi-disciplinary team providing advice and second opinions to children with deafblindness and sensory impairment with additional disabilities.

I became the Head of the Children’s Specialist Services at Sense in 2009 where I managed the national outreach and family, education and advisory service, whilst retaining clinical practice assessing and advising about the therapy and education for children with deafblindness. In 2012 I gained an M.Ed. Special Education: Multi-Sensory Impairment (deafblindness) from University of Birmingham. I completed my dissertation addressing the similarities and differences between Multi-Sensory Impairment and Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Within this role, I advised the public policy team responding to the sector consultations during the recent SEND reforms. I also undertook research projects addressing the competence of communication partners with children and young people with deafblindness and multiple disabilities, sharing this research at national and international conferences.

Since 2017 I have been working as an independent SLT and consultant on deafblindness and multiple disabilities. I have undertaken clinical therapist roles at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the Wolfson Neurodisability Service clinics (epilepsy and autism); as well as advising on early intervention projects for Sense international in Uganda and Kenya; alongside providing individual assessment and intervention services.

I regularly work for the National Sensory Impairment Partnership, as a NatSIP Associate, I have led the development of the online Sensory Learning Hub; developed information on starting to work with learners with sensory impairment; intervenor service standards, and outcome measures for children and young people with MSI.

In 2018 I became a national advisor to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists for multi-sensory impairment undertaking an advisory role to other SLTs and to the college.

I am currently working on developing and piloting a framework to explore the development of bodily-tactile communication and tactile sign language. If you want to find out more about this project and get involved, the Tactile Framework can be found here.