ANNA BIAVATI

Anna has been a great support professionally. I reached out to her for specialist clinical supervision and she responded very efficiently. We were able to have a telephone call (due... read more to distance) which helped so much. Anna provided resources and shared her highly specialist knowledge about Selective Mutism. She put me at ease and encouraged me to ask questions to support the case I was working on. Thank you very much! Charmaine

Very highly recommended, Anna is clearly an expert in her field and gave our daughter a thorough assessment, we were glad to have contacted her.

I cannot speak highly enough of Anna! As parents we were feeling fairly deflated in our approach and frustrated with Other professionals regarding our sons speech delay and clarity of... read more speech. We have attended therapy on and off for approx 6months with Anna. What we have learnt has been invaluable and what my son has achieved in this time is truely heartwarming. It has been hard work but with so many ways to play and stimulate our son he has rarely objected and even enjoys the games/activities! Anna thinks outside the box and truely “knows” her clients so that she knows how to get the best from them. Her professionalism and experience is second to none, she empowers parents and really connects with children. She is also a genuinely lovely person. My only regret is that we never met sooner! A fantastic experience.

I approached Anna when I was concerned about my sons speech as he was reaching 3 years old. I was concerned when he was 2 years however, the NHS assured... read more me all was ok. I had a few "gut feelings" about Aarons certain "behaviours" too. We received all in I think 6/8 sessions with Anna, Aarons repeating disappeared stage by stage, he really came on leaps and bounds. Anna listened to me when I feel the NHS system let us down. Without attending Annas Private Clinic, I feel myself and my Husband would still be struggling with teaching our son language and communication. Thank you Anna, I will always be greatful.

I found Anna when my son was very young and not speaking very much at all. I was feeling very hopeless and desperate to help my son, I started looking... read more around for specialist Speech and Lanaguage services. Although there was quite a distance to travel, we came to see Anna weekly for quite some time and she was a great support to me as well as a great therapist for my son. Anna identified that he had a phonological disorder and she supported us not only with a programme of things to work on at home, but she also helped educate me on how what strategies would be effective in helping my son to converse and with his sounds. She has great enthusiasm for what she does and is very positive. I would highly recommend Anna without hesitation to anyone who needs Speech and Language input.

Hello, we are Vicente and Feli, and this is our experience with Anna Biavati. Our boy, Robbie, was attending nursery and the nursery staff showed their concern about our... read more child's speech development and suggested we could contact a speech therapist to improve the child's communication skills. We were aware of it, but unsure about what to do. We spent over 8 months with an NHS speech therapist; the child wasn't improving and we were frustrated because we did not see any progress. We met Anna Biavati when our boy was 4 and a half years old. Since Robbie was only months away from starting Primary school, we contacted her. Best decision we could make. Between April and November, Anna made a huge positive impact on our child, who, from speaking with single words moved to understand orders and instructions and reply with full sentences. There were only minor issues that the boy would overcome and polish by himself. Anna was able to spot our child's problem straight away. It was Specific Language disorder. He was able to read, but not to talk. Anna prepared and designed a plan for him, using a variety of games and strategies, also introducing other languages, since we are Spanish and Italian respectively. After each lesson, she gave us the right instructions: how to play, talk, motivate and improve communication. Anna encouraged the use of three languages, instead of focusing on just English for the child not to be confused, which ultimately has been another great decision. As the boy's communication skills were progressing, his social skills did too. And by December, he was able to memorise and perform at the Nativity play, which was a significant event and improved his status in school. After Anna gave Robbie the tools to express himself, his confidence also boosted and his speech rocketed. Our boy is about to turn 6, his Primary teacher is in awe, Robbie is at the top of his class at reading and numeracy. Anna is accesible, competent, kind, professional, accessible, dynamic, likable, positive, cooperative, creative, knowleged, experienced, supportive and creates an instant bond both with children and parents. And she speaks several languages! From our experience, we can say Anna makes a difference and trusting her and her work is a wise decision.

During 2019 we approached Anna for help with our Spanish pronunciation. As adult learners we wanted our British mouths to make more Spanish-sounding vowels and consonants, and I was... read more having real problems trying to roll my “r’s” convincingly. Anna quickly devised a short programme to meet our requests, and also devised exercises to improve our intonation and to help make our sentences flow. We enjoyed the sessions, and we feel that we made good progress. Muchas gracias, Anna!

I have just completed the SM video course online for parents proposed by Anna. This is an amazing piece of work that has already been so useful to us on... read more a daily basis and that I recommend to any parent of child with SM. The video format is really good, I personally feel that watching videos is much easier, pleasant and understandable than reading a book. In addition, if I had already heard about most topics / tools, I did not know all of them and above all, I really appreciated having everything in one place with some structure around the different topics. I feel that I now understand much better how each part is related to another and ultimately feel much more empowered to support my daughter in overcoming SM.

We are a bilingual family. When our daughter was approaching the age of 3, we noticed she was having language and communication issues. We contacted Anna after having been told... read more by the NHS Speech and Language Therapist that everything was ok with our daughter’s speech. We knew that was not the case. Anna carried out a thorough assessment and identified areas to work on. We followed Anna’s advice, and put in place the strategies given. This was very helpful, and our daughter started making progress. We found Anna to be a really important point of reference and support throughout our daughter’s journey and continued to use her services as she progressed in school. She is now 10, and we still do an annual review and assessment to make sure that we are on track. We cannot thank Anna enough for the help and support she has given us as a family. Her support has meant that our daughter’s confidence has steadily grown and she can look into the future with a positive outlook. We would highly recommend Anna. Claudia

Anna brought my child on by leaps and bounds. He suffered from a very bad speech impediment and she was able to help draw him out of his shell and... read more to help turn him into a confident and conversant child. A professional, warm person, she is able to relate to and empathise with children and it is obvious every step of the way that she really cares. If you want great results I would recommend Anna wholeheartedly.

I cannot recommend Anna highly enough. She helped my son who did not speak to any adult in school until p3, to gain confidence and he is now in p5... read more and able to approach the teacher and initiate speech. Anna worked with my son at his pace, she gently gained his confidence through play, starting in the environment he felt comfortable in – home, and then progressed onto working with him at school. Through the work that Anna did with him he can now speak to children in his class that he didn’t talk to for the first 3 years and he can also approach teachers to tell them if something is wrong. Anna is very knowledgeable about the psychology underlying the problem and works to increase self esteem. She really engages with the children and gets on their level and she has a wonderful energy and charisma.

Anna has worked with my son for over 2 years and has been an absolute pleasure to have. She has become a friend and a confidant as well as an... read more incredible speech therapist. She goes above and beyond to ensure everyone's comfort and happiness and is a true professional. She helped my son overcome his selective mutism through working with us as a family to help us understand the condition and how to help, as well as with the school to help them adapt to his plan and understand his condition. She provided all parties with a tailored program and I can honestly say that without her generous, patient spirit he would not have made it. She is kind, supportive and truly lovely and her program has made this the best journey possible.

Our child has been suffering from Selective Mutism and only speaks to a small number of fellow pupils in the same class. Anna is a specialist in this condition and... read more with her help, our child has now widened their circle of friends. Her relaxed manner puts children at ease. This gave my child confidence to speak and play with people they had been unable to do so previously with. New friendships have been formed through this and our child is more content and happy to go to school than ever before. Throughout the process, Anna would keep us updated with progress and would look to gain agreement with us how to continue. We can't praise her high enough for making a real difference.

Anna is absolutely incredible both for the parents and the children. She has healed our 6year old daughter from SM after a 2- year mute period in school. We cannot... read more thank her enough and warmely recommend her services.

Anna is not only a really experienced and knowledgeable language therapist, but she is also superb with kids. She worked with my daughter, who has Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) fairly... read more intensively over a 6 month period. During this time Anna helped her really improve her communication skills and also massively increased her confidence, helping her to come out of her shell. I don't know what we would have done without her support. Another bonus for us has been that Anna is aware of the difficulties faced by bilingual children, but also what is not related to a child growing up with more than one language. It was so nice to meet someone who didn't just think that our daughter being slow to speak (she was around 4 at their first meeting) was due to her growing up bilingual! I can not recommend Anna strongly enough.

Anna is our second SLT, she was amazing. Before she came, I was very confused about my girl's language development. The NHS SLT said she was fine and no... read more longer need further therapies. But she only has 20 words at age of half two, Anna told me, although she will catch up, but yet she didn't, that is the very first time I felt being understood by someone finally. She can always bring me lots of ideas about playing with kids, she can also quantitatively tell me how will my girl develop, (I think this is very very special and important). after few months therapies, my girl was totally changed, she is now not that sensitive and becomes outgoing, now we finished our therapy, but my daughter still miss her very much. I am so grateful for her help. She is very friendly and responsible, I think all people talked to her will know what I mean.

I can not thank Anna enough for the wonderful experience my son had during his time at Word Steps Speech and Language Therapy. Whilst my 5 year old had... read more a large vocabulary, i was concerned that he did not have every sound - some sounds were mispronounced and others were a little muddled. Anna quickly identified the areas he needed support with. Her warmth and friendliness quickly enabled a trusting and supportive relationship to develop with my son who was so excited to see her each week. We both very much looked forward to the sessions which were play based. Many of the games could easily be repeated and practised at home in between sessions. I was amazed at how quickly his language progressed, mastering sounds in a short period of time. As a parent, I felt empowered and supported to help my son. Anna was very open to the needs of our family and checked in regularly regarding the frequency of our sessions. I can not recommend Words Step highly enough and would use again in the future for any further speech and language support.

What a wonderful woman who has energy drive and commitment to ensure that people who have SM are heard