Emma joined tus a few months ago, we wanted to get to know her  a bit better  and so we asked her a few questions :

Why did I become a SALT originally?

I knew from a young age that I would want to work with people and try to make a difference to their lives. I come from a large extended family and I loved seeing the little ones grow and develop. The area of communication has also always been a real passion of mine – I don’t think I could do anything else!

What are my particular areas of interest?

I particularly enjoy parent child interaction / adult child interaction and how a small change in adult communication can create the perfect conditions for language for thrive in the child. I also love working with DLD children and working on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of language, grammar and speech.

Any Stand- Out moments?

Early on in my career I was lucky enough to work on a project to develop and deliver a training programme for nursery staff in adult child interaction techniques. This was very well received over a period of five years  we were invited to present it to colleagues at a ‘Talk to Your Baby’ Conference in 2008.

What attracted me to independent working?

I was attracted to independent working mainly due to the flexibility it offers me to combine my career and family life. An unexpected plus is also the amount of contact I can have with the children on my caseload, the professional relationships that develop in schools because I am in frequently and the amount of therapy input I get to do!

What is important to me as an independent practitioner?

What’s important to me as an independent practitioner is having the freedom to work creatively and independently to my strengths but to still have access to a supportive team when I need it. I have felt fully supported whenever I have needed it by both peers and management at Soundswell