"Empowered me to speak with confidence and she is amazing"

Leigh provided an excellent service to our son from the initial phone parent self referral helpline to the intensive one to one support she provided therafter. She was extremely attentive and very patient, encouraging him to develop his confidence with certain sounds he originally found very challenging and which were presenting a barrier to communicating with teachers and peers.

The service fulfilled a gap the school said they did not have the time, resources or expertise to provide to meet my sons needs. Leigh's  calm, caring nurturing and compassionate approach put our son at ease, Leigh combined fun with her expertise to capture and hold his attention to aid his learning. He initially was reticent to attend but meeting Leigh he quickly settled and he looked forward to each session with enthusiasm. She built a great rapport with our son empowering him to develop confidence in speaking which enabled him to integrate more effectively at school. Her creative and flexible approach was first class and she was extremely thorough and reassuring  and he made continuous progress with her support.

This was a vital service which greatly impacted on our son's wellbeing and facilitated his ability to stay engaged with school. The advice initially provided on the phone not only guided us with my sons challenges but Leigh also signposted us to specialist  support for our daughter who had selective mutism from school bullying trauma. Without Leigh's intervention, persistence and compassionate approach we fear our son would have developed similar challenges to our daughter. The service is a wonderful and much needed support for parents and children who are often feeling lost and at the point of despair not knowing how to scaffold appropriate support.

The service enabled us to support both children successfully and we believe the impact of these sessions will stretch far into their educational journey enabling them  to begin to reach their  academic potential. Before intervention my son was struggling and behind his peers orally and this was affecting him socially and academically now his school reports are greatly improved and he is making steady progress and is now ahead of his chronological age in his learning. My son wanted to say thank you very much for all Leigh's help and kindness and he said he will really miss their sessions. In his own words he said "Leigh empowered me to speak with confidence and she is amazing".