DLD and Me: Supporting Children and Young People with Developmental Language Disorder

Anna Sowerbutts is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist working for the Children’s Integrated Speech and Language Therapy Service for Hackney and the City. She has worked in Hackney and other London boroughs for several years with children with a wide range of speech, language and communication disorders in early years, primary and secondary schools. She currently specialises in speech and language disorders, including Developmental Language Disorder, and works in mainstream schools and a specialist language resourced school. Alongside clinical work, she is the recipient of a National Institute of Health Research Predoctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship, and is completing an MRes in Applied Research in Human Communication Disorders at University College London.

Amanda Finer is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist for the Children’s Integrated Speech and Language Therapy Service for Hackney and the City. She also has a growing private practice. Since qualifying, Amanda has worked within early years, primary and secondary school speech and language therapy teams in a range of boroughs in and around London, and she has worked as a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist with children who have Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and speech disorders since 2012. Central to Amanda’s role in Hackney is the development of the DLD and speech service, and she and the DLD team in Hackney have embraced the changes in terminology and criteria. Amanda has been asked to speak about Hackney’s DLD work at the DLD Study Day at University College London, the Surrey DLD Clinical Excellence Network (CEN) and the North West Mainstream Schools CEN, at the North West Conference for professionals working with language disorder, on an Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) webinar and at an RCSLT roundtable event for other professionals.