ANNA BIAVATI

Anna was a angel in our lifes. We contacted her when my daughter was 3,5 yo with very significant speech delay and the NHS slt said she wasn't ready for... read more 1-1 therapy. However, I knew we had to do more for her so I decided to look for private therapy. A friend recommended Anna who is also specialised in bilinguism (our family has 3 languages). From the first session I could see the difference in Cissa. Anna has a special way to talk to children that is very interesting. My daughter absolutely loves when "Aunt Anna comes to play". She taught me so much about how to speak, what to do, how to help Cissa learn. She went above and beyond, she fought hard for Cissa to get a space in the ICAN provision - that was never mentioned to us before by the NHS although Cissa was the perfect candidate for that. She is a very qualified professional that works in a personalised way, who design activities that will help Cissa to achieve her goals while teaching me how to do all on my own. I just wish I had found her earlier!

Anna is my son’s first Speech therapist before we moved to USA. She is very open minded, easy to communicate, professional and most importantly, cares for her “little friends”. When... read more my child started therapy with Anna he was about 27 months. He didn’t know how to imitate sounds when he started but he progressed in the following months with Anna, and that built a good foundation for his further therapy in the US. Thank you Anna!

Anna lead the training in Inverness, I came to the course half way through the day so I felt like I missed the most important parts. I took away... read more from the course a hangout that was clear and helpful. I've not long learnt about SM and I'm grateful for doing this training as a mother and a childminder.

Anna is a passionate professional and expert in the area of selective mutism and we can't thank her enough for the invaluable advice and support she gave us with our... read more daughter. We have a much greater understanding of how to best support our daughter and we know that should we require any more help and support that Anna is there for us. Thank you!

Anna worked with my son before and just after he started school and the results were fantastic. He now has lovely clear speech and we are so grateful. Anna was... read more friendly and put him at ease right away. The therapy was all based around games and fun exercises and Anna took the time to teach us how to continue the therapy with our son between appointments in order to get the best results. I would highly recommend Word Steps.

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

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.

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!

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.

I took my six year old grandson to see Anna as he had a problem pronouncing certain letters. Anna quickly established there was no physical problem for this and... read more set in motion a lesson plan to help him overcome this. She is a lovely lady who is clearly knowledgeable in her field and has such a lovely way with the children that my grandson did not have a problem going to see Anna and indeed looked forward to it. Her lessons have helped immensely and gave me the tools to continue her good work. I am happy to recommend her.

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.

We approached Anna to help with our little boy when he was 3, he had a severe phonological speech disorder. Anna seen us every 2 weeks and straight away we... read more felt so supported and comfortable with her. We loved how she included the whole family in the sessions. I always felt so at ease that with a typical lively 3 year old Anna would always make sure he wasn’t just sitting still, he would be jumping and playing whilst always learning. We are now finished with our sessions but know if we need anymore help she would welcome us back with open arms. I’m not sure where we would be if we had stuck to NHS sessions as the difference in sessions was huge! We would hugely recommend Word steps speech and language 😁

Anna has been so supportive of both me and my four year old son over the past 18 months. Our sessions whilst challenging at times were also great fun... read more and my son enjoyed every single one. Anna approached his speech delay from a different angle to that of the nhs therapists, taking a step back and looking at the cause. All of the activities done in clinic and the resources provided for use at home were tailored very specifically for his needs as opposed to using a boiler plate approach. Anna was a great sounding board for me to bounce ideas off and provided invaluable input at meetings and with forms. She provides an all round service, employs innovative ideas and techniques and most importantly set my son at ease and helped him to have fun whilst progressing his speech. Would highly recommend.

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

We contacted Anna as our 3-year-old bilingual child seemed to have a few problems to deal with people. He didn't speak with anybody that wasn't part of the family. Not... read more even the school teachers. After just one meeting with Anna and some advice she gave us and his teachers, he started little by little to speak and in a matter of weeks all problems have been resolved. My wife and I can't recommend Anna's services enough. Thanks Anna.

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 attended a course about SM run by Anna of Word Steps Speech & Language Therapy. This was an eye-opening day for me. Anna shared her extensive experience with the... read more group in an engaging and very positive way. Her recommendations for useful books for my child, and for me, were excellent.

Anna helped my son Marco from about the age of 3.5 till about 5 years old. She has been an absolute life saver, amazing with the wee one and superb... read more at explaining to me and husband how to best support his needs. We are raising our children as multilingual, and as her own experiences were an absolute godsend. In addition to being a very knowledgeable professional Anna is also an amazing person. Can not recommend her ability and services high enough.