ANNA BIAVATI

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.

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.

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.

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.

WOW! What an amazing training session. Our staff has just spent an engaging and interactive hour listening to Anna help us become more aware and have a deeper understanding... read more of selective mutism. She is truly inspiring and has such a depth of knowledge. She was able, very simply and eloquently, to explain the journey of someone with this condition and we all left feeling that we, as educators were better equipped to deal with associated problems. Thank you once again Anna.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 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 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.

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!

Anna has been incredible over the past year working with us to help our son overcome his SN. Anna's passion for working with children has undoubtedly changed our lives. We... read more felt so lost before we had Anna on our side as SM is very rare. Anna has fantastic strategies and works closely with other professionals that are in your child's lives. My sons nursery teachers couldn't praise her enough. We wouldn't have had the success we had without her. Thanks 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.

I contacted Anna as someone had recommended her to me through one of the selective mutism pages on Facebook. Words can’t express how grateful I will always be too Anna... read more for her kindness and helpfulness to myself and especially my daughter. After years of getting no where, struggling to find proper help and support for my daughter we finally found someone who totally understands selective mutism and took the time to explain everything properly to me about how my daughter will be feeling. My daughter built up a lovely relationship with Anna she has such a lovely way with children so patient and kind and always on hand if we ever need advice or support. Anna you are amazing!