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 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.

  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 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.

  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 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 😁

  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 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 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 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.

  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 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!

  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 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.

  I can't speak highly enough of Anna and her work. Non only my daughter's issue with speaking is now a memory, but all the process has been a great experience for her. She loved her sessions, she loved the homework Anna gave her and she has felt supported throughout all the therapy. Anna is a loving caring therapist, and her professionalism is second to none. I can only highly recommend Anna!

  I can't speak highly enough of Anna and her work. Non only my daughter's issue with speaking is now a memory, but all the process has been a great experience for her. She loved her sessions, she loved the homework Anna gave her and she has felt supported throughout all the therapy. Anna is a loving caring therapist, and her professionalism is second to none. I can only highly recommend Anna!

  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 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.

  Thank you for the excellent training in SM which was relevant and empowering as Anna really got across with energy and enthusiasm that we can make a difference. Since the training I have been able to put the strategies into practice and spread the knowledge and information on SM to pupils, parents, fellow teachers and professionals. We realise that making a positive difference is a long drawn out process but it is heartening being armed with some strategies and understanding into the condition. I particularly found it useful chatting to other parents, teachers and professionals and one recovered adult who suffered from SM as a child. Thanks again!

  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 group in an engaging and very positive way. Her recommendations for useful books for my child, and for me, were excellent.

  The inverness training day was a great success and it was really nice meeting other parents going through the exact same experience as myself.

  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 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 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 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

  Anna was such a great help to my son. She was very approachable and took things at my son's pace. My husband and I valued all the tips and suggestions she made to help us. She made the sessions fun, varied and interactive for my son. Thank you so much.

  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 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!

  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 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 asked Anna to conduct an English assessment ending with a report. I brought my daughter to Anna's clinic at her home. it was a great session, my daughter interacted with Anna perfectly well and Anna was perfectly able to manage with my three years old daughter. I am perfectly fine with the report that Anna wrote and find her recommendations very useful and helpful to improve my daughter English language. If you are reading this review probably you need a certified language therapist, I would strongly recommend Anna to you. Thank you Anna 🙂

  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 is not only a really experienced and knowledgeable language therapist, but she is also superb with kids. She worked with my daughter, who has Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) fairly intensively over a 6 month period. During this time Anna helped her really improve her communication skills and also massively increased her confidence, helping her to come out of her shell. I don't know what we would have done without her support. Another bonus for us has been that Anna is aware of the difficulties faced by bilingual children, but also what is not related to a child growing up with more than one language. It was so nice to meet someone who didn't just think that our daughter being slow to speak (she was around 4 at their first meeting) was due to her growing up bilingual! I can not recommend Anna strongly enough.

  My 9 year old son had a lateral lisp and struggled with ‘Th’ sounds. Anna worked with him over six sessions which were fun and interesting and provided exercises for us to continue with between her visits. We have seen a huge improvement with his speech and my son is much more confident and happier. I am so glad we contacted Anna for help and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending 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 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.

  Our 3 year old boy suffered from a severe speech disorder where he was not able to be understood by anyone but his closest family making him retreat from people. Anna was able to quickly recognise the problem, offer a course of treatment and advise how to liaise with the NHS and Nursary Staff to maximise his opportunities for help. Anna has a high energy approach that really gets the kids involved and brings you along too. I highly recommend her, she has turned a somewhat despairing situation around and allowed a little boy to really come out and show himself to be the rascal he should be.

  Anna provided a course of speech therapy to our 4 year old daughter Savannah who was born profoundly deaf and wears cochlear implants. Anna was very professional and conducted the initial assessment which highlighted the areas of focus. During the course, we observed improvements in Savannah's speech and by the end of the course it was clear that she had benefitted. Anna developed a good relationship with Savannah and was able to get the best out of her, even at her young age. Thanks 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 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.

  Anna is a wonderful speech therapist. She met with my daughter three times to work on her tongue thrust and she made so much progress in such a short period. She made learning and practicing the sounds fun through games and stories. My daughter looked forward to every session and was disappointed when they stopped. She speaks to children in a very direct and non-condescending way and gave helpful hints on how to work on sounds at home. Highly recommend her services!

  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 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

  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 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