Anna was a wonderful speech therapist for my son. She was endlessly patient and always had a treasure of fun activities for him to do. He really enjoyed all her... read more sessions and his speech problems improved a lot. Thank you Anna!

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... read more 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!

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 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.

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.

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 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 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!

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 have just completed the SM video course online for parents proposed by Anna. This is an amazing piece of work that has already been so useful to us on... read more a daily basis and that I recommend to any parent of child with SM. The video format is really good, I personally feel that watching videos is much easier, pleasant and understandable than reading a book. In addition, if I had already heard about most topics / tools, I did not know all of them and above all, I really appreciated having everything in one place with some structure around the different topics. I feel that I now understand much better how each part is related to another and ultimately feel much more empowered to support my daughter in overcoming SM.

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... read more 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.

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.

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.

Anna is our second SLT, she was amazing. Before she came, I was very confused about my girl's language development. The NHS SLT said she was fine and no... read more longer need further therapies. But she only has 20 words at age of half two, Anna told me, although she will catch up, but yet she didn't, that is the very first time I felt being understood by someone finally. She can always bring me lots of ideas about playing with kids, she can also quantitatively tell me how will my girl develop, (I think this is very very special and important). after few months therapies, my girl was totally changed, she is now not that sensitive and becomes outgoing, now we finished our therapy, but my daughter still miss her very much. I am so grateful for her help. She is very friendly and responsible, I think all people talked to her will know what I mean.

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!

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

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.

Anna has worked with my son for over 2 years and has been an absolute pleasure to have. She has become a friend and a confidant as well as an... read more incredible speech therapist. She goes above and beyond to ensure everyone's comfort and happiness and is a true professional. She helped my son overcome his selective mutism through working with us as a family to help us understand the condition and how to help, as well as with the school to help them adapt to his plan and understand his condition. She provided all parties with a tailored program and I can honestly say that without her generous, patient spirit he would not have made it. She is kind, supportive and truly lovely and her program has made this the best journey possible.