By Natasha White
Hello Friends!
Welcome to the Magic Words Therapy blog. Here you will find advice, handouts, interviews and links to useful pages, amongst other exciting features.
If you want to get to know us a little more, here are some facts for you:
1) Magic Words was founded in 2009 by Director, Eleanor Harris. Shortly after our Director, Frankie Paterson, came on board. Since then we have expanded to meet the needs of our clients.
2) We have 11 employed therapists, whose specialisms include: Complex Needs, Hearing Impairment, Selective Mutism, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Stammering. We also have 2 administrative staff to help you with your queries, all of whom have teaching experience.
3) We have 4 qualified Elklan tutors and 1 Makaton tutor on our staff. We regularly run courses in Milton Keynes (just by junction 14 of the M1) and Sarratt (just between junction 18 and 19 of the M25). We also offer bespoke school training. If you wish to know more, please visit our schools page.
4) Our therapists work in a wide range of settings and in partnership with a variety of specialist agencies. Currently, we work across 20+ schools (including nurseries, primary and secondary schools) in the areas of Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton, Luton, Dunstable, Elstree, Watford, Borehamwood, Kensington and Harrow. We have worked with fostering and adoption agencies, mental health professionals, NHS staff, occupational therapists, to name but a few.
5) Since 2015 we have run Lego® Therapy sessions with primary and secondary school aged children. They have been extremely successful in promoting social and communication skills. Two of our therapists (Carolyn Fox and Elen Wales) have recently had an article, entitled 'Building Lego, Building Language' published in Bulletin, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy magazine.
6) We run an extensive continuous professional development (CPD) scheme for our therapists and invite other professionals to join us. You can find our CPD diary and our booking page here. On previous dates we have welcomed Daniel Hunter (Treating Dysfluency in Pre-School Children and Working with School-Aged Children who Stammer), Sunita Shah (How to Work with Bilingualism in Children’s Speech and Language Therapy and Educational Settings), Melanie Cross (Attachment and Communication), Alison Bryan (Colourful Semantics), Dr Tony Sirimanna (Auditory Processing Disorder) and Pamela Williams (Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme Training).
7) Between us, we have 18 degrees and 7 diplomas. All of our therapists are registered with Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and are regulated by the Health Care and Professionals Council (HCPC).
8) We are a charitable bunch! From wearing our ugliest Christmas jumpers to donning our running gear, we love to support worthwhile causes and raise a little money along the way. Look out for our participation on awareness day events and sponsor us if you can.
Please note: all facts accurate at the time of writing. They are subject to change- we are busy growing our clinic!
