About Us

I believe that if you allow yourself to see the world through your child’s eyes & think about the world through your child’s mind, then you have captured the uniqueness and essence of your child to recreate in you. This allows for a partnership of understanding between you and your child which can be enjoyed by both of you.

Mission statement

That all staff within Practical Speech and Language Therapy will work as a team to provide a practical client focused and parent focused, high quality SLT Outreach and clinic based service within the client’s home or school setting, using a Total Communication Approach model. These practices will be demonstrated to parents and staff in sessions within a graded observation framework in order to provide ongoing training and support for parents and essential caregivers to empower parents and staff in continuing the goals between sessions.

Vision

Practical Speech and Language Therapy will provide a practical, efficient and effective model of service delivery of Speech and Language Therapy to children and adults. This model will focus on empowering parents and teaching staff to be central players in following through with speech and language goals which have been targeted, demonstrated and delivered by the Speech & Language Therapist at each session.

How did this model come about?

The vision for this model came into being in 2001, when JoAnne Rossiter & Co. was established to provide an Outreach Speech & Language Therapy service to children and adults. The aim of this service was to bridge the gap for the parents and adults while awaiting SLT within the local health board clinics and agencies, thus providing a service in a private capacity as a short term measure. Liaison with the Health Service Executive and other services is seen as an important part of the process to ensure best practice for each client.

JoAnne Rossiter, originally from Wexford, qualified with a BSc. (Hons) in Speech & Language Therapy from the University of Ulster, Co. Antrim in 1994. Having developed a keen interest in working with children with disabilities since primary school, this led to her moving into the area of Speech & Language Therapy. Since qualifying she has worked in many areas of the HSE and private bodies with all ages of clients and with a broad range of communication difficulties. This has also led to liaison with many children, parents and professions.

JoAnne has been working specifically with children with a wide range of learning difficulties since qualifying and with children and teenagers presenting with Autism Spectrum Disorder since 1999. Training in this area in particular has helped her develop her skills and passion in providing a high quality SLT service for all children, their families and their school staff.

Staff are now practicing the same ethos developed over the last number of years with the children and this, as parents report, is a fun and very effective approach in helping their children build on the skills they bring to each session. Sessions are practical, tailor made and fun. Clarity of information for adults, parents and staff members is viewed as key.