Meet the team…
Our friendly and supportive team is lead by Christine Rose who has over 20 years experience working as a speech and language therapist in both the public and private sectors. All therapists receive regular supervision with continuing professional development central to the ethos of our team.
Christine Rose
Christine qualified as a speech and language therapist in 1996, graduating from the University of Sheffield with an MMedSci. She has since worked with children with a wide range of speech, language and communication needs in both the NHS and the private sector.
Christine specialises in working with children with Developmental Language Disorder. She also has a special interest in the link between children’s communication skills and their behaviour and emotional development.
In addition to her clinical work, Christine spent 5 years as a clinical tutor at City University working with students completing their post graduate diploma in speech and language therapy. The Learning Team continue to offer regular clinical training opportunities to speech and language therapy students.
Adding another string to her bow, Christine recently qualified as an accredited Video Interaction Guidance Practitioner. Video Interaction Guidance is a video feedback intervention through which a “guider” helps a client to enhance communication within relationships.
Gael Birtill
Gael joined the LT team in July 2012, on graduating from City University.
She works in two local primary schools where she is highly valued as an established part of the school community. These roles involve working directly with students and parents as well as providing training and joint goal setting sessions with staff.
Alexandra Rennie
Alexandra joined Learning Talking in 2019 on graduating with an MSc in Speech and Language sciences from UCL.
Alexandra has a wealth of experience in supporting children and young people with SLCN. She is a specialist in the autism field and has a fantastic approach to providing holistic support to families. The rest of the team value her experience and often ask for her advice knowing that she will always have a gem of wisdom to share.
Natasha Dimond
Natasha Dimond joined the team in 2019. Natasha has an MSc in Speech and Language sciences from UCL.
Natasha is a trained secondary school teacher and currently works in two local secondary schools providing excellent speech and language support to the staff and students. Natasha is also developing a specialism in working with the deaf population and currently works with the team in a local deaf support department. To support this role Natasha is developing her skills in using BSL.
Sumeiya Hussain
Sumeiya joined the team in January 2021 after graduating from the MSC in speech and language therapy at City University. Sumeiya has an interest in working with children with autistic spectrum conditions. Sumeiya is a creative and friendly team member. Sumeiya is bilingual and speaks Sylheti as well as English.
Nerys Bourke
Nerys joined the team in January 2021 after graduating from the MSC in speech and language therapy at City University. Nerys has a wealth of experience in working with children and young people, especially those in the early years as Nerys previously worked in a nursery school for 10 years.
Eliza Foster
Eliza joined the teaming December 2020 after graduating from the Msc in speech and language therapy at City University. Eliza spent time working in education settings before training to be a speech and language therapist. She is a proficient French speaker having spent time living in Paris.
Amy Duck
Amy is a highly experienced speech and language therapist with many years experience in the NHS. Amy supports primary and secondary age students to become confident, successful communicators and has special skills supporting young people to plan and think about their futures. She has been fundamental in the development of a highly skilled Secondary School team at Learning Talking. Amy enjoys spending time with her family in her spare time.
Colette Milward
Colette graduated with an MSc in Speech and Language Therapy from City University London in 2021 and is an integral part of the Early Years and Primary team. She enjoys working with multilingual children and children with Developmental Language Disorder and is an advocate for early intervention and timely diagnosis. She is bilingual in French and English, and fluent in Italian. Her interests include travel and cycling.
Susanna Rowlands
Susanna joined Learning Talking in 2020 with a Masters in Speech and Language Therapy and BSc in Psychology and Linguistics. Susanna works across four schools, two mainstream primary and two secondary. She works collaboratively with students, parents/carers, school staff and other professionals, using evidence-based practice to deliver assessment, intervention and training. Susanna is highly motivated, creative and dedicated – and has a longstanding obsession with nice stationery. She also volunteers with the charity organisation Stamma.
Charlotte Gower
Charlotte completed her BSc in Psychology in 2010. After several years working in special schools and teaching abroad she completed her MSc in Speech and Language Sciences at UCL. Prior to joining the LT team in January 2020 she worked in the NHS (North West London) preschool and school paediatric services.
She spends most of her working week doing an amazing job in a local secondary school. This role involves working directly with students as well as providing training and coaching sessions to the staff. Charlotte particularly enjoys her work supporting the families of teenagers with communication difficulties and thinking about how to support the students to access the wider community.
Victoria Basham
Victoria qualified in 2000 from City university with a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Communication Studies. She spent many years working for the NHS in mainstream schools and as part of a child development clinic working in multidisciplinary teams. Victoria lived in South America for 8 years working in International schools and with English speaking families in their own homes.
She joined Learning Talking Ltd in 2018 and works in mainstream schools supporting children, education staff and families with all areas of speech, language and communication difficulties.
Millie Clive
Following nearly 3 years with Learning Talking, Millie is now based in Spain where she works as an independent speech and language therapist offering sessions to the UK via teletherapy.
Laura Yarnall
Laura joined the LT team in 2014 on graduating from City University. Laura works across 3 primary schools, including the school that she herself attended as a child! Despite the hectic schedule Laura is always cool, calm and collected.
Laura particularly enjoys supporting children with Developmental Language Disorder and is a specialist in this area; she works as part of the team in a local resource provision for children with SLCN.
Dolores Eagling
Dolores joined the Learning Talking team in September 2019 after graduating from the speech and language therapy MSC at City University. During her studies, Dolores completed a masters project focusing on the views and experiences of recipients of group social support intervention for people with aphasia. For this project Dolores received the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia national annual student prize.
Before training as as speech and language therapist Dolores worked in the UK and internationally teaching English as a foreign language to both adults and children.
Charmaine Bill
Charmaine joined the Learning Talking team in October 2015. She currently does an excellent job providing speech and language therapy to two Waltham Forest primary schools. She is a highly creative member of the team and her sessions with the children are always fun.
Prior to qualifying as a speech and language therapist Charmaine worked for many years as a ABA professional working with children who have an autistic spectrum condition (ASC). This background gives Charmaine an excellent understanding of the needs of children and young people with ASC.
Cat Andrew
Cat graduated as a speech and language therapist from City University in July 2013. She is a passionate and talented therapist with a background in the arts and adult education. Cat is a great person to have in the team and has a real can – do attitude. Cat enjoys working with the team around the child and providing practical strategies that can be used to support a child’s communication.
Alongside her speech and language therapy day job Cat teaches drawing to adults who have communication difficulties.
Kathryn Smith
Kathryn has been a speech and language therapist with the Learning Talking team since 2013 following her graduation from City University. She particularly enjoys working with children/young people, families and schools to develop holistic speech and language therapy and educational support plans. She is experienced in supporting schools and parents to apply for and review EHCPs. She especially enjoys developing self-confidence and self-advocacy in children and young people. She loves books, cats and nature.