ABOUT SUCCESS WITH SPEECH THERAPY Ltd (serving Hertfordshire, Essex & Haringey)

Success with Speech Therapy Ltd. is run by Fran Fitzgerald, Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist with over 8 years experience specialising in supporting children under five and in primary school with their Speech & Language development.

Fran Fitzgerald PG Dip, BA (Hons)  
MRCSLT, MASLTIP, Reg HCPC, DBS certified
Speech and Language Therapist

I am a Hanen certified, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist with over eight years experience working with children 9 months - 11 years old, across the Early Years and Primary School settings in the NHS, Local Education Authority and in my private clinic. I am trained to deliver support to children who use Gestalt Language Processing (also know as delayed echolalia or scripted language) via the Meaningful Speech programme.

My caseload is varied & I work with children who have Speech Sound Disorders (SSD) and speech delay including Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD), language disorder and delay including Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (inc. Gestalt Language Processing/echolalia). For a full list of the conditions I have experience in supporting children with, see my ASLTIP profile: https://asltip.com/members/ms-fran-fitzgerald/

I am a SCERTS (Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, Transactional Support) trained Therapist. I firmly believe we can achieve more for your child by working as a team; family, educational staff and Therapist. ​I have spent my career working closely with school staff and parents to ensure intervention is supportive of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) & Key Stage 1 & 2 curriculum as well as a child's social development.

I ensure intervention (therapy) is fun and motivating, so your child looks forward to our sessions and is the one letting you know that they want to play therapy games at home! 

Settings I have worked in across my career:

  • Working in clinic with toddlers and pre- schoolers & their parents.

  • Mainstream schools and nurseries.

  • Special Educational schools.

  • Complex speech disorders pathway.

  • Speech and Language Resource Base/Language Unit (where children with Developmental Language Disorder and language difficulties access a specialised language- intensive curriculum).

    Skills & experience:

  • Formal training includes Hanen, SCERTS, PECS, Attention Autism and the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme (speech). I also have several years experience using Colourful Semantics and Shapecoding interventions to target language difficulties. See ‘List of formal training/ qualifications’ for more information.

  • Writing reports in support of Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs), for children at both pre- school and school aged.

  • Writing reports in support of the Local Authority for Tribunal cases and appearing as an expert witness in court proceedings to rationale views in written reports.

  • Writing reports for and supporting children during key transition points in their education (Nursery-Primary School- Secondary School). 

  • Supervising both Speech & Language Therapists & student Speech & Language Therapists.

  • Designing & delivering training workshops for nursery and school staff.

  • Liaising with and training school and nursery staff including Special Educational Needs Co ordinators (SENCOs), Inclusion Managers, Learning Support Assistants, Teaching Assistants and Nursery Key Workers, to ensure a team approach when supporting a child in school or nursery.

  • Liaising and delivering joint sessions with other professionals including Educational Psychologists (EP), Occupational Therapist (OT), Physiotherapist (PT) and Special Advisory Teachers. 

    Please note I do not work with children who have the profiles below:

  • Sensorineural hearing loss

  • Specific behaviours of concern (also known as challenging behaviour). I am unable to support your child if they display behaviours from the following 2 of 5 areas defined by The Challenging Behaviour foundation, these include (1) a physical risk to others (e.g. punching, kicking, hitting, head-butting) and (3) destructive behaviours (e.g. throwing objects at others, damaging furniture/items). I am able to work with children who demonstrate the following behaviours of concern (2) self harm, (4) eating inedible objects (5) other behaviours (e.g. running away, spitting, smearing). You can find out more about behaviours of concern here: https://www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk/understanding-challenging-behaviour/what-is-challenging-behaviour/

  • Stammering