Susannah Thomson is a Speech and Language Therapist with over 20 years’ experience and is based in Bristol working with both children AND adults. For the last few years her focus has been with the under 5s, but also works with school age children, particularly those with unclear speech.

Susannah supports parents of children with language delay, unclear speech and selective mutism and delivers training to schools in appropriate interventions for pupils. She is a Trustee of the national selective mutism charity SMIRA and is a regular contributor to their massive Facebook support group for families and professionals.

In this interview, Susannah explains what level of speech and comprehension that we would expect from a typically developing two-year-old and how the adult child interaction can help those children who may have more challenges.

Susannah has lots of different, practical techniques and strategies to help get children’s words moving and improve their communication, for both parents and practitioners. We finish the interview by discussing how we can identify and then help children who may have more complex difficulties, for example children with autism.