Meet Speech and Language Therapist Vicki McIntosh

“People rarely regret seeking support, they only regret not seeking it sooner.”

Vicki McIntosh is a Speech and Language Therapist and Neurodevelopmental Practitioner, passionate about helping people with their communication development. She specialises in Autism, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), and speech sound difficulties, with 25 years of experience across the NHS and private practice.

She shares why she became a speech and language therapist, the most rewarding parts of her role, and her advice for those considering getting support.

What inspired you to go into speech and language therapy?

I always knew I wanted to work with children, and I knew I wanted to work in the health sector. I had an interest in psychology and biology, and actually, speech and language therapy was a perfect mix of all of those things.

Tell us a bit about your background.

I qualified [as a speech and language therapist] back in 1998 and worked in the NHS from 2000 right up until 2022, when I then moved fully into private practice. Throughout my career, I have specialised in neurodevelopmental assessments, particularly autism assessments, and also children and young people with speech, language, and communication needs. Alongside this, I have a specialism in Developmental Language Disorder.

What is the most rewarding thing about your job?

Quite often, adolescents will come with a sense of feeling different. So from the neurodevelopmental assessment side of things, I would say having young people leave feeling empowered and that it’s a good thing that they’ve learned their brain works a bit differently. Yes, that might present some challenges, but also comes with lots of strengths.

With the younger children, I find it really rewarding when parents, in particular of the much younger children, go away feeling quite empowered that it’s them that are making the difference, it’s not me! I’m able to give them the tools and the strategies, but when they go away and, you know, their children say a word for the first time, I think that’s really rewarding because they’ve put in the work and seen their efforts.

Describe the services you offer within The Dawn Practice.

So I suppose there are different components to my job. The main part of my job is working in the neurodevelopmental assessments, primarily the autism side of the assessments. And so for that, I’ll be working alongside my colleagues from clinical psychology and educational psychology, using standardised assessment tools and gathering developmental histories.

I’m also involved after the assessment in post-diagnostic support. I think that’s quite a crucial part of a young person’s journey, that not only do we help them through the assessment and diagnostic side of things, but also that we can offer support after that to help them learn a bit more about what it means for them moving forward in their life.

Aside from the neurodevelopmental assessments, I also do speech and language therapy work with families around upskilling them and teaching strategies to help develop their wee ones’ communication. That’s very much through play modelling and showing them how to tailor everyday activities to help develop their little one’s speech and language.

For slightly older children, I would be involved in carrying out language assessments. That can be informally through conversation and play-based activities, but often it’s through the standardised assessment tools that we use.

Based on that, we might work together with the families, coming up with either advice on how to develop their language or through therapy plans, where I might suggest targeted work with myself to improve the areas that the assessment has [highlighted].

What should clients expect from their first appointment?

The first appointment is really about us starting to get to know each other and just finding out a bit about what they’re looking for. I always say as soon as they come in, I’m going to ask loads of questions, but there is no right or wrong answer and very much no judgement!

It can be helpful if they’ve got a note of what things are on their mind that are concerning them, but they don’t need to do that.

We appreciate it’s such a daunting thing coming somewhere where you’ve never met people and you don’t know what to expect, and it’s our job to make people feel really relaxed and comfortable. The environment is the type of environment that helps with that; it’s a lovely, relaxed place to be.

Are there any misconceptions about getting support?

I think there’s still a bit of stigma around seeking support, that people still see it as a sense of weakness or that it’s embarrassing to go for help, whether it’s speech and language or mental health support.

What is The Dawn Practice doing to combat this?

I think the important thing is having open and honest discussions, communicating that it’s a sign of strength to reach out [for support] when things are tricky.

Just creating a space that is non-judgmental and promotes open and honest discussions is part of the way towards trying to remove that stigma, spreading the message that everybody benefits from talking to people at certain times in their lives. Talking to professionals is a good thing, and doesn’t have to be reserved only for a time of crisis.

What is one thing you would tell someone who is considering getting support?

I think if people are questioning whether to reach out for support, they absolutely should and it should be viewed as a really positive thing.

Mental health should just be part and parcel of how we look after ourselves, and we should be seeking support just as readily for our mental health as we do for our general health. People rarely regret seeking support; they only regret not seeking it sooner.

The Dawn Practice Speech and Language Therapy

If you would like to explore our services at The Dawn Practice and see how we can help you or your child, please get in touch with us. All our speech and language therapists are highly experienced, offering the gold standard in assessments and post-diagnostic support.