JackieSymons 

S P E E C H – L A N G U A G E  T H E R A P I S T 


I am a qualified Speech Language Therapist and Audiologist with over 20 years of experience in helping children with speech, language, listening and literacy challenges.  I have special interests in speech sound disorders as well as phonological awareness and auditory-based learning difficulties, including Dyslexia and Auditory Processing Disorder.

I trained as a Speech Language Therapist and Audiologist in South Africa and spent the first 6 years of my career at a special school for Learning Disabled children.  I worked as part of a multidisciplinary team and gained extensive insight into learning disability, dyslexia, ADHD, auditory processing, sensory processing, visual perceptual difficulties and structured literacy.  During this same time period I also ran a private practice part-time until 2010 and thereafter expanded the practice to full-time work.  I gained further experience in auditory processing, phonological awareness, dyslexia, articulation, phonology, language, stuttering and Childhood Apraxia of Speech servicing children of all ages as well as adults with fluency difficulties.  

In 2019, my husband and I together with our two children emigrated to Gisborne, New Zealand.  I am a registered member of the New Zealand Speech Therapists' Association and am currently running a private practice as well as working part-time at a school in Gisborne.  I have a passion for helping children to overcome their communication and literacy challenges and believe that children progress best when therapy is fun and engaging.