Higgins-Walsh Therapies was established in 2022 by Emily Higgins-Walsh. Her goal is to provide unique, individualised therapy to children and families in order to maximise communication skills, independence and confidence!
Emily is a neuro-affirming Speech and Language Therapist with a large and varied paediatric caseload working across the North West. She is a specialist in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and feels passionately about supporting people to find and express their voices.
Emily started her career in 2015 and joined the multidisciplinary team at the award-winning Seashell Trust. In 2018, she was invited to London alongside colleagues to collect the national award for ‘Excellence in AAC’. Emily has published two articles in the Communication Matters annual journal (2018 and 2020, respectively) and given a seminar at Manchester Metropolitan University. During her time with ATtherapy, Emily worked predominantly in the medical legal field with clients who had experienced an acquired brain injury. Most recently, Emily was invited to be an expert analyst for the National Autistic Society’s review paper on clinical services and presented at their national conference (2023). She continues to work extensively with the autistic community and supports many non-speaking autistic children.
Emily currently works three days in the NHS with clients with speech sound difficulties, language delays/disorders, hearing impairment, dysfluency, learning disabilities, acquired brain injuries and complex needs alongside her independent practice. As part of this, she continues to work with case managers and solicitors throughout the medical legal process.
All enquiries are welcome.
In-person and virtual assessment and therapy
Emily typically supports families in-person by visiting their home. Following initial assessment, Emily can also liaise with a child’s school and complete school visits to ensure the educational team also feel supported.
In some cases, virtual therapy can be more practical for a family. This involves completing assessment and/or therapy virtually using teletherapy. Teletherapy can be exclusively used as the method for therapy delivery, or it can be combined with some in-person sessions.
Training
Emily is qualified in British Sign Language (level 1), Makaton (level 4) and Signalong. She has also attended extensive training in relation to most AAC systems and frequently delivers training to a range of teams.
Emily can provide bespoke and completely unique training for an individual child’s educational or residential team as well as families.
More general training can also be offered in relation to complex communication needs, typical communication development, speech sound development, early language development, AAC and autism.
EHCP support/Report writing
Emily is skilled at inputting into the EHCP process and can provide direct EHCP assessment as well as EHCP report writing services. She has over 8 years experience liaising with local authorities, schools and educational psychologists when writing robust and SMART goals.
Summary reports (including support strategies) can also be provided following any initial assessment if required. If a report is not requested by a parent or case manager for any reason, verbal feedback can be provided following assessment.
Higgins-Walsh Therapies 