About us…

Speech Sparks is run by Stephanie Barnett, an independent paediatric Specialist Speech Therapist with 7 years of experience across NHS and independent practice.

We offer face-to-face and online services to families with children and young people from 2 years and beyond! The service specialises in the below areas, but can support with other areas of speech and language development. Get in touch to discuss your child’s needs before deciding whether we are the right service for you.

Speech Sound Differences

Speech sound differences occur when a child or young person has difficulty producing certain sounds clearly, which can make their speech harder to understand. These sound differences might follow typical patterns seen in younger children, while others may have more unusual or inconsistent errors.

These differences can affect confidence, participation in school, and social interactions. Speech therapy provides assessment to understand each child’s unique speech profile and offers tailored, evidence-based support to help them develop clearer, more confident communication skills using bespoke adaptations to support optimum success for them!

    • Trouble saying certain sounds – for example, saying “wabbit” instead of ‘rabbit’.

    • Using sound error patterns that make speech hard to understand – like leaving off the last sound in words (“bu” for ‘bus’).

    • Speech sounds developing later than expected – your child isn’t using sounds other children their age can use.

    • Mixing up sounds – swapping one sound for another, such as “tat” for ‘cat’.

    • Distortions – when s or z sounds are produced as a th sound; or sounds are slushy.

    • Difficulty putting sounds together – speech may sound very unclear because the brain struggles to plan the right movements.

    • Mouth and tongue habits affecting speech – for example tongue pushing forward when talking, which can change how sounds are made.

    • Nasality - when sounds are produced through the nose, instead of the mouth

    • Sound and syllable awareness - an essential skill for phonics and literacy development

Multilingual Development

Multilingual development refers to how children and young people learn and use more than one language. This may include growing up with two or more languages at home, learning English as an additional language, or moving between languages in different settings such as home and school.

Speech therapy can help identify whether a child’s communication profile reflects expected multilingual development or an underlying communication need. Assessment and support are tailored to the child’s full language background, valuing and supporting all languages that they use.

Our Director, Stephanie Barnett has developed specialist pathways to support multilingual families within the NHS and private services. She is now supporting the next generation of therapists by delivering multilingualism lectures at Newcastle University.

    • Speech sounds - there may be differences across all or only some languages. Assessment and therapy will be carried out in all languages to ensure system wide change.

    • Silent period - may present like ‘selective mutism’ in the early stages of new language learning

    • Uneven skills across languages, with delay or disorder across both

    • Word finding difficulties or challenges with learning new vocabulary

    • Mixing languages within sentences or across contexts (code-switching)

Stammering (or stuttering) and Cluttering

Stammering and cluttering are fluency differences that can affect how smoothly a child or young person speaks.

Stammering (sometimes called stuttering) may involve repetitions (e.g. “b-b-b-ball”), prolonging sounds (“ssssun”), or moments where words feel stuck. Some children may also show physical tension or avoidance if speaking feels difficult.

Cluttering is less widely known and often involves speaking very quickly or in an uneven rhythm, which can make speech sound jumbled or hard to follow. A child may leave out sounds or words without realising.

Fluency differences can impact confidence, participation in class, and social interactions. Speech therapy provides supportive, evidence-based approaches tailored to each individual child.

    • Increase confidence and comfort when speaking

    • Reduce physical tension or avoidance of words, situations

    • Support parents to feel empowered to maximise their child’s fluency and build their own confidence skills, generally through the Palin Parent Child Interaction Approach or Solution Focussed Care

    • Increase awareness and control of speech rate and clarity (for cluttering)

    • Build resilience and positive attitudes towards communication

    • Support participation in home and school activities, increasing emotional wellbeing

    • Working together to find comfortable ways of explaining their speech differences to peers, teachers etc.

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