I'm Anjali Rao

I spent eight years as a speech and language therapist in NHS children's services across Berkshire: community clinics, nurseries, school halls, and more carpet time than I can count. I loved it, and I learned the job properly there. I went independent for one reason: time. Time to see families quickly instead of adding them to a list, time to explain things fully, and time to work with nurseries and schools instead of just posting them a report.

I work with children from around eighteen months to eleven years: late talkers, unclear speech sounds, stammering, and school-age children whose language isn't keeping up with their thinking. Parents are part of every session, always. You know your child better than I ever will, and most of the real progress happens between sessions, in your kitchen, in the bath, in the car.

What sessions actually look like

Play, with a clinical spine. To your child, a session at Lark is a game about a hungry puppet, or a very silly grown-up who keeps saying words wrong on purpose. Underneath, every game targets a specific goal from your child's plan, and I'm collecting evidence the whole way through. That isn't a compromise: play is how young children learn, and the research backs it as the way in. You'll never leave wondering what just happened, either. The last five minutes of every session are for you, jargon decoded on the spot. If I ever say 'phonological awareness' without immediately explaining it, you have my full permission to make a buzzer noise.

Two languages at home?

I get asked this a lot, usually with a worried face: 'We speak two languages at home, is that confusing him?' No. The evidence here is clear and cheering: growing up bilingual does not cause speech or language difficulties, and the best thing you can do is keep speaking the language you're most comfortable in, because rich, warm language at home is the goal, whatever the language. I grew up in a house that moved happily between English and Kannada, so this one is personal as well as professional. And if a difficulty is present, it shows up in both languages, which is exactly the kind of thing an assessment untangles.

The unglamorous bit that matters most

I'm registered with the HCPC, the Health and Care Professions Council, the statutory regulator: 'speech and language therapist' is a protected title, and you can check my registration on their public register any time. I'm a member of the RCSLT, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, our professional body. I hold a current enhanced DBS check, the fullest level of criminal-record check for people who work closely with children. I'm fully insured, supervised, and safeguarding trained. None of that is exciting. All of it is exactly what you should demand of anyone who works with your child.

You'll find me in a bright ground-floor room on Church Street in Caversham, or at your kitchen table, or on the nursery carpet, wherever the work works best.