Therapy to promote children’s communication

Welcome to the Speech and Language Clinic. My name is Frances O’Brien and I am a Speech and Language Therapist. I have a Master’s Degree in Speech Therapy, and I have been in practice for eighteen years.

I offer services in my clinic in Killaloe, or in my office located near Nenagh. I take pride in offering a  personalised service to all of my clients.

I am a member of the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists IASLT and CORU which are the professional governing bodies representing Speech Therapists /Allied healthcare in Ireland.

I specialise in working with young children who have speech and language difficulties. I work with clients from across the Mid West region including Tipperary, Clare,  Nenagh, East Limerick and Offaly. I provide therapy/assessments in a child’s school, or you can visit me in the East Clinic, Killaloe, Co Clare or in my office in Lower Shallee, Capparoe, E45TY49.

I also work with psychologists, Jason and Clinton Greenford, Psychological Assessment and Learning Solutions PALS as part of a multi-disciplinary team to assess children/adults in relation to Autism/ Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Due to parental requests, Saturday appointments are now available.

I’d like to use this site to share information with you about Speech and Language therapy. See Questions/Answers Section to learn more about specific problems or to ask a question that you may have.

What is the one question people often ask?

What is the difference between Speech and Language?

‘In its simplest terms Speech refers to the production of sounds /words whereas language refers to shared rules about how we communicate meaning. You could say, Speech is the ‘how’ we make the sounds, and language is ‘what’ we say.

An example of a speech difficulty might be saying ‘dat’ for the word ‘cat’

An example of a language difficulty might be the inability to understand the meaning of words or the inability to form a complete sentence’

Frances O’Brien MSc, BSc, RN.

As well as sharing informative pieces like this with you on a regular basis, I would encourage you to email me if you feel your child is having difficulty with either speech or language. You can email me on francesgobrien@gmail.com or you can call me on 087 601 5471.