Our Team
Francesca Beard, Speech and Language Therapist
Francesca is a specialist speech and language therapist. She has a special interest in children with developmental language disorder (DLD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and autism spectrum conditions (ASC).
Francesca is neurodivergent herself with a diagnosis of dyslexia and ADHD and therefore has firsthand experience of how these difficulties can impact children and young people throughout their lifespan.
Francesca decided to study speech and language therapy BSc at the Unversity of Reading. This decision was influenced by her family members’ difficulties with speech and language. Francesca's brother was diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia, and Francesca had the pleasure of sitting in on his speech and language therapy sessions at a young age, leading to her later life decision to become a speech and language therapist herself.
Francesca is the founder of Let’s Communicate LTD. She also co-founded and still runs the Allied Health & Therapy Network.
Sarah Beard, Dyslexia Specialist
Sarah is the founder and director of DITTAS. She is a Dyslexia Consultant with extensive experience teaching and assessing learners of all ages, having worked for over twenty-five years supporting dyslexic learners, including many years in a College of Further Education.
Sarah also lectures locally and nationally on the subject of dyslexia and SpLD and has trained over 300 teachers to become Dyslexia Specialists in teaching and assessing students with SpLD (Dyslexia). She was a joint founder of the PAPAA course, a nationally recognised qualification in assessing Access Arrangements.
Sarah offers assessments for all ages and tutors children aged 6-14. She regularly attends training events to supplement her Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and believes that you never stop learning.
https://www.dyslexiaservices.net/