Helen Sim

Helen has been a Speech and Language Therapist for 27 years, initially starting out in the NHS, working in community clinics and special schools, including specialist language units. Here, Helen gained a particular interest in autism and social communication difficulties.

Helen moved to a specialist autism education provision for students aged between 5 and 25 years. Helen worked here for 22 years gaining a huge wealth of knowledge and experience of autism and its varying presentations. Helen enjoyed working closely with other professionals as part an MDT. She also worked with many education and care staff as well as families, ensuring that communication advice and strategies were consistently applied throughout all the young person’s settings.

Helen enjoyed working with students of all ages, providing group and individual therapy, alongside ongoing informal and formal assessments. Her therapeutic input extended to supporting students in the classrooms, within their educational environments and beyond! This included supporting educational visits and work experience and of course social visits to shops, cafes etc. to focus on generalising communication skills!

In 2021, Helen decided to move into the diagnostic side of autism and took on a role within an MDT offering autism assessments. Helen enjoyed working as part of the team and using her expertise and knowledge to participate in differential diagnosis discussions and autism diagnosis decisions.

In March 2023, Helen took the leap into a freelance role and is currently providing autism diagnostic assessments as well as providing Speech and Language Therapy input to young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs and/or autism within their educational settings. Helen feels privileged to have such a role within these services and enjoys the opportunity to be involved in diagnostic assessments as well as therapeutic intervention.

Helen is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (SL08757).

Helen is also registered with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RC0013519).