B.Sc. (Hons.) Speech and Language Pathology

Louise obtained her B.Sc. (Hons.) in Speech and Language Pathology (with merit in clinical practice) in 1997 from The University of Strathclyde, Scotland. Shortly after graduating, she moved to Hong Kong for six months and has been here ever since!

In this time, Louise has gained vast experience from working in a range of educational establishments with children of all ages. She has close working links with a range of professionals in Hong Kong and a broad knowledge of services available. She particularly enjoys working with families to empower them with knowledge and skills to develop their children’s functional abilities. Her sessions are fun and dynamic and she aims to assist children in achieving their maximum communicative potential.

Testimonials

Our son came to SPOT for a short series of speech therapy sessions. He was able to become fully involved during the sessions through the constant support and encouragement from his therapist Miss Louise McCann. I was delighted to see not only his progress but sheer enjoyment when exploring and tackling the content he was presented with.  The relaxed yet structured approached ensured results were achieved. Our son is still able to refer to his therapy sessions during day to day activities.  I valued the opportunity to observe a professional speech therapist while accompanying my son in the sessions. I discovered how games and books we already had at home could be used as a learning tool to develop spoken language.  The environment and atmosphere of the centre was non threatening. This ensured my son was comfortable and able to apply the skills he developed in his everyday life. We also implemented the recommendations suggested at home and have all benefitted from the results.

Mrs Burke

It is such a relief to find Louise, she is amazing with children and can win over any child and quickly works out what makes your child tick. I love her style; she is approachable, friendly, positive and extremely professional. It can be difficult to find all of that in one person in Hong Kong, but we are fortunate to have found that in
Louise.

Sam’s mum

Louise McCann has been my son Max’s principal speech therapist since he was aged 3.5 years. He was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder (N.O.S) and was chiefly non verbal at that time. Louise introduced him to PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) and this was greatly beneficial in breaking through to him: she also trained me to use PECS to help him widen his vocabulary. Later as his speech emerged he had weekly therapy with her, where she taught him using fun and interesting methods to keep such a young and inattentive child engaged.

When Max started at junior school, Max continued to see Louise in twice weekly group sessions. There she developed some excellent strategies to overcome his echolalia, and develop his listening strategies which were a major problem.

In more recent years Louise has helped Max to incorporate social skills into his speech therapy sessions, because the lack of these was hindering his success with social communication.

Louise has always managed the therapy in a professional yet responsive and child centred way, which has been extremely successful for Max. She has also had many valuable suggestions for me as a parent with games, strategies and ideas for encouraging Max at home.

Max’s mum

Louise’s work with the students at our school has not only been beneficial but extremely significant to their learning. Her experience, wealth of knowledge and mode of delivery make the sessions a very positive experience for our students who love coming to their ‘speech sessions.’

One of the main advantages of having Louise ‘on–site’ is being able to work together as a team. Louise has offered suggestions and delivered workshops, not only to our own department but to the mainstream teachers as well. This has provided invaluable opportunities for further inclusivity and to develop the school as a whole and of course having Louise’s expert advice regarding communication, speech and language at close proximity!

I have always thought and will continue to believe that we are very lucky to have Louise as part of our team. Her contributions to the Learning Support Class team, the students and to the school coupled with her dedicated support make her indispensable!

Learning Support Class Teacher

In early 2007, my family moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong in search of support for my 4.5 years old son, Gary who has autism.  Louise has been Gary’s speech therapist from day one. In just 4 years time, Gary has turned from a non-speaker to a confident and socially happy boy. I am very grateful to Louise for her patience, her expertise in speech therapy and her dedication. Without her, Gary would not have reached this far.

From Charles and Themis

Over the eight years I worked with Louise, I found her to be a very motivated and dedicated speech therapist. Louise is able to set very realistic goals for her clients and has the instinctive ability to be able to help them generalise their goals over a wide variety of settings.  She is very organised in her approach to therapy and always has high expectations both of herself and her clients, thus enabling them to constantly reach their highest potential.
 
Occupational Therapist

Louise McCann joined the Bradbury School Learning Support Centre team in 2004 as the Speech and Language Therapist. I had the privilege of working with Louise for a number of years and under her stewardship, she gave the team a new dimension as an integral member of the multi-disciplinary team. The Learning Support Centre caters for students with moderate and severe learning difficulties including Downs Syndrome, Autism, hearing impairment, behaviour difficulties, language/ communication disorders, physical disabilities and global developmental delay. The students’ ages range from 5 to 12 years old. Louise is an energetic, enthusiastic and creative member of the team. She provides refreshing and innovative approaches to developing students’ social and communication skills, and strategies to navigate the intricacies in the Art of Conversations. Her methodical approach in interacting and in dealing with students with learning difficulties has been extremely beneficial. She demonstrates an understanding of and sensitivity to the needs of the students. She has a lovely manner with the students and they respond to her. With the same joie de vivre with students, Louise provided on-going information and practical workshops and training for parents and educational assistants to develop strategies and techniques to enhance student learning. Additionally, Louise is continually developing and refining her own understanding and expertise by up-skilling professionally in order to keep abreast of latest developments. Louise is an exceptionally hardworking and conscientious team member who has always shown great dedication and willingness to learn more, to assist professionals and to support the students.

Gail Wright
Head of Individual Needs West Island School January 2011