Speech and Language Therapy in English for Children in Istanbul

What Is Speech and Language Therapy, and Which Children Is It For?

Speech and language therapy assesses and supports how a child understands others, expresses themselves, says sounds, speaks fluently, uses their voice and communicates socially. The goal is simple: your child communicates with ease at home, at school and in play.

Families most often come to us because of speech delay, for example with a toddler who is a late talker. We also work with articulation disorders, stuttering, voice problems and language disorders.

Therapy also helps children who understand words later than their peers, in other words children who struggle with receptive language. We work on communication goals with children on the autism spectrum, too. We also support language development in children with hearing loss, cleft lip and palate, and Down syndrome.

Speech Therapy in English and Bilingual Turkish-English Sessions

Many expat, international and mixed-nationality families in Istanbul look for an English-speaking speech therapist for their child. At our centre, all therapy is available in English: speech and language therapy, occupational therapy with sensory integration, DIR/Floortime and our special support programmes.

Some children grow up with Turkish and English together, for example English at home and Turkish at nursery or school. For them we offer bilingual Turkish-English sessions. We plan these around your child's language profile: the languages spoken at home, the language of their school and how your child uses each one.

The two languages work differently. Turkish adds endings to words to build meaning and usually puts the verb last. English relies more on word order and short words such as "the" and "is". Turkish has no "th" sound, and its "r" differs from the English one. Keeping this in mind helps our therapists tell a normal bilingual pattern from a real difficulty.

Read more on our bilingual children page and in does bilingualism delay speech?

What Does a Children's Speech and Language Therapist Do?

A children's speech and language therapist assesses your child's communication skills and works on clear goals through play. They also show you what to practise at home, and how.

You may know this professional as a speech therapist, speech and language therapist, speech-language pathologist or logopedist. These names all describe the same profession.

An audiologist, on the other hand, assesses hearing, so the two professions work together when a hearing problem is suspected. For example, enlarged adenoids and fluid in the ear can sometimes affect hearing, and therefore speech.

When Should You Seek Speech and Language Therapy?

If your child says no words at 18 months, it is time for an assessment. If they cannot put two words together at 2 years, talk to a specialist without waiting. It is also an early sign when people outside the family find your child hard to understand.

So if you have a concern, do not put off an assessment, because the brain is most open to learning language in these early years. Even so, no age is too late for therapy.

See what to expect at each age in language milestones from 0 to 6, plus our guides for a 2-year-old who is not talking and a 3-year-old who talks very little. If autism is a concern, read autism or speech delay? and a child who does not respond to their name.

For a bilingual child, count the words they know in both languages together. The table below sums up common warning signs and when they are usually noticed.

Areas We Work On in Speech and Language Therapy

We work in seven main areas, and each has its own page describing the signs.

Some conditions overlap with these areas. In phonological disorder, a child mixes up sound patterns rather than a single sound. In childhood apraxia of speech, the brain finds it hard to plan the movements needed for speech.

Cluttering, which means fast and disorganised speech, affects fluency in a different way. In pragmatic language disorder, a child knows the words but struggles to keep a conversation going. In selective mutism, a child talks freely at home but stays silent at school and around strangers.

For children who are not talking yet, augmentative and alternative communication such as PECS can act as a bridge. It gives the child a way to say what they want while speech develops.

What Happens in a Speech Therapy Session?

At our centre, each speech therapy session lasts 40 minutes and is one to one. The therapist builds it around play, because children learn best when they are having fun. For example, the target sound or a new word goes inside a game your child loves.

Each session has small, measurable goals, so the therapist can track progress from one session to the next. At the end, you hear what your child worked on and what to practise at home.

Most children come once or twice a week. We agree the exact number after the first assessment, based on your child's needs. To see how this differs from Floortime, read what happens in a Floortime session.

From the First Meeting to a Therapy Plan at Çocukla Akademi

The process has four steps: booking, a first meeting, an individual plan and regular reviews.

1. Booking: You share your observations briefly by WhatsApp or phone, and we choose a date for the first meeting together.

2. First meeting: The therapist observes your child in play and talks with you about their developmental history. This is a play-based developmental evaluation; we do not use standardised tests or rating scales. For bilingual children, we also ask which languages your child hears at home and at school.

3. Individual plan: We share the priority goals and how often sessions should take place, so you know from the start what we will focus on.

4. Regular reviews: We update the plan at set intervals as your child progresses.

Please bring any paediatrician, ENT or hearing reports, including ones from another country, and notes from your child's teacher. The booking steps are on our appointment page.

The Family's Role and the Home Programme

The family is the most important part of therapy, because your child spends most of the week at home. So after each session, the therapist suggests short games to repeat at home. Two simple habits work very well: talk face to face with eye contact, and repeat your child's words back in a slightly longer form.

When needed, we plan your home routine together through parent guidance and home programme consultancy. Our articles on language activities at home and how screen time affects language give everyday ideas.

In a bilingual home, speak to your child in the language you feel most at ease with. In the preschool years, the teacher is part of the process too, whether the nursery uses English, Turkish or both. See our article on preschool and family partnership.

Who Oversees the Therapy Plans?

Our founder, Alev Akıncı Yıldız, is a Specialist Audiologist (MSc) and DIR Floortime therapist. She supervises every therapy plan in our team.

After training in audiology, she specialised in DIR Floortime through the DIR 101 and 201 courses and Floortime supervision training. She works in a family-centred way, especially with children who have autism, late talking or stuttering. Read her full background on our About Us page.

Speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and DIR/Floortime run under one roof with a shared file. So for a child who receives autism support, for example, the team plans the goals together.

Our Centre in Beykent and the Areas Families Come From

Our only centre is in Beykent, and we have no branches. The address is Cumhuriyet Mah. Yıldıray Çınar Sk. No:21 D:1, Beykent, 34520 Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, Türkiye. We are open Monday to Saturday, from 09:00 to 18:00.

Beykent sits right on the Beylikdüzü border. That is why we also work with families from Beylikdüzü, Esenyurt, Bahçeşehir and Avcılar. Our Büyükçekmece, Silivri and Çatalca pages have information for families in those areas.

Wherever you live, therapy takes place face to face at this centre. Other ways to reach us are on our contact page.