Aoife is originally from Ardara, in South West Donegal. She completed a masters in Speech and Language Therapy (Professional Qualification) in the University of Limerick achieving a First Class Honours. She began her experience working as a Speech and Language Therapist in Galway gaining experience working with a paediatric caseload supporting families who had children with multiple complex needs.
Aoife worked her way up to Senior Speech and Language Therapist before moving to the United States and working across Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland for six years. She gained experience working at the Delaware Autism Program. This is the location where PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) was initially developed and she was afforded the opportunity to learn about and use many principles of applied behaviour analysis.
Aoife also worked in Early Intervention across Delaware supporting families in their homes, mainly with children who had delayed speech and language skills and the role involved equipping parents with the skills to teach their children how to understand and use language to meet their needs, express their thoughts and ideas, reduce frustration and to have fun.
Aoife became an Assistive Technology Specialist through the University of California. She has a keen interest in this area and worked providing these services to support children to communicate and access the curriculum across Maryland. She worked in the Cecil County Public School system providing therapy to children in the public school system both with primary speech/articulation difficulties, language delays/disorders and those with other learning differences e.g. Autism in the main stream classroom environment.
Aoife moved back to Galway and worked providing Speech and Language Therapy to individuals under six and their families. She has now come back to her native Donegal to provide families here with the opportunity to access her knowledge and experience.
Aoife has a strong interest in working with Autistic children and adults. In all of her roles she has gained experience in this field and always strives to have the best continued professional development courses on this area in order to be able to stay up to date with current research and developments.
Aoife has completed trainings on many areas of Speech, Language and Communication ranging from Avoidance Reduction Therapy for Stuttering (ARTS®), extensive training in AAC (including recent completion of Authentic AAC from The AAC Coach and AAC for Gestalt Language Processors ~ A Meaningful SpeechTM Course), Postgraduate Certificate in Eating, Drinking and Swallowing, to a Certification in Unified English Braille. She has a Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech and Language Pathology, is a registered member of CORU the governing body in Ireland for Speech and Language Therapists. She is a member of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association and Independent Speech-Language Therapists of Ireland.