Rachel Sievers is an independent speech language therapist based in the UK that has been proactively supporting a growing number of adults with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). In this episode of The Talking DLD Podcast, Rachel talks us through assessing adults and the types of supports people with DLD need later in life.
aBOUT rACHEL sIEVERS
Rachel has worked as a speech and language therapist for 25 years with children and adults with speech, language and communication needs, for the NHS, at Moor House School with children and young people with DLD, and as an independent practitioner.
Rachel has a particular interest in working with adults with DLD and, over the last 10 years, they have developed a specialist service for them. This is not something currently available in many places the UK, either through the NHS or private services.
Rachel’s work includes actively raising awareness of the challenges and strengths of adults with DLD.
In 2020, Rachel co-produced the first video on this subject for DLD Awareness Day with Lily Farrington and other adults with DLD – ‘Life as an adult with DLD’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgSgvvPX-EY
Since 2019, Rachel has worked with a number of teams to develop their awareness and understanding of how to enable people with DLD to work, learn and use their skills effectively. These have included Access to Work (government-funded workplace) assessors, employers, university disability support teams and a range of speech and language therapists.
Rachel has worked on an increasing number of adult DLD research projects over the last few years.
Rachel worked with Courtenay Norbury and Mark Boyes and a UK-Australian project to understand the mental health issues of people with DLD. This led to a paper in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 2024 – ‘Impact of developmental language disorders on mental health and well-being across the lifespan: a qualitative study including the perspectives of UK adults with DLD and Australian speech-language therapist.’
Rachel is currently on the steering group of the ‘DLD Questions’ (research prioritisation) project and was a consultant to the Embracing Complexity research prioritisation for co-occurring neurodevelopmental conditions in 2023.
Rachel received an award for leadership in raising awareness and developing services for adults with DLD from the Association of Speech and Language Therapists (ASLTIP) in 2024.
Rachel gave a presentation at the NAPLIC conference 2024 on learning from adults with DLD.
Rachel is a consultant on the STAND Screening Tool project to trial for identifying undiagnosed DLD in adults.
Rachel is currently developing an assessment for DLD in adults with a team of independent speech and language therapists.
Between 2024 and 2025 Rachel presented at the NHS Scotland and National Autism Implementation Team event and the UCL event on diagnosing DLD in adults.
Rachel helps to raise the profile of adults with DLD by commenting and posting regularly on Linked In and Blue Sky on issues affecting adults with DLD.
Phone: 07811-287823
Email: sievers@brightonspeechtherapist.co.uk
