Jessica Sher Speech Therapist

15/07/2026

Check us out at www.capecognition.co.za 🧟‍♀️

This is my side-gig. When I'm not immersed in diabetes psychology, I'm thinking about brains 🥸

www.capecognition.co.za

13/07/2026

"What does a speech therapist actually do?"

One thing I've realised over the years is that many people think speech therapists only work on pronunciation or helping children say particular sounds.

The reality is much broader (and much more interesting).

Speech therapists work with communication in all its forms, including:

• Understanding and using language
• Social communication skills
• Literacy and early reading foundations
• Neurodivergent children and teenagers
• Feeding difficulties
• Lactation support for new mothers
• Adult neurological conditions affecting communication and swallowing

I particularly enjoy working with children who learn or communicate differently. Often, what looks like a behavioural issue or a learning problem turns out to be something much deeper about how a child processes language and interacts with the world.

At Cape Cognition, Daniel and I often work together to understand the whole picture, combining speech-language perspectives with psychological and neuropsychological assessment.

It's one of the things I love most about this work: helping families make sense of challenges that have sometimes been confusing for years.

01/07/2026

A little announcement (or perhaps a confession):

People often ask what kind of speech therapist I am, and the honest answer is... a bit of a brain nerd.

I love language, communication and all the wonderfully complicated ways that children and adults make sense of the world. Somewhere along the line, that interest expanded from traditional speech therapy into neurodiversity, learning differences and multidisciplinary assessments.

That eventually grew into Cape Cognition, our assessment centre, which I run with my husband, Daniel Sher • Clinical Psychologist. He likes to tell people that I employ him part-time, which is mostly true.

Between the two of us, our household conversations have an alarming tendency to revolve around autism, executive functioning, language development and psychometric reports.

At Cape Cognition, we work together on assessments for children, teenagers and adults, including:

• ADHD and autism assessments
• Speech and language assessments
• Learning difficulties and dyslexia
• Psychoeducational assessments and exam concessions
• Neurodivergence mapping
• Executive functioning and attention difficulties
• Memory and cognitive screening
• Adult neuropsychological assessments
What I particularly enjoy is that we don't look at just one piece of the puzzle.

A child may present with reading difficulties, but underneath that there might be language issues, attention difficulties, executive functioning challenges, anxiety, or a particular neurodivergent profile. Looking at these things together often gives families a much clearer understanding of how their child learns and communicates.

And for my speech therapy families: don't worry - I haven't disappeared into the world of assessment reports entirely. I still love the therapy side of my work, whether that's supporting neurodiverse children, helping with language development, or working with families during the early stages of feeding and lactation journeys.

In many ways, it's all connected. The goal is always the same: helping people understand themselves better and giving them practical recommendations that make everyday life a little easier.

You can find out more here: www.capecognition.co.za

13/11/2024

A box of things:

For the last few months I have been working at a pre-primary school, and have had to dust off the part of the brain where artic therapy has been stored for a while.

I bought these artic cards (slide 3) from and they have been an incredible resource for therapy.

I wanted to share a happy session that I did today. My goals were to work on clusters and assimilation (“lello” for yellow). I had two sessions so I adapted as needed.

I hid a bunch of random objects around the room, and the kids ran around the room looking for them. I hid the objects as well as the artic cards with the sound I wanted to work on. For each item we practiced the target sound at a phrase and sentence level. The kids then popped the object or card into the box.

It was also a great way to work on following commands, prepositions, colour naming, categorisation and I’m sure a bunch of other things I haven’t thought of!

I had fun, the kids had fun, we got a lot of speech practice in and it easily took up the whole 30 minute session.

I tried to use objects that wouldn’t derail the session too much, so mini pegs, big pegs, pom poms, popsicle sticks and game tokens.

I thought I’d just share as I walked away from the school today so chuffed and grateful that I’m able to do this productive and targeted work in an easy and fun way. 🤩🥳💜

07/08/2024

Exciting new project with !
Social groups for teens starting 4 October.
Contact us for more info!

20/02/2024

Have you been considering gender affirming voice therapy? There is no time like the present 🥰

SL Speech Therapy is currently taking on new clients for one-on-one sessions, in pairs or groups of up to four.

Sessions are available online or in person in Gardens, Cape Town.

Please don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions :)

19/02/2024

One of the areas of speech therapy that I really enjoy is working with people who have had strokes or CVAs, which are Cerebrovascular Accidents. A CVA happens when part of the brain doesn’t receive blood, sometimes due to a clot.

I came across this article which shows how speech therapy can help with a condition that is fairly common after a stroke. This is called Aphasia and refers to difficulties with how one understands and produces language.

The article shows that 3 weeks of intensive speech therapy can significantly enhance verbal communication for people who have had a stroke.

Article link:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)30067-3/abstract

16/02/2024

Research shows that implementing a structured routine can lead to improved sleep quality and duration for individuals with ASD.

Positive routines and bedtime fading both showed some success in assisting with sleep. Elements of both techniques (and others) can be explored in our sessions together to help your child get more and better sleep.

🛌 Let’s collaborate to develop a personalised routine that supports your child’s sleep needs.


Article link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-017-3398-4

15/02/2024

According to recent studies, sticking to a structured daily schedule can help regulate sleep patterns and promote better rest. In this study, researchers used two techniques: Bedtime Fading and Positive routines.

“Bedtime fading involves temporarily moving bedtime to more closely coincide with the child’s natural sleep onset, so as to ensure rapid sleep initiation, and then fading this earlier if sleep onset latency remains short according to developmental norms and parental wishes (Morgenthaler et al. 2006). A scheduled wake time is also established and sleep is not permitted outside of these times.”

“Positive routines consist of a series of pleasurable calming activities undertaken during wakefulness to facilitate sleep onset (Gruber et al. 2011). A routine is defined as a repetitive and observable behaviour pattern (Koulougliti et al. 2008), which contains five to seven activities and takes between 30 and 40 min to complete (Durand 1998). Completion of each step of a routine is praised informing the child of the transition to the next step (Morgenthaler et al. 2006). Activities move from rich to lean reinforcement and from active (e.g. running) to passive (e.g., reading,).” (Delemere & Dounavi, 2018).

Results from the study suggest some efficacy for both techniques.

💤 Let’s explore the power of routine together and create a bedtime ritual that promotes a peaceful night’s sleep.


Article link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-017-3398-4

14/02/2024

I’ve met many parents who struggle with the same thing. Their child only goes to sleep late at night - sometimes past midnight!

According to Delemere & Dounavi (2018): “While 20–40% of typically developing peers exhibit sleep problems, this increases to 40–80% for children with ASD”.

Research shows that implementing a structured routine can lead to improved sleep quality and duration for individuals with ASD.

🌙In our sessions, we can discuss ways to help your child get to sleep. Together, we can create a peaceful bedtime environment for a restful night’s sleep.



Article link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-017-3398-4