Hello, I am Nathalie Tilon

My name is Nathalie Tilon, Dutch speech therapist living and working in Chile. In the Netherlands, after graduating, I worked with various groups in a speech therapy practice (language/speech problems, abnormal mouth habits and voice problems) and a care centre (aphasia, dysphagia and dysarthria).

Currently, besides being a speech therapist, I work as an English teacher at a Chilean school two mornings a week and on Saturdays as a Dutch teacher at the NTC school De Andes. I studied speech therapy because I love working with people, languages and communication. I was raised bilingual myself (Dutch/Spanish) and also speak English.

Here, I work as a speech and language therapist in three languages – Spanish, English and Dutch – and mainly with children who have language and/or speech difficulties. As an English teacher, I work at the school with primary-aged children and privately with adults. At the NTC school, I initially taught the upper primary class for three years and have now been teaching the nursery class for the past two years. As a speech and language therapist, this group is particularly interesting because we work on, amongst other things, oral language skills (vocabulary/word usage), phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle (sound awareness/recognising symbols and signs), as well as speaking fluently and clearly (forming sentences).

I am communicative, flexible and eager to learn. I have completed two post HBO courses in speech therapy in recent years; diploma in specific language disorders and diploma in special education. I also take regular refresher courses in Dutch school. My latest certificate was Becoming a Teacher, which was about class management.

What I like most about my job is that no two days are the same, I enjoy working with both children and adults, I work in the three languages I master and that also makes it varied. One of the most important skills is being able to communicate effectively, helping clients with this is the best thing there is.