Speech Pathology Services in Belconnen
Speech Pathology services can encompass a wide range of clinical areas from speech sounds through to eating and drinking difficulties or establishing communication through technology.
We break down our supports into three key areas that we can provide support for your child. In many cases, your child may be having difficulties in more than one area. We are fortunate to have a diverse team of practitioners that can support you across each of these different areas. A key part of our intake process is matching your child with a practitioner that is passionate about supporting your child in the clinical area you identify most closely with.
Speech pathologists can support your child with a range of communication needs. This can include speech sounds, language, literacy, social skills and stuttering.
We can provide therapy for speech sounds for children who have difficulty producing individual sounds making it difficult to be understood by others.
For children requiring language supports, our speech pathologists can help children who difficulty understanding or using words to communicate meaning from one person to the other. We can help children to develop their story telling skills, attention skills, memory, problem solving, organisation and thinking skills.
In early school years, the ability to recognise letters, know which sounds are associated with individual letters, being able to break words into individual sounds and the ability to blend sounds together to read words form the basis of reading and spelling. At Eat Speak Learn we can help children to improve their literacy skills and love to work on functional outcomes like being able to read their favourite book, read the bus timetable to get to school on time, text or instant message friends and family.
Making and keeping friends is a challenge many children face. Eat Speak Learn therapists can help children develop social communication skills including building their understanding of what to say in certain situations, how to start or finish a conversation, building awareness of other people’s tone of voice or body language, how to take turns speaking when participating in a conversation, and learning how to ask questions. They can also support children to build their awareness of self and self esteem to support the development of connections with others. These supports can be delivered across 1:1 and group sessions.
Stuttering occurs when speech is interrupted by words which come out ‘bumpy’ or ‘get stuck’. These can sound like:
- repeated sounds, words or phrases, e.g. s.s.s.snake, and…and…and…, I will…I will…
- stretched words, e.g. w……………..when
- blocks where you may notice silence or pauses before words come out, groping movements or eye blinking
Some children will develop a stutter that will resolve by itself while others will require intervention. At Eat Speak Learn, we can help children who stutter speak more fluently.
At Eat Speak Learn we love having the opportunity to work children across a diverse range of needs and meeting you and your child where you are at.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is any type of communication for people with a range of conditions who may use nonspeaking communication to get their message across. AAC may combine gestures, eye pointing, vocalisations or pointing to symbols as communication for people with limited or no spoken language.
AAC can assist people who use limited or no spoken language to develop language skills and enable independence, participation and inclusion in daily activities. It’s an important tool that can give people more communication control and decrease frustration. Therapists may suggest an augmentative and alternative communication system if speech is slow to develop or not used, or as a back-up if speech ability is very limited or difficult to understand. An AAC system may be either a short or a long-term solution to communication difficulties being experienced.
At Eat Speak Learn we understand that the journey of implementing an AAC device is different for every individual and each circumstance needs special considerations to get the best outcomes. We tailor our support and recommendations specifically to your needs as we gain an understanding of your requirements. We can train clients and families to use alternative and/or augmentative strategies and devices to optimise the client’s communication
It is important to know that using an AAC system will not prevent a child from developing spoken language.
Did you know speech pathologists can help with eating and drinking? At Eat Speak Learn we support infants through to teenagers with sensory, oral motor, and/or swallow safety concerns.
We can support your child to build confidence expanding their range of accepted foods, their willingness to engage with new foods, and build the skills to eat a varied diet. We support children to use their lips, tongue and jaw, to suck, bite, chew and swallow foods safely and efficiency to make mealtimes enjoyable, and support children to participate in the social aspects of mealtimes.
We can also create and manage feeding plans to manage your child’s safety at mealtimes including assessing and recommending texture modifications across both food and drink. We provide intervention through 1:1 supports, and groups and can provide environmental supports with your child’s daycare, extended family and school.
