As paediatric Speechies, a question we hear a lot from parents is “my child can talk, so I’m not sure why we’ve been referred to you.”

We absolutely get it! The word ‘speech’ can be quite misleading, as Speech Pathologists focus on all aspects of communication.

Let’s break down the different areas that Speech Pathologists can help with!

Speech Sounds

We know that there are ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways to say our speech sounds. Providing therapy for speech sounds – teaching children how to use their lips, tongue, teeth, and airflow together to correctly produce speech sounds – is possibly the thing that Speech Pathologists are most known for.

We also work with children who may be producing their sounds correctly, but using them in the wrong words. Think of kids who say ‘wun’ instead of ‘run’, ‘ta’ instead of ‘star’, ‘tup’ instead of ‘cup’, or ‘fing’ instead of ‘thing’. (Or every parent’s favourite, truck-obsessed kids who say ‘f’ instead of ‘tr’…). We help these kids to understand that different sounds give words different meanings, and teach them to use the correct sounds in their words.

Language Development

Early Language: For toddlers and young children who are late to start talking, we work with parents and carers, teaching them strategies that will help their child learn to talk.

Receptive Language: For pre-schoolers, school-aged kids, and teenagers, we can help those who have difficulty remembering information, following instructions, understanding concepts like first/last/before/after, understanding what sentences mean, and understanding word meanings.

Expressive Language: For pre-schoolers, school-aged kids, and teenagers, we can help with grammar, sentence structure, and putting words and sentences together to express thoughts and ideas.

Literacy Development

Reading and writing involves using written language, so literacy is another area that Speech Pathologists work on with our clients. Reading skills, reading comprehension, spelling, and written expression skills are areas that we commonly work on with our school-aged, teenage, and young adult clients.

Stuttering

We use a range of strategies to help people speak smoothly and confidently in conversation, and work closely with psychologists to support our clients whose anxiety plays a role in their stuttering.

Social Communication

Understanding the different ways that people communicate, interacting and engaging with others, speaking up for your wants and needs, and identifying what we need to engage confidently in our schools and communities are areas that we love to support our clients in, particularly those who are having difficulty making and keeping friends, navigating conflict and disagreements, or using problem-solving strategies.

Bringing it Together

Since Speech Pathologists work on such a large range of areas and skills, it can be difficult to know what each child should and shouldn’t be able to do at their age. For free information about speech and language milestones, head to https://www.leapsandbounds.net.au/news-blog. If you think your child may need a Speech Pathologist, get in touch with the team at Leaps & Bounds Speech

Pathology – we’d love to support you!