Kids in the Hills Speech Pathology provides assessment and treatment of children 0-8 years to support their development in communication from the clinic at Ferny Grove. Specific goals are negotiated and then become the focus of therapy for a block of appointments. We take the approach of offering specific goal-based therapy blocks usually scheduled around the school terms, rather then ‘ongoing therapy’ indefinitely. Intentional breaks are also scheduled to help your child consolidate new skills and maintain their interest and motivation in therapy sessions.
If your child has difficulties in any of the following areas, please contact us to discuss how we can help. No referral is required.
How I Support Your Child
As a paediatric speech pathologist, I feel incredibly privileged to support children and their families as they grow in confidence and communication. Every child is unique, and therapy is always tailored to their individual strengths and needs.
Every child develops at their own pace — but sometimes they need a little extra support along the way. If you’ve found yourself wondering, “Is this typical?” or “Should I be concerned?” — you’re not alone. That’s often where our journey begins.
Marion loves working with children who experience difficulties with their speech sounds! She has completed additional training in this area, and also regularly provides teaching and training to other speech pathologists about speech difficulties. However often children also may have difficulties with their language or early literacy skills, so she can also help your child in these areas. Here are some of the areas that she commonly supports:
Speech Sound Difficulties
Is your child hard to understand?
Do they substitute different sounds or leave sounds off words?
Some children have difficulty producing certain sounds or patterns of sounds, making their speech hard to understand. Therapy sessions are fun and play based to help your child learn to produce clearer speech so others can understand them and building their confidence to speak.
This may include articulation difficulties with a lisp and difficulties with ‘r’ sounds, or a phonological disorder.
Motor Speech Difficulties (including Childhood Apraxia of Speech)
Some children know exactly what they want to say but have difficulty coordinating their mouth movements to say words clearly. This may be due to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). CAS is a less common speech condition, which results in significant speech difficulties and usually requires intensive therapy to help support the child’s speech development.
Language Delays
Language involves understanding and using words, sentence construction, vocabulary, and storytelling, just to name a few! If your child isn’t talking as much as you expected, or seems to struggle expressing themselves others, we can work together to strengthen those skills in a fun and meaningful way.
Some children need support to:
- Develop their vocabulary
- Put words together into sentences
- Answer questions accurately
- Tell stories
- Use accurate grammar
A full assessment can help to identify what areas of language you’re child may be experiencing difficulties with.
Early literacy delays (spelling and reading)
Some children experience
Literacy skills are simply spoken language written down. Children begin to learn early literacy skills during their kindy years around 4 – 5 years of age. This continues to develop well into their primary school years. Difficulties in this area may include being able to:
- Match sounds with letters
- Blend sounds into words
- Remembering vowels
- Reading fluently and smoothly
Late Talkers
Some toddlers are slower to begin using words. While some catch up naturally, others benefit from early support to strengthen communication foundations and prevent ongoing challenges. Therapy for toddlers often involves
Other areas that speech pathologists may work in
Speech pathologists can also work in other areas of communication such as social skills, children who have autism, stuttering, voice difficulties and feeding difficulties. Note that these are not areas that I have extensive experience in and so currently will usually refer onto other therapists for these conditions
You Don’t Have to Figure It Out Alone
If you’re unsure whether your child needs and support, an assessment can simply provide clarity and reassurance. Sometimes families come in just wanting peace of mind — and that’s completely okay.
Early support can make a meaningful difference, and I’m here to guide you every step of the way. Give us a call to chat further about your concerns and how we could help.
For further information on a child’s communication development, refer to the Speech Pathology Australia Communication Milestones Kit.