Speech Pathology

Helping Your Child Communicate With The World

- Speech Pathologists are health professionals who can diagnose and treat communication problems and swallowing and eating difficulties. They can also support children in their social and literacy development. -

What to Expect at Occumax

At Occumax we help your child to communicate effectively with others. Speech Pathologists look at more than just being able to speak clearly without any articulation problems.

They also help your child to express themselves so that they make sense to others and help them to understand what others are saying to them so that they can participate in meaningful conversations.

We help your child to develop a functional communication system, whether that be with talking, signing or pictures, so that they can connect with others through the mutual sharing of thoughts, ideas, emotions and needs.

Your Child’s Initial Assessment

An initial assessment usually takes about 1.5 hours. Both you and your child need to be present.

During this appointment, your Speech Pathologist will discuss your main concerns and observe your child participating in the tasks that they have difficulty with. Standardised assessments may also be administrated.

Your Speech Pathologist will also be on the look out for a range of foundation skills that are important for your child's communication, social and literacy development, such your child's:

Engagement, interaction & eye contact.
Ability to open & close circles of communication.
The purpose behind communication attempts such as protesting, commenting, questioning & greeting.
Speech sounds including if they say them all, leave some out, substitute one sound for another or jumble them around.
Language abilities such as following instructions & understanding what is said.
Ability to answer questions and construct sentences correctly.
Ability to use grammar correctly such as plurals, past & present tense and pronouns like he/she, his/her.
Understanding of the building blocks of literacy such as knowing letter sounds, sight words, rhyming, syllables, reading and spelling.
Ability to maintain a conversation & stay on topic.
Understanding of social rules.
Ability to know what & how to say things during conversations.
Fluency issues such as stuttering, not being able to get words out, or talking too fast.
Voice quality, tone and pitch such as a husky or nasal voice.

Your Child’s Intervention

After your therapist has analysed your child’s assessment results, they will discuss the findings with you. They will also discuss what intervention approach will best suit your child, set intervention goals and you can decide how often you would like therapy.

Parents are required to attend therapy appointments, unless otherwise agreed. This gives you the opportunity to see how to do the activities at home and the cues and prompts your child responds to. It also allows you to discuss any issues or questions you might have about your child’s development.

Depending on your child’s needs, goals and age, your therapist may recommend or utilise the following intervention approaches:

Individual therapy sessions (usually 45 minutes, weekly, fortnightly or monthly) utilising:

Play based therapy
TalkAbility™ - The Hanen Program®
More Than Words® - The Hanen Program®
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)
Write2Spell
The Lidcombe Program For Children Who Stutter
Augmentative & Alternative Communication systems
Traditional speech & language therapy approaches
Pragmatic Organised Dynamic Display (PODD) Books

Education of parents – We believe no question is too small or “silly” for you to ask
Home program activities
Consultation with teachers or other children involved in your child's life
Small group therapy sessions:

Hanen Groups
Playing & Learning To Socialise (PALS) Group

Book A Speech Pathology Appointment

Book online or call our office on 07 4818 0445 to make an appointment for your child.

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Got Questions?

Use the enquiry form below or call us on 07 4818 0445 to find out about how our Speech Pathologists can help your child.

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