How can we help?

Speech Pathologists are professionals with specialist training and experience in supporting children with speech, language and communication difficulties. This includes, phonology and articulation (speech sounds), comprehension (understanding language), using language (vocabulary and building sentences), pragmatics (social skills) and literacy difficulties.

Assessment

We provide comprehensive speech, language and communication assessments for a wide range of difficulties, including, language delay, global developmental delay, autism, speech sound difficulties and stuttering. The assessment process begins when we chat on the phone which allows me time to gather information about your child’s development and provide you with information about possible funding options.

Once we have completed the assessment process a summary report will be provided and forwarded on to any relevant healthcare or educational professionals that support your child (with your consent). We will discuss therapy goals and devise a therapy plan.

I have specialist skills and experience in administering assessments and providing reports for:

  • educational and funding purposes

  • reports to assist with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) assessments and liaise with referring paediatricians regarding diagnosis and funding options

  • progress reports for paediatricians or GPs

  • progress reports for kinder or school to assist with Individual Education Plans and goal setting in the classroom

Therapy

 

Therapy can take place at the clinic or in your child’s kinder, school or home (additional charges for travel may apply). Therapy sessions are provided in blocks of 45 or 60 minutes sessions. We can decide on the length and frequency of your therapy sessions on a week-by-week basis.

Therapy sessions will focus on achieving your child’s speech, language and communication goals. We will play games; engage in activities at the table and I will demonstrate strategies and home programs for the week ahead. The session will come to an end with some joint goal setting for the week(s) ahead.

Training and Consultations

 

I started working in schools 10 years ago consulting and leading a speech pathology service across 6 primary schools. In 2010 I worked closely with headteachers and teachers across 8 primary schools as part of a pilot study named, ‘A Chance to Talk’ (ACTT) led by The Communication Trust and ICAN (a leading children’s charity in the UK). On behalf of ICAN, I implemented an innovative speech pathology model to support children in educational settings using a 3-wave approach (outlined below):

WAVE 1 – high quality in classroom teaching (training to educators)

 WAVE 2 – targeted language groups delivered in small groups of children with identified speech, language and communication difficulties

 WAVE 3 – 1:1 individual speech and language therapy sessions

Read the final report for the A Chance to Talk pilot study here:

A Chance to Talk report: Download

Since then I have continued to provide support to preschool, primary and secondary schools in both public and private schools across Melbourne.

Speech Pathology St Kilda and Melbourne can provide your education setting with an individualised service that is personalised to suit the needs of the children, demographic and staff. This may be a one off assessment and therapy session, assessment and report writing for either review or funding purposes, teacher training, whole school support, such as implementing visuals and creating an optimum communication environment, running small language/social skills groups and working in classrooms to support educators.

Please contact Roxanne for further information about the services available to your education setting.