Bumble Bee Speech Therapy

16/10/2025

📖 October is Dyslexia Awareness Month!
We LOVE supporting our clients with their literacy development at all stages of learning. We focus on phonemic awareness, sound-letter correspondence, and blending and segmenting skills to empower our little learners to build strong reading foundations. Our therapists use a range of techniques including the Sounds Write program to make a real difference.

08/10/2025

Holiday fun that boosts communication skills!

Here are 3 easy, screen-free activities that support your child’s speech and language goals over the holidays:

👀 iSpy – Great for growing vocabulary and practicing speech sounds!
👫Play Dates – Encourage turn-taking, conversation skills, and social confidence through play.
📚 Reading Together – Builds vocabulary, strengthens literacy skills, and improves reading fluency.

Let the holidays be full of connection, learning, and lots of laughter!

01/10/2025

Therapy tools we LOVE and why they work! 🎉💬

🐷 Pop the Pig - A favourite for increasing engagement, turn-taking, and teaching cause and effect - all while keeping little ones motivated and laughing!

🛒 Bluey’s Shopping Game - Everyone loves Bluey! This game supports receptive and expressive language, vocabulary development, pragmatic skills, and pretend play - a total win for both fun and function.

🥕 Pretend Play Food - Whether we’re “cooking,” “shopping,” or running a pretend café, this is a go-to for encouraging imaginative play, flexible thinking, social interaction, and rich language opportunities across the board!

These toys may look simple, but they’re powerful tools in supporting communication development.

18/09/2025

During a Speech Pathology assessment, we explore how a child understands and uses language, produces sounds, and communicates with those around them. It's all play-based, fun, and designed to help us build a full picture of their speech and language strengths 🌟

15/09/2025

One in four children are starting school with a communication delay. Early intervention is crucial to make sure no child falls through the gaps.

29/08/2025

🗣️✨ Celebrating Speech Pathology Week!
This year, we’re shining a light on how speech pathologists foster opportunities through communication — empowering voices, building connections, and opening doors across every stage of life. 💬💙

28/08/2025

Happy Birthday to us! 🎈 We are so proud to have been supporting the families in our community for half a decade. We’re beyond grateful to the beautiful families and professionals who’ve been part of our story so far 🎉

27/08/2025

Welcome to our Bumble Bee Speech Therapy Instagram account - supporting little voices to grow and thrive!

We’re based in North Sydney, offering fun, play-based speech and language therapy for children of all ages.
We help kids communicate with confidence, one step at a time. 🗣️✨

Appointments available now, no waitlist!

26/08/2025

Inclusion through Communication

Every person deserves to be heard. Speech pathologists advocate for accessible, diverse communication, whether through Auslan, AAC, or tailored supports.

Communication is for everyone.

Inclusion through Communication

Every person deserves to be heard. Speech pathologists advocate for accessible, diverse communication, whether through Auslan, AAC, or tailored supports.

Communication is for everyone.

https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPweek

04/07/2025

Play sounds are an awesome "stepping stone" on the way to communicating with words! Many young children will use pretend play and play sounds to develop their communication skills as they progress towards using using words and combining them into sentences.

I have a friend with a child with significant speech-language delay. One morning when that little girl was a toddler, I read on her mom’s blog that the little one started to fake cough last week!!!

 
That’s HUGE!! 
 
 
I got so excited for her and I hope if you’re a pediatric SLP reading this, you did too!
 

Please don’t miss the emergence of these “play sounds.” To reiterate my point, that’s HUGE in the continuum of helping a child become purposefully verbal.

 
Play sounds or sound effects can be an important “in between” step for lots of late talkers before they begin to try to imitate real words.

 
In my zeal to help her from afar, I sent her my list of other kinds of play sounds she can introduce to get other kinds of play sounds going. Here’s a copy for you too!
 
Try these Play Sounds
Pant like a dog
Gasp
Squeal or scream
Grunt with effort
Yawn
Fake cough
Fake sneeze
Car/Truck noises
Siren noise
Fake laugh
Fake cry
Whine
Snore
Slurp with drinking
Exhale after drink
Shiver
“Sh!” for quiet
Growl

My lists could go on and on and on... : ) Sometimes pairing a hand motion or another body movement with a sound will make it easier for a child to begin to imitate. For example, cover your mouth with your hand when you fake laugh or close your eyes when you snore. You may not hear the vocalization right away, but if the child imtiates the hand movements, you know he understands the process and will later begin to add the sound.

04/07/2025

The theme of NAIDOC week this year is "The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy". This year, NAIDOC Week marks a powerful milestone: 50 years of honouring and elevating Indigenous voices, culture, and resilience.

Bumble Bee Speech Therapy acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the North Sydney area, the Cammeraygal people, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

24/06/2025

Phonics Books provides amazing free resources to help our early readers build their confidence with using different spellings for the same sound!

'Three', 'leaf', 'athlete' - these words all include the sound /ee/.

One of the trickiest things for beginner readers to learn is that phonemes can be spelled in different ways. It is very helpful to have a list of variations to hand for each phoneme.

Our free poster can be printed and displayed in the classroom, or adapted into a phonics activity. By covering each spelling variation with a piece of paper and testing learners on the examples, you can help cement your students' understanding of the /ee/ sound.

Download for free from our website:
🌍 https://phonicbooks.co.uk/products/one-sound-different-spellings-ee
🇺🇸 https://phonicbooks.com/products/one-sound-different-spellings-ee