SPEAK Speech Pathology, Sydney (2025)

05/12/2021

So excited to finally be Orofacial Myology Trained ✔️ 👅👄🦷

23/08/2021

Communication is EVERYONE's right!

🛑 Did you know?! 🛑

🇦🇺 1.2 million Australians live with some sort of communication disability.

👻 Communication disability is largely invisible, often unseen and out-of-sight.

🗣 Confident communication helps maximise educational, health and social outcomes.

✏️👂🏻👯‍♀️📖🧠 Communication is more than just speech.

❗️ Speech pathologists do SO much more than just "speech".

15/08/2021

Top tips to support your 👧🏻's developing speech and language skills 📍

1. CREATE OPPORTUNITY ➡️ DESIRE ❗️
- Place highly desired items out of reach (toy/milk/book) to encourage verbal and nonverbal communication and requests.
- Pause when singing to give opportunity to fill in the blanks or request continuity.
- Start with small amounts of food (1 square of toast) and wait for communication before giving the rest.
- Give your 👧🏻 something challenging to open (bubble wand/snack) to encourage requests.
- Engage in cause/effect play to increase anticipation of sound or action ie cars down a ramp/toys with flashing lights.
- Imitate your 👧🏻's babble and interpret into real words.

2. SLOW & SIMPLE 🛑
- Reduce output to match your 👧🏻's level ie if they're using single words, model no more than 2 words at a time. This gives time to imitate and increases access to language.
- Simplify your models to include single words and gestures to match. This helps to build 💪🏾 links in the 🧠.
- Wait between models to give your 👧🏻 a chance to imitate and respond.
- Slow down models to accomodate your 👧🏻's processing speed.

3. USE GESTURES 👈🏾👉🏽🤌🏾✌🏽
- Gesture supports vocal output- show wherever possible to match your vocal output.
- Couple gestures (running/jumping) with language and labels ie "popping" when popping bubbles.
- Point, wave, clap to support language (look/bye/yay).
- Add gesture to songs.

4. OBSERVE,WAIT,LISTEN 👀✋🏽👂🏻
- Copy your 👧🏻's play and imitate their gestures + vocalisations to acknowledge and support communication attempts.
- Watch their play to see what they CAN do- build on their strengths.
- Look out for non verbal communication through anticipation (rocking, smiling, eye gaze) and respond with vocalisation.
- WAIT (up to 5 seconds) between models to give your 👧🏻 a go.
- Listen to vocalisations and shape into words or sounds where possible ie 'baba' 'baba-baby'.
- Follow eye gaze when sharing books to add language to their interests (point and name).

If you're concerned about your 👧🏻 speech or language, get in touch 📧 📲 today!

27/07/2021

Raising 🗣

We can't help but❓what's "normal" and if our 👶🏽 is reaching their milestones in ⏰.

As early as 3-6 months, your 👶🏽 will begin to:

👀 Turn their head to a sound
👂🏻 Recognise voices
😊 Smile
🗣 Babble

At this stage, 🎵 and turn taking games like 👻 are great for developing joint attention and pre verbal communication.

Between 6-18 months, 👧🏻 start to:

✋🏽 Use gestures such as 👋🏽 and 👏🏾
👂🏻 Follow simple 1 step instructions (use gesture to support this)
🗣 Produce their first word- by 24 months, most children will have around 100 words. (Remember all 👦🏼 are different and this is not concrete!)

At this stage, language should be short and simple (1-2 words max). Receptive language (understanding) develops first so make sure you always support your 🗣 with 👆🏽(show and tell)!

🧒🏽 Around 18-24 months:

🗣 Combine 2 words together
👂🏻 Follow 1-2 step instructions
👀 Demonstrate joint attention (shared interest)
🎵 Sing or engage in familiar routines
✋🏽 Use gestures and words to communicate
👂🏻 Respond to their name
🕺🏽 Identify body parts
🚗 Engage in functional and imaginative play
❓Request using words like "go" and "more"

Books, puzzles, babies, cars, blocks- play opportunities for developing 🗣 are endless at this age and super important in supporting speech and language.

Try these tips to support your developing 🗣

👆🏽 Place objects out of reach to encourage communication
🗣 Keep your language models short to encourage imitation
👂🏻Show and tell when encouraging your child to follow instructions
📚 Read lots of books to develop receptive and expressive vocab
✋🏽 Support your verbal output with key word sign
🎵 Rhythm and repetition are 🔑

If you have any concerns or ❓ about your 🧒🏽 language development, don't hesitate to get in touch via 📲 or 📧.

13/07/2021

My heart ♥️😭

The most special farewell from two of the best 🧒🏽👦🏼.

The end of an era but very exciting things ahead!!

22/06/2021

Conversation starts here 📍

It still amazes me how many 👦🏼 and 👩🏽's struggle to master the basics of conversation turn taking.

There are so many factors to consider when it comes to being a 👍🏾 conversationalist and sometimes these skills take explicit teaching to master.
Some of these skills include:

👀 Establishing eye contact
👂🏻 Active listening using whole 🕴🏼
👯‍♂️ Turn taking
❓ Asking questions
🆒 Making comments
📍 Staying on topic
👋🏽 Ending the conversation

These 🗣 starter cards are such a great find and help to enforce some of the skills listed ⬆️

If you have any concerns regarding your 👦🏼's ability to engage in meaningful conversation, don't hesitate to get in touch via 📲 or 📧 any time.

09/06/2021

Back to school👩🏽‍💼

Day 2 of the workshop in 🎬.

Professional development is the best way to keep skills in check and allows me to provide the best, evidence based practise for my 👧🏻. Love filling the 🧰.

06/06/2021

As part of your initial speech pathology assessment, your 👶🏼 will most likely have an oro-motor exam. This looks at the structural and functional movement of the 👅, 👄, 🦷 as well as the palate and overall face structure.

Depending on the findings, we may recommend your child is reviewed by an ENT (ear, nose and throat Dr).

Things to watch out for 🧐:

- incorrect resting 👅 position
- snoring or audible breathing at night 😴
- 🛏 wetting
- dark circles 👀
- tiredness 🥱
- difficulty focusing 🤯
- long, narrow face structure
- high vaulted palate 🎢
- interdental or lateral lisp
- slushy speech 🗣

If you notice any of the above in your 👶🏼 and have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch by 📲 or 📧 💁🏽‍♀️

06/06/2021

As part of your initial speech pathology assessment, your 👶🏼 will most likely have an oro-motor exam. This looks at the structural and functional movement of the 👅, 👄, 🦷 as well as the palate and overall face structure.

Depending on the findings, we may recommend your child is reviewed by an ENT (ear, nose and throat Dr).

Things to watch out for 🧐:

- incorrect resting 👅 position
- snoring or audible breathing at night 😴
- 🛏 wetting
- dark circles 👀
- tiredness 🥱
- difficulty focusing 🤯
- long, narrow face structure
- high vaulted palate 🎢
- interdental or lateral lisp
- slushy speech 🗣

If you notice any of the above in your 👶🏼 and have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch by 📲 or 📧 💁🏽‍♀️

27/05/2021

Thursday Success ✍🏽

This clever little 👦🏼 has gone from struggling to generate a simple sentence to independently writing a beautiful 📖 like this in such a short space of time. Seeing this sort of progress and the joy on his face as he read it to me this morning just brought so much ☀️ to my ♥️ (shared with his permission).

Is your 👦🏼 struggling with his/her expressive ✍🏽? It is the most complex aspect of language so it's no surprise some of us need a little extra 🤚🏽 to master it.

If you've got any concerns, get in touch via 📲 or 📧. After all, that's what we're here for 💁🏽‍♀️.

26/04/2021

The only kind of 🛏 🐛 I want to see!

Loving this new bed bugs game for:

🐜 Fine motor skills
🐛 Winning and losing
🪰 Reinforcement
🦋 Counting
🐝 Colours
🦗 Matching
🐞 Monday morning giggles!!

SPEAK Speech Pathology, Sydney

05/12/2021

23/08/2021

15/08/2021

27/07/2021

13/07/2021

22/06/2021

09/06/2021

06/06/2021

06/06/2021

27/05/2021

26/04/2021

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