Our Speech Pathology Focus Areas
Speech
As children develop, they begin to acquire and produce more and more sounds for speech. Most children develop these speech sounds over an expected timeline. Children can also have error patterns in their speech as they are learning to talk. Once these errors exceed appropriate and expected ages, it becomes harder for these errors to disappear on their own. Speech delays and disorders are then diagnosed to individuals that have speech errors that are no longer age-appropriate or if they cannot produce certain expected speech sounds e.g. “th”. These errors can lead to the individual having difficulty being understood by others, which can become frustrating for them.
Speech sound disorders and speech errors can impact individuals at any life stage. Speech therapy works with individuals of all ages to help resolve speech errors, speech delays and speech disorders by using evidence-based approaches to increase and improve speech sound accuracy. Through therapy we support our clients to speak more clearly and be better understood by others, reducing frustration and leading to a better quality of life.
Literacy
Reading, Spelling, Writing
Literacy is a broad term that includes reading, writing, spelling and reading comprehension. The ability to read, write and comprehend written information is crucial for a young person as they develop academic skills appropriately alongside their peers. During the first few years of primary school, children spend a large portion of their time in class learning to read. However, after these first few years of schooling, children are expected to read to learn. This means that they are expected to have the reading, writing and spelling skills to learn more about other subjects in the classroom, and expand their own language capacity. This may mean that it will be harder for a child to keep up with the fast pace of learning in the classroom if they have reading and writing difficulties.
As children grow older, written skills can include their ability to construct written information in various forms that are required for academic development and occupational roles. This may include constructing narratives, short and long answer responses, recounts, essays, reports, articles, blogs, and poems. Reading comprehension requires the ability to both read and understand written information, and identify its meaning.
Literacy skills are also vital for people’s ability to understand and respond to important messages around them. Difficulties with literacy can impact the ability to read and respond to necessary and important signs, instructions, labels and contribute to discussions about books, articles and news. This can impact the ability to obtain employment later in life and may lead to social isolation.
A literacy assessment seeks to pin-point where a person’s reading and writing difficulties lie and what they are caused by. Once this is determined, speech pathologists provide targeted intervention to develop and strengthen their clients’ reading, writing, spelling and reading comprehension skills. Northern Beaches Mobile Speech Pathology follows evidence based literacy programs (such as SoundsWrite) to best support our clients to reach age-appropriate skills.
Expressive Language
Expressive language refers to the ability to use language to communicate meaning to others. This includes making requests, asking questions, making choices, answering, commenting or stating, describing, protesting (e.g. saying “no” or “stop it”) and making rejections. We use expressive language in various modes of communication such as speaking, gesturing (waving, pointing), writing, using facial expressions, and vocalisations (crying, yelling). Difficulties in expressive language may look like having a delay in language production, compared to their peers, it may look like becoming frustrated due to the person knowing what they want or need, but having difficulty expressing it. Expressive language difficulties may also look like saying sentences in an order that is unclear and difficult to others to understand and it may look like using forms of words that are no longer appropriate for their age (e.g. saying “drinked” for “drank”).
Receptive Language
Receptive language refers to people’s ability to understand language provided to them. This may include understanding and responding to various instructions, questions, concepts, ideas and stories. Difficulties with receptive language will mean that the person has difficulty comprehending spoken language and responding to what is being told appropriately. People with receptive language difficulties may require repeated instructions, they might answer questions or make comments that are not completely relevant or accurate and may struggle in the classroom, possibly withdrawing during class discussions, due to the fast pace of learning and information.
If you believe that you or your child may have language difficulties, speech pathologists can provide informal and formal assessments to determine if this is the case and can provide therapy to help support them to better reach age-appropriate skills and outcomes.
Voice
A voice disorder occurs when voice quality, pitch, and loudness are not appropriate, effective, or comfortable for an individual. When people find that their voice quality has been impacting their ability to meet everyday needs and activities, it may be required to seek speech therapy to help treat their voice quality and effectively use their voice in all settings.
If you or your child is experiencing any of the above it may be necessary to seek a voice assessment and voice therapy through speech pathology. A voice assessment will determine whether there is the presence of a voice disorder and through therapy will provide voice quality strategies that will prevent inefficient usage of the voice and will strengthen vocal muscles and movements. These strategies will reduce the strain and pain of voice usage, which will lead to an effective, more comfortable and better sounding voice quality.
Signs or symptoms that may suggest voice difficulties or the presence of a voice disorder may include:
- Frequent loss of voice, sore voice or throat (especially after speaking all day, or speaking over background noise)
- Having a croaky, rough, husky or hoarse voice
- Overly soft, quiet or high pitched
- Strained and low pitched
- Often having difficulty being heard by others when speaking, especially when there is background noise
- Increased vocal effort associated when speaking,
- Feeling tired or out of breath after long periods of talking
- Frequent coughing or throat clearing (may worsen with increased voice use)
Fluency
Fluency refers to the rate, rhythm and flow of speech. The most common fluency disorder that can occur is stuttering. Stuttering is a speech disorder that impacts the flow and smoothness of speech. Stuttering can look like repetitions, blocks or specific behaviours occurring while speaking. This affects how well others can understand them, in turn affecting their confidence. People who stutter can become frustrated, anxious and may have difficulty exerting confidence in all speaking situations. Early Speech Pathology intervention is strongly recommended for children who stutter to support them to eliminate or reduce their stutter.
Northern Beaches Mobile Speech Pathology has been trained in using The Lidcombe Program, an evidence-based program constructed by The Australian Stuttering Research Centre. For older clients, speech therapy is often used to provide a way to reduce or control the stutter in a way that is comfortable and suitable for the individual. Northern Beaches Mobile Speech Pathology has been trained in the evidence based program, The Camperdown Program, suitable for older clients, also constructed by The Australian Stuttering Research Centre.
Social Skills
In our interactions with others in all settings, we use social skills. Social skills help us to effectively communicate our needs, wants and thoughts with others in a way that is most appropriate, and acceptable. Social skills help up to establish and maintain friendships with others and help us to regulate and express our emotions clearly and successfully. Difficulties with social skills can lead to challenges in starting, joining and maintaining conversations with others, taking part in discussions, making requests, protests (e.g. saying “no”, or “Stop that”), comments, asking questions, playing competitive games, taking turns and making rational responses when something doesn’t go the person’s way. These difficulties can lead to social exclusion or isolation, misinterpretation or miscommunication, and issues having needs and wants met.
Speech pathologists work with people who have difficulties using social skills by teaching them strategies or techniques to use in various social situations. These skills will be practiced in sessions to ensure people can effectively exercise the skills they need to use in day-to-day situations.
Developmental Diagnoses
We assist clients with communication disorders or difficulties that are associated with various developmental diagnoses. These diagnoses may include, but are not restricted to, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome and Intellectual Disability.
Northern Beaches Mobile Speech Pathology has experience working with such a range of individuals and believes in the importance of treating every client as a unique individual. Through this, we tailor our therapy and provide supports that are most suited to the person and will help them thrive the most.
Acquired Diagnoses
We assist adults with communication disorders or difficulties that are associated with Acquired diagnoses. These diagnoses may include but are not restricted to Post-stroke Aphasia, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Alexia and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Strokes, brain injuries and progressive conditions can lead to developing communication difficulties. These can include having speech problems, problems forming understandable sentences, difficulties understanding what others are saying, and difficulties with reading or writing.
These difficulties can lead to adults becoming frustrated that they no longer have the same skills they used to. They may feel isolated from their friends and family and they may feel dismissed or spoken for. Speech pathologists can help clients with acquired injuries by providing strategies to help both the person and their carers, friends or families to better understand and communicate with each other. Speech pathologists also work on helping improve their own communication and/or maintain communication skills.
