Speech Pathology

What is a Speech Pathologist

A Speech Pathologist works with children of all ages, from infants to adolescents.
Their role is to support children in achieving their communication goals in a variety of areas including, speech sound delays and disorders, expressive and receptive language skills, pre-literacy and literacy development and social communication.

How a Speech Pathologist can help

Our Speech Pathologists believe in conducting an in-depth assessment to evaluate your child’s skills. This includes identifying their strengths and challenges, through observations, standardised assessments and parent/caregiver input.
This is an important step in creating a personalise and goal-driven therapy plan.

Our Speech Pathologist can help with:

Speech development

Enhancing speech sound development with articulation delay and disorders (e.g. lisp), phonological error patterns and motor speech disorders such as Childhood Apraxia of Speech to support children in being more easily understood and communicating effectively.

Language skills

Supporting both expressive (use of) and receptive (understanding of) language development, to help them understand and respond to others around them, as well as having their thoughts, ideas and needs understood.

Pre-literacy and literacy skills

Helping children to develop their foundational pre-literacy skills such as phonemic and phonological awareness, the building blocks for fostering their reading and writing development.

Social communication

Working closely with the client and their families to understand their wants and needs with social communication. It is important to recognise and understand neuro-affirming social communication practises and navigate goals that align with the child’s preferences. Here at Nurturing Nature, we value different communication styles and celebrate neurodiversity.

Common conditions that our Speech Pathologist has experience supporting:

Autism
Global Developmental Delay
Intellectual Disability
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
Dyslexia

When to see a Speech Pathologist

Your child’s speech is difficult to understand
Difficulties understanding and following instructions
Difficulties understanding and responding to questions
Delayed speech or language milestones
Difficulties following conversations or staying on topic
Difficulties with reading and spelling skills
Difficulties with pre-literacy skills such as rhyming, identifying and labelling sounds in words
Difficulties making and keeping friendships
Difficulties with sharing, turn-taking and engaging in social play
Struggle to express their thoughts, needs and feelings
Need for support with alternative or augmentative communication (AAC), such as visuals or communication devices.

Our location

As we are a mobile company, our Speech Pathologist provides services in home, school and community locations. We are currently servicing Adelaide’s north and north-eastern suburbs, including but not limited to Elizabeth, Salisbury, Golden Grove, Modbury, Windsor Gardens.