Our Services

Children’s confidence can be greatly affected by their ability to articulate certain sounds in words. Their ability to be understood by others may have social and/or academic implications.

In young children, it is normal for some sounds to develop later than others. For example, the /g/ sound in ‘goat’ may only begin to appear in some children at age 4. The /r/ sound in the word ‘rabbit’ may not develop until age 6, and the /th/ sound in ‘thumb’ may not appear until age 7. However, evidence suggests there is no way of predicting whether delays in speech sounds will fix itself over time. Hence, assessment and early intervention is often recommended to address concerns.

At EduSpeech Canberra, we will assess whether your child is able to say the sounds appropriate for their age and if need be, establish a therapy program that targets missing and/or incorrectly produced sounds. We do this by communicating with parents, carers and teachers so that sounds and words used in therapy are ones being used in other common environments to give your child the best chances of success.

Literacy refers to reading and writing.

Primary schools have just started to bring phonics back into the classroom after a period of using the whole language approach to reading. EduSpeech Canberra believes in using a combination of high quality evidence-based phonics programs, such as SoundsWrite, and the whole language approach when working with children who require help in this domain. When it comes to writing, knowing how sentences are constructed as well as grasping grammar and tense help to lay an excellent foundation in preparing children for upper primary and high school settings.

Our speech pathologist has worked with many secondary school students who find it difficult to express ideas on paper or experience difficulties with writing in a particular style. EduSpeech Canberra implements a number of literacy therapy techniques for highschoolers, such as writing together, reviewing examples of various works, and spending quality time exploring how sentences and paragraphs are constructed.

Language refers to using and understanding words for communication. For speech pathologists, this is commonly called expressive and receptive language.

Some children experience difficulties with finding the right words to express their ideas or understanding and following instructions.

One area of language that some children find challenging is social pragmatics.
This describes their ability to effectively use and adjust communication messages for a variety of purposes with multiple communication partners within diverse circumstances. Examples might include reading the room, understanding things by implication, or knowing what is appropriate to say in a particular situation.

Speech pathology can help to improve your child’s language development if you think they might be experiencing difficulties in this domain.

Fluency is about the smoothness, continuity and rate of speech.

Stuttering is the most common fluency disorder and is an interruption in the flow of speaking. A person with stuttering may repeat sounds, syllables or words when speaking (e.g. “I w-w-w-ant something to drink”). They may prolong consonants unintentionally (e.g. “Sssssssometimes I jog in the morning), or they experience blocks, which are a prolonged period of silence that could occur where the speaker is unable to initiate sounds.

Stuttering can be treated and/or managed depending on the person’s age. The Lidcombe Program and the Camperdown Program are the preferred programs used at EduSpeech Canberra as these programs are evidence-based and give clients the best chances of success.