At Living Word Speech Pathology, we provide assessments and therapy for children, adolescents and adults in the following areas:
Language
Language skills encompass receptive (understanding) and expressive (using) language skills. Children can be late talkers, have developmental language disorders (DLD) or have receptive and expressive language difficulties. Students with language difficulties may have difficulty answering complex questions, forming long and complex sentences or following long instructions.
We can work with children and students to use gestures, words, longer sentences, writing and/or sign to communicate their thoughts and ideas. Language therapy can help with vocabulary building, grammar, sentence structure, listening and understanding words and sentences, and answering and asking questions.
Adults can have aphasia (difficulty with understanding, talking, reading or writing) following a brain injury such as a stroke or TBI. Some may have a very limited number of words and not be able to speak whereas some might be fluent but have some word finding difficulties. Adults can receive therapy to improve their language skills.
Speech
Speech refers to the sounds we make with our mouth. Children with speech difficulties may experience delays/disorders of articulation and phonology or childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). If your child is difficult to understand because of speech sound errors, we can help by diagnosing and then targeting the specific sounds using tailored, evidence based therapy.
Adults can have speech disorders such as apraxia of speech or dysarthria from brain injuries or neurological disorders. Speech therapy can help them be more effective communicators.
Stuttering
Children or adults who stutter may repeat syllables, words or phrases, prolong certain sounds or have blocks while they speak which impacts their flow of speech. There are evidence-based programs that can be used to reduce or manage stuttering.
Social Communication
This involves our use of verbal and non-verbal language (gestures, facial expressions, eye contact) when interacting with others. It’s also knowing what to say to who in appropriate situations in an acceptable manner.
For young children, we focus on developing a skill called joint attention, which allows children to be engaged with their communication partner and learn language through natural interactions. We use the principles of the Hanen More Than Words Program (evidence based program for parents of autistic children) to help improve social communication and back and forth interactions.
Literacy (spelling, reading, writing)
Literacy involves phonological awareness skills, spelling, decoding, reading comprehension and writing texts.
Play Skills
Play is an important skill for young children to develop as they learn to negotiate and problem solve during play. We work with children to expand on their play skills and use their language through play.
Our services include:
Comprehensive Assessments
An initial assessment is essential in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of you or your child’s communication skills. This information is analysed, then used to plan and develop individualised therapy.
We use a variety of assessment tools to gather information about you or your child’s communicative strengths and areas for improvement. This can include a combination of standardised assessments, clinical observations of parent-child interactions and play, and parent reports.
Following the assessment, you will also receive a detailed written report outlining the assessment results.
Therapy Sessions
Depending on the results of the assessment, you or your child may need ongoing therapy sessions. Sessions can be conducted weekly or fortnightly depending on individual needs. For young children, we encourage parents to be present and involved in the sessions to ensure carryover of activities at home.
Living Word Speech Pathology 