How I Support Your Child
As a paediatric speech pathologist, I feel incredibly privileged to support children and their families as they grow in confidence and communication. Every child is unique, and therapy is always tailored to their individual strengths and needs.
Every child develops at their own pace — but sometimes they need a little extra support along the way. If you’ve found yourself wondering, “Is this typical?” or “Should I be concerned?” — you’re not alone. That’s often where our journey begins.
Kids in the Hills Speech Pathology loves working with children who experience difficulties with their speech pronunciation! Marion has completed additional training in this area, and also regularly provides teaching and training to other speech pathologists about speech pronunciation difficulties. However often children also may have difficulties with their language or early literacy skills, which she can also help your child with. Here are some of the areas that she commonly supports:
Speech Pronunciation Difficulties
Is your child hard to understand?
Do they substitute different sounds or leave sounds off words?
Some children have difficulty producing certain sounds or patterns of sounds, making their speech hard to understand. Therapy sessions are fun and play-based to help your child learn to produce clearer speech so others can understand them and help build their confidence in speaking.
This may include articulation difficulties such as a lisp or difficulties with ‘r’ sounds. Or maybe your child has a phonological difficulty where they make sound substitutions (eg nake for snake, tat for cat).
Motor Speech Difficulties
(including Childhood Apraxia of Speech)
Some children know exactly what they want to say but have difficulty coordinating their mouth movements to say words clearly. This may be due to Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). CAS is a less common speech condition, which results in significant speech difficulties and usually requires intensive therapy to help support the child’s speech development.
Language Delays
Language involves understanding and using words, sentence construction, vocabulary, and storytelling, just to name a few! If your child isn’t talking as much as you expect, seems slow in their development, and/or seems to struggle expressing themselves to others, Marion can work with you to strengthen those skills in a fun and meaningful way.
Some children need support to:
- Develop their vocabulary
- Put words together into sentences
- Answer questions accurately
- Tell stories
- Use accurate grammar
A full assessment can help to identify what areas of language your child may be experiencing difficulties with.
Early literacy delays
(spelling and reading)
Literacy skills are simply spoken language written down. Children begin to learn early literacy skills during their kindy years around 4 – 5 years of age. This continues to develop well into their primary school years. Children with literacy difficulties may need support to :
- Match sounds with letters
- Blend sounds into words
- Recognise and learn vowels
- Read fluently and smoothly
Late Talkers
Some toddlers are slower to begin using words then others. While some children catch up naturally, others benefit from early support to strengthen communication foundations and prevent ongoing challenges. Therapy for toddlers often involves working with their parents to provide strategies and activities that they can implement at home during everyday life activities.
Other areas that speech pathologists work in
Speech pathologists can also work in other areas of communication such as social skills, children who have autism, stuttering, voice difficulties and feeding difficulties. Note that these are not areas that Marion has extensive experience in and so will usually refer on to other therapists for these conditions.
You Don’t Have to Figure It Out Alone
If you’re unsure whether your child needs support, an assessment can simply provide clarity and reassurance. Sometimes families just are wanting peace of mind — and that’s completely okay!
Early support can make a meaningful difference, and I’m here to guide you every step of the way. Contact the clinic to chat further about your concerns and how I can help.
For further information about children’s communication development, refer to the Speech Pathology Australia Communication Milestones Kit.