Speech & Language Pathology
Speech & language pathology, or speech therapy, is concerned with not only speaking, but also the use of the mouth and throat in all functional activities (e.g. feeding, swallowing, and speech), and communication in a more general sense. Communication consists of far more than the words we say, and includes gestural communication, facial expressions, and tone and volume of voice. For school age children, a large part of communication surrounds literacy, the development of vocabulary, and structuring communication with good sentence structure and grammar.
Speech therapy at MoveAbout Therapy Services is tailored within our developmental framework to each child's unique needs. Our speech therapists consider the developmental level and sensory processing capabilities of each child, and where appropriate, work within the DIR®/Floortime™ framework.
Speech therapy services at MoveAbout Therapy Services would benefit children with difficulties in the following areas:
- Pre language skills (joint attention, turn taking, vocalisations, facial expression and gesture).
- Language development (vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar, receptive understanding and expression, verbal text types including retelling events or sharing information).
- Play and interaction skills (imagination, understanding the use of objects, ability to interact with peers and adults, sharing, joint attention, turn taking, independently starting and completing games, coping with change etc).
- Pre literacy and literacy skills including phonemic awareness (joint attention, concentration, awareness of letter sound relationship, written text types including narratives).
- Routine and scheduling (having organisation, predictability as the centre of learning programs, particularly for children with cognitive or developmental impairments).
- Pragmatics (the socially appropriate use of language and interaction skills).
- Feeding (safe eating habits, swallowing, chewing).
- Articulation (production of clear speech sounds).
- Fluency (stuttering, word finding difficulties).
- Voice (pitch, tone, quality).
- Alternative methods of communication such as AAC or PECS.
- Supported methods of communication such as MAKATON or PECS.