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Speech Pathology Week 2012

It’s not just speech pathologists who are sharing success stories during Speech Pathology Week, which starts next Sunday, August 19.

Parents like mum Kylie Willment, whose four year old daughter Cate attends weekly speech pathology sessions at Kids First Children’s Services in Sydney, are also celebrating.

Mrs Willment said that she took Cate to speech pathology after concerns were raised about her daughter’s ability to communicate.

“As a toddler, Cate spoke late and didn’t babble as most children do,” Kylie said.

“At the age of two she could only say about 10 words and although Cate has always been a keen and confident child, speech was something that she was hesitant about.”

With Cate about to start school next year, Kylie’s doctor recommended Kids First’s paediatric Speech Pathologist Rebecca King, who has now been supporting Cate for the past 10 weeks.

“We are amazed at the progress Cate has made is such a short period of time,” Kylie said. “When we first took Cate to Kids First, she couldn’t pronounce some sounds and we were concerned that this might affect her ability to learn to read and spell when she starts school.”

“Rebecca identified Cate’s problem straight away and quickly built rapport with her.”

Kylie said that Cate is now learning to recognise sounds and pronounce them properly. Rebecca is also supporting Cate’s ability to listen, respond, concentrate and pay attention.

“Cate just loves Rebecca and looks forward to seeing her every week.”

“We’ve been so pleased because Rebecca makes therapy fun for Cate with games and activities that Cate really enjoys. She gives her lots of positive reinforcement and that makes it easy to encourage Cate to practice her talking at home.”

Mrs Willment said that speech pathology has not only given Cate confidence, but has also helped her and husband Rod to make informed decisions for their daughter’s future.

“Early intervention has certainly given us a great opportunity to get the information and advice we needed to make good choices about Cate’s school readiness.”

“We are glad we took our doctor’s advice and consulted a paediatric specialist. It has made a big difference for our child.”

Speech Pathology Australia, the national body for professional speech pathologists, can help you to find a speech pathologist in your area. http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/

For more information about paediatric speech pathology at Kids First Children’s Services, call (02) 9938 55419 or visit www.kids-first.com.au

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  • My sons kindergarten teacher said he needed speech therapy. The speech therapist said he was fine. He didn’t really enjoy going though

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  • My son had speech therapy for a short while in kindy. His friend had it too, but fir longer they both did well

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  • That was an interesting article! Thanks for sharing that knowledge!

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  • Great that this girl has had such a positive experience and results. I really wish more funding was put towards public speech pathology services, as the waiting lists are so long and the private clinics can be very expensive.

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  • We thought a small child we know was going to need speech therapy as she said very little. A check up revealed that she was partially deaf in one ear.

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  • I’ve had friends who have used speech pathology and highly recommend it.

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  • That’s great to hear that children enjoy speech therapy I know from the sessions i have seen they look like so much fun they kids would never know they are learning and as it’s one on one they get the attention and also instant congrats for getting sounds right etc.

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  • That sounds really great! Things seem to have changed a lot since thirty odd years ago when my four year old son had some problems pronouncing some sounds. He was assessed and at a clinic and allowed to play with some toys afterwards. After a couple of sessions he told me he wasn’t going back there because ” the lady is trying to trick me to make me say things I can’t say and won’t let me play”. He really resisted and the therapist ended up giving me exercises for him to do at home.

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  • My friends child has had speech therapy and it made a world of difference.

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  • what an amazing difference speech pathology can make, thanks,

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  • thank gor the article, great read

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  • Great article, amazing the difference that can be made in such a short time.

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  • Lovely article -thanks for sharing!

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  • I have a friend who would say the same themselves

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  • I think its very important to help children with speech difficulties as early as possible. My daughter needed speech therapy as a three year old with a cute lisp. It was really cute, but would have held her back in confidence once she started school. I was amazed how quickly she responded and now speaks beautifully, no lisp in sight and often speaks at functions at school.

    Reply

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