Social Speech Australia
Social Speech is a mobile speech pathology service for children and adolescents (0-18 years) based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
01/11/2022
🔮Making spells for Halloween with CVC, CVCC and CCVC words 🧙♀️👻 This potion ingredient proved a particular hit 🙊🤧
14/10/2022
🗓 Today is 📢
You’ve probably heard about autism and dyslexia but how about Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)? 🤔
On average, 2 students in every class 🏫 of 30 have DLD. ⏰ So it’s time we talk more about this hidden but common lifelong condition. 📣
DLD is a neurodevelopmental condition that causes difficulties with speaking 💬 and understanding 🧠 for no known reason. However, it is important to know that with the right supports, DLD individuals can thrive! 🎉
Find out more at radld.org or ask any questions below ⬇️ 😀
30/09/2022
Great to see the mainstream media reporting today 🗞 on the research regarding preferred terms* by the autistic community when describing autism. 👍
The language 🗣 we use is so important in increasing true inclusion and supporting positive self identify for autistic people. 🧡
Time for health professionals 👩🏽⚕️to reflect these preferences in written reports 📃 and in our conversations 💬 and for society - as a whole - to become more aware. 🙋🏻♂️
*As with anything in life, individual preferences vary. So, if in doubt, ask individuals and families what their preferences are. 👍
Read full article: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/what-these-autistic-people-want-you-to-call-them/29aawa7he
07/03/2022
Forever learning 💡and inspired to become better at what we do to support children and their families. 🧡
Many autistic people describe eye contact 👀 as uncomfortable😩, painful and distracting 🤯. Movement 🖐 or “stimming” can also help autistic adults and children focus and/or can providing calming responses 💆🏽. So, demanding our children to “listen with their eyes” and “keep hands in lap”, for example, can actually be very damaging and counter productive. ❌
We are listening👂to the autistic community and making changes to be a more practice. One small step is re-evaluating traditional approaches like “Whole body listening” and “The 5 L’s” that can promote “masking” (hiding Autistic traits in order to ‘blend in’) and supporting teachers, parents/carers and friends to understand how each individual child listens and learns best. ✅ This “My way of listening” resource from .au proving a very handy tool. 👍
24/10/2021
Communication challenges are common. In Australia 🇦🇺, 20% of four year old children have difficulty understanding or using language 🗣 and approximately two children within a typical Australian classroom 🏫 of 30 students are diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The wait time for Speech Pathologist services is generally (and unfortunately) long. ⏰
However, there are lots of things parents 👦🏻👨, carers 👩🏼🦰🧑🏼🦱 and teachers 👨🏽🏫 can do whilst waiting for an appointment. ✅ Swipe to take a look at some of these steps 👀 and consider what feels relevant or appropriate to action for your child and family. 🤔 These steps can give Speech Pathologists a more comprehensive picture to figure out what is going on for the child 🔍, help formulate a path forward ➡️ and assist parents to support their children’s communication development. 💬
26/05/2021
💡We know from previous research that parent reports regarding their child’s vocabulary 🧠 , literacy 📚 and speech intelligibility 🗣 are frequently valid and reliable (Thal et al, 2009; Boudreau, 2005; McLeod et al, 2012).
So, if you have concerns about your child’s speech and/or language 💬, TRUST YOUR GUT and seek out an assessment with a certified Speech Language Pathologist (SLP). ✅
19/05/2021
Every day, as we interact with our children, we play a variety of roles. Swipe left ⬅️ to work out which role/s you mostly take on.
When it comes to helping our child interact 👯♀️ and learn language 🧠 🗣, the most important role for us to play is the role of the “Tuned-In Parent” — tuned in to our child’s interests, needs and abilities. ✅ “Tuned-In Parents” give their children opportunities to start an interaction, and then they respond immediately with interest. 😃
This information is not to induce parent guilt by any means ❌ and we certainly can’t be a “Tuned-In Parent” allllll the time because.....you know.... life! 😅 But one of my jobs as an SLP (especially when working with parents and carers of children with language delays) is to help parents become more aware of the role they play when interacting with their child. This is so we can try to play the role of “Tuned-in” parent MORE of the time 👍
So, have a little think 💭 about whether you are talking too much 🗯, asking too many questions 🤯, helping your child too often 🤚or rushing 🏃🏼♀️ more than you need to during everyday routines and play. What might happen if you “tuned in” a little more?
17/05/2021
Have you heard about Planet Puberty?🪐Family Planning NSW created Planet Puberty, a website 👩🏼💻 to help parents and carers of children with intellectual disability and/or autism to navigate this strange new world. 🤯
A series of free online workshops 💻 are available to help you support your child with periods, emotions 😣😳🥺😏 and everything in between!
You can also subscribe to Planet Puberty on Spotify to listen 🎧 to upcoming episodes of parents and carers talking 🗣 about their experience supporting a child with a disability through puberty. You’ll also hear tips 📝 and tricks ✅ from professionals 👨⚕️ to help you and your child navigate this new world 🌎.
19/12/2020
Introducing the newest member to the tribe. Meet Miss Molly May Parsons, born 15.12.2020. 💗
As the daughter to a Speech Pathologist, Molly has been told all about the importance of hearing tests! 🧏🏼♀️ Here is Molly during her SWISH test this week (The Statewide Infant Screening Hearing Program).
Molly passed her SWISH test ✅ but this will not be the only time we test her hearing because hearing loss can occur at any age. 🦻🏼Different types of hearing loss can develop at different times. It’s particularly important to test children when they’re young 👧🏼 because the sooner a child is identified with a hearing loss and the earlier they receive treatment or intervention, the better the outcomes and the lower the impact of the hearing loss.👍
If you have concerns about your child’s hearing, check out The App 📱where you can easily test hearing from the comfort of your own home. It’s fun and engaging for your child 😀 🎈, and provides you with a report that will advise if your child’s hearing is within the normal range. 📄The report will recommend the next steps if a problem is detected. ⚠️ Alternatively, you may choose to visit your GP or an audiologist. 👩🏽⚕️
02/12/2020
👋 Today is the United Nations' International Day for People with Disability ( ) - a day to increase awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability.
More than 4️⃣ million Australians live with a disability and they all have a story to tell. Across you'll be able to hear, see and read content from everyday Australians 🇳🇿 living with disability who will share their experiences of work, love and life - so be sure to tune in. 📺 📻 💻
Whilst every story is unique, one common request is to never, ever make assumptions about another human being. 🙅🏽♂️
✅ See comments below 💬 for 10 tips from as to how to avoid assumptions for people with disability and how to use respectful communication. Please feel free to add your tips or thoughts 💭👍
💬Talking about autism with your child.
Parents often ask when is the right time to talk to their child about autism? 🤷♀️ 🗣 Research supports sharing your child’s diagnosis with them before they reach adolescence because of the positive outcomes that can arise from these conversations (see video below) ✅
Whilst it is a personal decision as to when and how to discuss autism with your child, the following resources may provide some practical suggestions and ideas 💡 for parents and carers to consider.
Recommended resources:
▪️Positive Partnership’s information sheet “Talking about Autism”. See::https://www.positivepartnerships.com.au/uploads/Talking-about-autism_May2019.pdf 💻
▪️ “Talking to children about Autism” video from “Reframing autism”. See: https://www.reframingautism.com.au/tips-for-talking-to-children-about-autism/ 🎞
▪️Many autistic young people find it helpful and reassuring to learn from the stories of others with autism. Here are a few of those stories from ABC TV: “What it’s like….Living on the Autism Spectrum”: See: tinyurl.com/yadgt7ab 📺
▪️“The Little Book of Autism FAQs: How to Talk with Your Child about Their Autism Diagnosis and Other Conversations”. Please DM if you would like to borrow from our resource library (local families only). 📖
It can be helpful to remind yourself that parenting is not an exact science. You may say the wrong thing at some stage, because you are human! 😅 But remember this: more important than any of the individual words you use to explain a difficult concept, such as autism, is that your child knows that you love and accept them for everything they area (including the autism).🧡
“What did you do today?” 👩🏻🦱💬👦🏻
Eek. This can be a very tricky question for kids with language delay and/or working memory challenges to answer. 😕🤷🏼♂️
⬇️ This simple visual support has been helpful in providing the narrative structure 🔢, grammar and repetition needed to help one of our kiddos learn how to share his day’s events with his family. 👦🏻💬👩🏻🦱
Supporting children to share personal narratives is a passion of ours . This is because, sharing past events that are meaningful to us:
✅ Provides social connectedness with others 👯♂️
✅ Encourages inclusion and self-identify ☺️
✅ Develops emotional regulation skills 👍
✅ and has been shown to be a protective factor for mental wellness. 😀
25/09/2020
🗓 This week is Australia’s National Week of Deaf People ( ). So, we wanted to raise a little awareness 📢 about hearing loss.
The audiogram graph below ⬇️ is a tool that can be used to understand sounds we can hear 👂(or can’t hear) based on hearing thresholds. The “Speech banana” 🍌 is a term used to describe the yellow area plotted where most sounds of average conversational speech occur on this graph.
While many other sounds fall outside of the speech banana, audiologists 👩🏼💼and speech pathologists 🧑🏽💼 are most concerned with the frequencies within the speech banana because a hearing loss in those frequencies can affect a child's ability to learn language. A child that can hear the speech sounds will have an easier time imitating 👯♀️ , understanding 🧠 and learning spoken language.💬
Signs of hearing loss in a child:
▪️Speaks louder than others
▪️Turns the TV up too loud
▪️Frequently say ‘what’ or ‘huh’
▪️Has trouble pronouncing words
▪️Struggles at school
▪️Has trouble hearing in noisy places
▪️Loses focus in noisy places
If you have concerns about your child’s hearing, chat to your GP and book in for a hearing test today ✅
22/09/2020
Working on our conversational skills 💪🏼
This is a fun little way 😀 to practice showing we are thinking 💭 about what others are saying and how to keep a conversation going 💬.
We role play, film and watch back to make sure our conversation has a good mixture of colour 🧪 by adding visual cues for each type of comment or question we make 👍 Goodbye “One Sided Sid”! Hello “Other Side Sally!”
[For this kiddo, we are using the curriculum that teaches a conversation is made up by a mix of:
▪️Comments;
Like when we “add a thought” (e.g. “I have a dog too!”) or give a “supporting comment” (e.g. a head nod) AND
▪️Questions;
We need to be remember to ask “social wonder” 👯♀️ questions not just “world wonder” or science 🧬 questions. (“Social wonder” questions show people that their listener 👂 is interested in them personally e.g. “Were you scared?!”. Whereas, “World wonder” questions show interest in object, science or things (e.g. “What computer do you have?”) ⚙️]
Pointing 👉🏼 has been linked to language development. 💬 This huge milestone shows us that a baby 👶🏽 is on the right track for developing language and communication skills. ✅
One of the best ways to encourage pointing is to make a point of pointing yourself 😀. Here are 8️⃣ simple ways you can model pointing during everyday life. ☝️
09/09/2020
Social Speech is taking part in to show support for those living with Cerebral Palsy. Day #9️⃣ and 9️⃣0️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ steps (or waddles🤰) complete! ✅
Thank you 🙏 to all the wonderful folk who have got behind us and donated to this incredibly worthy cause:
Go you, you good things! 👍 The money we have raised together goes towards research 👨🔬, vital equipment 🦽 and providing much needed support and services to 3️⃣4️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ people in Australia 🇦🇺 living with Cerebral Palsy. 🧡
If you too want to show your support for those with CP, please consider donating via our page: https://www.steptember.org.au/fundraisers/SophieParsons17076 ☺️
08/09/2020
We love 🧡our new clinic room poster reflecting the average age most kids learn to say sounds (and so do the kiddos! 😀)
Here’s the age acquisition breakdown (McLeod & Crowe, 2018)
2️⃣-3️⃣years: p, b, m, d, n, h, t, k, g, w, ng, f, y
4️⃣ years: l, j, ch, s, v, sh, z
5️⃣ years: r, zh, th (voiced) e.g. “this”
6️⃣ years: th (voiceless) eg “thumb”
If you have any concerns about your child’s speech sounds, get in touch with a qualified speech-language pathologist.👩🏼💼☎️👨🏽💼
📝 Source: McLeod, S., & Crowe, K. (2018). Children's consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27, 1546–1571. The paper can be downloaded for free here: https://ajslp.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2701897
Today is father’s day in Australia. 🇦🇺 So, I wanted to give a big shout out 📢 to all the amazing Dads 👨🏼🦰, carers 🧔🏼and grandfathers 👴🏼 that I have the privilege of working alongside when supporting their child 🧒🏻 or children 👯♂️.
In honour of these top blokes, I wanted to give a few Aussie Dads the stage 🎤 by sharing this documentary 🎞 - a film about autism and fatherhood. [Check out www.dadfilm.com for the full 30 min clip] 📺.
Hats 🧢 off to all the Dads out there navigating the challenges and triumphs of parenting and doing the best they can to ensure the best future for their kids. 👍
We are also thinking of those who can’t be with their father’s today. 🧡
03/09/2020
🧡🧡🧡
Tell Dad how much you appreciate him this Father’s Day!
You can print out this resource and fold it in half to make a card, and decorate the front with your own unique, beautiful artwork. Practice the signs ahead of time, and read it out to him this Sunday! He will love it.
The PDF download is available on our website www.kwsa.com.au
02/09/2020
You may wonder if your child’s language is typical for their age. 🤔 Here are a few developmental communication milestones that you can use to keep track of your child’s understanding of 🧠 and use of language 💬 - including their non verbal communication 👋 👀 and social communication 👯♀️.
If you have any concerns, please don’t wait and see. Early intervention can make a big difference. 👍 Chat to your GP 👩⚕️ or a Speech Pathologist 🧑🏽💼. We look into a whole lot more than the above and are here to help 🤗
28/08/2020
🤝 Meet my mate, Shintaro.
This week is “Speech Pathology Week” ( ) and the theme is “Communicating with confidence” 🗣. So, I asked Shintaro to write ✍️, in one sentence, what he feels more confident doing as a result of speech therapy (self reflection can be one very powerful therapy tool). 👍
Our therapeutic goals here are ALWAYS linked to functional outcomes ... so what he wrote makes this speechie one very happy lady. 😄
There have been so many short terms goals 🥅 that Shintaro that has kicked related to his expressive and receptive language, literacy and social communication that ultimately have supported his life skills, social interactions and relationships .... which is just as lucky for others because if you met Shintaro, you’d want to be friends with him too. 😎
[Shared with parent permission]
Happy Speech Pathology Week 🥳 The theme for this year’s is “COMMUNICATING WITH CONFIDENCE”. 😃
Not only do Speech Pathologist work with over 1️⃣ million Australians 🇦🇺 living with a communication challenge, we also support families 👨👩👦👦, teachers 👨🏽🏫 and other communication partners 👥 to feel confident THEMSELVES in supporting loved ones - no matter the mode of communication. 💁🏼♀️
We love 🧡 working with families, teachers, neighbours (you name it!) to feel confident using AAC devices like this one here ( ). 📱When we first start modeling (pointing to 👆or pressing words on the AAC system as we speak so that those learning to use AAC users can see 👁 their system in use), it can feel so clumsy, awkward and unnatural! 😳Often we make mistakes when we model. But – guess what?! It is fine to show an AAC user that we all get it wrong sometimes when we are talking! Slower modeling can also be a good thing as it gives the user a chance to process what we are saying. 🧠 The more we model, the easier it gets! 👍 Over time, our confidence grows. 💪🏼 It’s the best part of the job when we reach the stage where we ALL begin “COMMUNICATING WITH CONFIDENCE”. 🙌🏼
24/08/2020
We love 🧡 “Book Week” here 😀 Especially when you can old pjs 🙊 and other stuff lying around the house to make costume accessories! ♻️
📚 Books are one of our most favourite therapy tools! There is an abundance of evidence 📝 that book-reading with infants 👶🏽 , preschool 👦🏻 and primary school children 👧🏼 supports language development 💬, later literacy 📖 and numeracy success 🔢 and later life outcomes (including employment 👨🏼🔧, quality of life and mental health).
If that doesn’t make you a hungry caterpillar 🐛 for books, we don’t know what will!
23/08/2020
Meet Dario. 😀
Dario loves spider man 🕷, comic books 📚 and jumping on the trampoline 🤸🏽♂️ . Dario has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD and anxiety. He also has a heart of gold. 🧡
It seemed very fitting to introduce you to Dario as today kicks off “Speech Pathology Week”. ( ) Dario is just one of my many little buddies who typifies this year’s theme: COMMUNICATING WITH CONFIDENCE! I love this years theme as that’s exactly what, as Speech Pathologists, we passionately strive to ensure the 1.2 million Australians living with a communication disability can do. 🤜
I first met Dario when he was 4️⃣ years old. He just celebrated his 9️⃣th bday. 🥳 When I first met Dario, he had trouble talking in sentences 💬, following directions 🧠 , expressing his feelings 😫 and difficulty making and keeping friends 👯♂️, using gestures or eye contact. He frequently had meltdowns in public spaces 🏘. He could not yet read or scribble ✍️.
JUST LOOK AT HIS CONFIDENCE SHINE THROUGH NOW! 👏🏼
Swipe left ⬅️ to check out a list of things he expressed and wrote - all by himself - that he feels more confident doing as a result of speech therapy (and I will add - his own hard work 💪🏼, amazing parents and a wonderful multi-disciplinary team. 🙌🏼 ) Side note: He just did a speech in front of his whole class at school! 👏🏼 To say I’m proud ☺️ of this little man is a massive understatement.
As Dario’s family will tell you, speech pathology intervention and support can make a huge difference. 👍 So here’s to raising awareness about what Speech Pathology can do and happy to all my fellow colleagues working passionately to ensure kids like Dario can be the most confident communicators they can be 🤗.
[Shared with parent permission]
💻 Online sessions can still be full of fun, interactive games 🙂 and packed with loads of reps and practice. 💪🏼
Here, Peppa Pig 🐽and George battle it off in a CVC word reading “snakes 🐍 and ladders” game.♟Question is.....can your little buddy on the other end be trusted with the mouse control?! 🖱🤪
18/08/2020
What is phonological awareness and why is it important? 🤔
‘Phonological awareness’ (PA) is knowledge of speech sound based skills that involves being aware of the component sounds in words. 💭
The below image ⬇️ shows the various phonological awareness stepping stones 📈 we can support kids to learn and the skills we can build upon as we head towards the explicit teaching of literacy. 📖 Below you can also see a few fun example activities to develop each of these major phonological awareness skills 🤗.
Phonological awareness skills are important as they are strong predictors of later reading ability 📚 as they develop a child’s ability to 👂 and segment words students want to spell 🔠 , as well as blend together the sounds in words that students read. ✅
12/08/2020
users need to see 👀 their AAC system in use. 🤚 After ensuring access, we then need to MODEL, MODEL, MODEL (...then model some more! 😜)
When we model, the AAC users sees their AAC system being used to communicate real messages, in real situations.🏠 🛁 🎳 Every time the learner sees you model, it builds their knowledge. 🧠 Your modeling will help them to learn how they can use words to communicate. 💬
When you first start it can feel clumsy 😳 - everyone feels that way at first! When we work with families beginning their AAC journey , together we ....
1️⃣ Start small and build up our modeling 👍
2️⃣ Focus on a few “core word” first (Core words are usually verbs, adjectives, and pronouns and make up 80% of the words we need to communicate).💬
3️⃣ Get others involved in modeling - friends 👥, family members 👵🏼, teachers 👩🏼🏫, siblings 👯♂️ .
4️⃣ Always have a print out of our “core words” in case our iPad or technology fails us 🙈
5️⃣ Model throughout the day during real, everyday and motivating activities ✅
6️⃣ Show how we can use different words for different messages 🆒
7️⃣ Sometimes get the grammar wrong (particularly initially when we are just modeling core words) – but that’s okay. 😅
8️⃣ Get comfortable with making mistakes! 🙃
9️⃣ Keep things low pressure. ☺️
🔟 Have fun! We get silly! And we show that communicating is fun! 🤪
10/08/2020
💡 DID YOU KNOW? Daily reading with infants 👶🏼 impacts academic achievement in grade three? 🤩🧠
A recent study by Brown et al (2018) indicated that book reading at 1️⃣ to 2️⃣ years of age positively predicted language literacy 🔠 and numeracy 🔢 scores in grade three (eight to nine years of age). 🙌🏼
You don't just have to stick to the script! Discuss the pictures, talk about what's going on. 💬 There's often a good opportunity to bring verbs in. I'm a big fan of talking about verbs as much as possible, even with young babies to support language development. 💃🏼 I would also encourage parents to be facing their child so that they can engage in eye contact 👀 and enable joint attention.
For some other tips for book reading from 4 months +, see: http://www.letsread.com.au/Families/Reading-tips-and-tools
😀
30/07/2020
Social mysteries solved! 🔎 ✅
We used our walkie talkies 📞 to share our “social smart” observations 🔭 across the playground and wrote down with our detective invisible ink pens 🖊 what peers 👯 were saying and what they might be thinking! 💭
We are good “Social Detectives” 🕵🏼♂️ when we use our eyes 👀, ears👂, and brains 🧠 to figure out what others 👯♂️ are planning to do next 🤔 or are presently doing and what they mean by their words 💬 and actions 👋.
28/07/2020
Individuals who use or are learning to use (AAC) need to be able to access their system...”ALL DAY ☀️ 🌒 , AT ALL TIMES ⏰ , IN ALL ENVIRONMENTS 🏫 🪁 🏡 ”.
If we abandon AAC systems, leave them in backpacks 🎒 or on high shelves away from the individual who needs them👩🏼🦽, how can we expect them to become competent communicators? 🤷♀️
We use this visual reminder for AAC systems and love 💕 working with parents/carers 👥, siblings 👯♀️ and teachers 👨🏼🏫 to increase access 🤲🏼 and modeling opportunities to support AAC success 👍 ✅
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