Paediatric Speech Pathologist Brisbane

Speech pathology at
Active Eight

Active Eight is a hub for therapy, community and fun. We’re staffed by professional speech language pathologists with an interest in paediatrics, who enjoy inspiring and encouraging young people to reach their communication goals, while celebrating progress.

You’re guaranteed a warm welcome at our Brisbane Hub – a bright, colourful space that encourages fun and community.

Where possible and when appropriate, we provide recognised assessments including:

• The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 5 (CELF-5)

• Preschool Language Scales Fifth Edition (PLS-5)

• The Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language 2 (CASL-2)

• The Social Language Development Test - Elementary (SLDT-E) & Adolescent (SLDT-A)

• Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation & Processing (DEAP)

• Comprehensive Test Of Phonological Processing (CTOPP-2)

• Informal assessment

Our speech pathology team has a variety of skills, including therapists trained in:

• Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT)

• Hanen (More Than Words)

• Secret Agent Society (SAS) – A social and emotional skills program designed for children

• Key Word Sign

• Sounds write

Our speech pathology team also have experience with Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC).

1:1 speech pathology sessions

Active Eight’s approach to helping kids and teens improve their communication skills includes:

• An initial assessment, an initial report of findings, and goal setting

• Intervention tailored to your child’s needs

• Measuring progress and reviewing goals

• Setting new goals and interventions to reflect increased capacity.

Speech therapy sessions can take place in our Hub in Toowong, the home environment, schools or via telehealth.

What is Speech Pathology?

Speech pathologists are trained to assess your child or teen, to identify your child’s specific needs and tailor an individualised intervention program to work towards identified communication goals.

Our staff have training and experience in supporting children with complex needs and are capable of supporting children of all ages, diagnoses and who require various levels of support.

Our speech pathology team at Active Eight will work with children or teens and their community to develop their communication skills and support them through their communication journey.

Babies initially express themselves through babbling, crying and gesture. Toddlers start using a few words with deliberate meaning. As time goes on, they begin to string words together to form sentences while learning to say more and more words. While this is happening, children begin to follow simple instructions and over time can follow more complex requests.

Some children may experience unique communication difficulties that affect their speech and language development, or swallowing ability. For instance, children may have difficulty making or combing sounds, struggle to understand what other people are saying, are unable to use sentences to express themselves, find it hard to manage conversations in social situations or are unable to read and write sentences. Early intervention can help your child overcome these language difficulties and develop healthy speech patterns.

Looking to start speech therapy in Brisbane? At Active Eight, we provide expert speech pathology services to children and teenagers of all ages. We also offer online speech therapy options, so your child can learn at home where they feel most comfortable. Contact us for more information or book an initial speech therapy appointment with our team today.

Speech sounds

• Articulation therapy (learning how to say sounds).

• Phonology therapy (learning how to sequence sounds in words and conversations).

Early language

• Therapy for children who are late talkers such as,
  ○ A 1 year old who is not using any words to communicate.
  ○ A 3 year old who is only using one to two words when communicating.

Literacy and academic support

• School readiness support for children aged 3-5 years old.

• Written language skills, helping children and teens to learn how to read and spell.

• Core language therapy (grammar and vocabulary) or high-level language support (such as figurative language).

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

• AAC is used by people whose spoken communication is not able to meet their own communication needs.

• AAC may include the use of voice, gestures, symbols, voice output devices, and pictures to communicate.

• We offer a range of AAC solutions to meet the needs of each individual member.

Social communication and social skills

• Targeted social skills therapy for children and teens to help build conversation, friendship, and problem-solving skills.

• Understanding emotions and being able to talk about other people’s perspectives.

• Supporting each member to identify, understand, and respond to their social challenges in a range of settings relevant to them including home, work, school, community, and with their peer group.

Communication partner training

• Helping family members, teachers, teacher aides or friends to understand the best ways to communicate so that your child or teen forms more connections at home, school or in the community.

Therapy

• Individual therapy services in our Hub or outreach to home or educational settings.

• Paired and group therapy services in our Hub and at our partner locations.