Resources

Starting speech therapy can feel a little unfamiliar, whether you’re seeking support for yourself or your child. Here’s what you can expect when working with Tell Me All About It.

Before we get started, you’ll be asked to provide some information about you or your child, including development, communication skills, strengths, any areas of concern, and what you would like support with. This is all covered in our handy Case History Form.

For children and young people, this may include information about their development and how they communicate at home, preschool, school or in the community.

For adults, we may ask about changes to communication, how these are affecting everyday life, work or relationships, and any relevant medical history or diagnoses.

You’re welcome to share any relevant reports, assessments or information from other professionals involved in your child’s care. This helps us build a more complete picture and avoid asking you to repeat information unnecessarily.

The first appointment is about getting to know you or your child and developing an understanding of current communication strengths, needs and priorities.

Depending on the reason for referral, this may involve:

• Discussing communication strengths, concerns and goals
• Reviewing relevant developmental, medical or communication history
• Observing communication during conversation, play or everyday activities
• Completing informal or formal assessment activities
• Discussing how communication impacts everyday participation
• Identifying priorities for further assessment or therapy

For children, assessment may involve play, toys, books, games or interaction with a parent or caregiver. There is no expectation that a child will sit at a table and complete activities for the entire session.

For adults, assessment may include conversation and structured activities looking at areas such as speaking, understanding language, finding words, expressing ideas, reading, writing, voice or other aspects of functional communication.

Sometimes, assessment takes more than one appointment. This allows us to gather the information we need while working at a comfortable and appropriate pace for the client.

Once we have a clearer understanding of your or your child’s communication profile, we’ll discuss what we’ve found and what we recommend.

This may include ongoing speech therapy, strategies for everyday communication, further assessment, monitoring, or referral to another health professional where appropriate.

If therapy is recommended, we’ll work together to develop meaningful and functional goals based on the things that matter in everyday life.

There is no single way that a speech therapy session should look. Therapy is tailored to the individual, their goals, interests, communication needs and stage of life.

For younger children, therapy may look a lot like play. We might use toys, books, games, movement or everyday routines to create opportunities to develop and practise communication skills.

For older children and teenagers, sessions may include more structured activities while incorporating their interests, preferences and real-life communication needs.

For adults, therapy is typically centred around functional communication and individual goals. This might include strategies and activities to support conversations, communicating needs and ideas, returning to work or study, communicating in the community, maintaining relationships, or increasing independence and confidence in everyday situations.

Depending on individual needs, speech therapy may support areas such as:

• Speech clarity and speech sound production
• Understanding and using language
• Vocabulary and word finding
• Expressing thoughts, ideas and information
• Reading and writing
• Fluency and stuttering
• Social communication and interaction
• Early communication and play
• Voice
• Communication following illness, injury or neurological change
• Communication associated with neurodegenerative conditions
• Functional communication for work, study and everyday life

You may also see us practise the same skill many times or revisit strategies across multiple sessions. Repetition and opportunities to use skills in different situations are important parts of learning and building confidence.

Speech therapy works best when the strategies developed in sessions can also support communication in everyday life, collaboratively.

For children, parents and caregivers are an important part of this process. You don’t need to become your child’s speech therapist, and home practice shouldn’t necessarily feel like a homework assignment. Instead, we’ll help you understand the strategies we’re using and find realistic ways to support communication during everyday routines.

For adults, this may involve practising strategies between appointments and identifying opportunities to use them in real-life situations. With your consent, family members, partners, support workers, employers or other important people may also be involved where this would help support your communication goals.

Children can be tired, shy, excited, distracted, overwhelmed or simply not interested in what we had planned that day. Adults can also experience fatigue, frustration, difficulty concentrating or changes in communication from day to day.

We don’t expect perfect participation or performance.

If something isn’t working, we can change the activity, take a break, adjust the level of support or approach the goal in a different way. How someone responds during a session also gives us useful information about how we can best support their communication.

This varies from person to person. Some people may only need a short period of support, while others may benefit from therapy over a longer period of time. The frequency and duration of therapy can depend on communication goals, the nature and severity of the communication difficulty, how someone responds to intervention, therapy approach, opportunities to practise skills, and other developmental, medical or environmental factors.

We’ll review progress regularly and discuss whether goals, therapy frequency or recommendations need to change.

Depending on availability and what is appropriate, sessions may take place at home, preschool, school, childcare, work, in the community, via telehealth, or in clinic.

Seeing someone in their everyday environment can sometimes help us better understand their communication needs and develop strategies that are practical and relevant to real life.

Speech therapy should be a place where you or your child feels comfortable communicating.

We take a strengths-based, person- and family-centred approach, tailoring therapy to the individual rather than expecting everyone to communicate in the same way.

For children, this means building on their strengths and interests while supporting their development and participation.

For adults, this means focusing on the communication skills and situations that are meaningful to them (e.g., having conversations with family, expressing their needs, returning to work, participating in the community or simply feeling more confident communicating day to day).

Ultimately, our goal is to help each person develop or maintain the communication skills they need to connect, participate and be heard.

Questions before getting started?
You’re always welcome to get in touch with us to discuss whether our services might be the right fit for your child.