If you are searching for a Speech Pathologist in Canberra for your child, we can help. We can provide assessment and therapy for children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, articulation disorders, speech impairment and all other speech sound disorders e.g. a lisp

Impact of Speech Sound Disorder

Having a Speech Sound Disorder can affect many areas of your child’s life including:

Social-emotional challenges

In clinical practise we often see children who lack confidence and refuse to speak in front of groups e.g. answering questions in class. Research has shown that even children with mild speech sound disorders face negative judgments from their peers from preschool right through to their teenage years and are more likely to develop long term social and emotional problems.

Literacy challenges

Research shows that children starting school with a Speech Sound Disorder have lower emergent literacy and word reading skills than their peers. For example children who sound out words with incorrect pronunciation can find it more difficult to learn to read and write e.g. a child who can’t say /g/ may read ‘gate’ as ‘date’. Interestingly, research suggests that this can happen even with mild speech sound disorders as severity is not predictive of future difficulties in reading and writing.  

Long term

A 28 year study which followed up of children with moderate speech sound disorders found that children with Speech Sound Disorders achieved poorer high school grades, lower paying jobs and faced more discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

How do I help my child with Speech Sound Disorder?

Hearing loss can be subtle. Even if your child consistently responds to noise and passed their newborn hearing screen, it is worth a visit to your GP and booking to  have their hearing checked if they have a Speech Sound Disorder which itself can be a sign of hearing loss. A hearing test is even more important if they:

Have ever had any ear infections

Were born premature

Have a family history of hearing disorders

Have had constant exposure to loud noise

Have excessive wax build up

 

Have had a serious head injury

 

Have had any serious illness at any time in their life including the pregnancy (e.g. meningitis, influenza).

To book a free hearing test in the ACT contact ACT health nurse audiometry on 6207 9977 (waitlists apply so get in quick!)

Check what is typical for their age against data from the latest large-scale study Mcleod 2018 to determine if they require therapy

Have your child assessed by me! I have 11 years experience in the assessment and treatment of children with speech sound disorders. I can provide a thorough analysis of their speech relative to their same age peers to help inform your decision about what to do next. Click here to make an appointment.

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Having a speech sound disorder can affect your child’s confidence. In clinical practise we often see children experiencing bullying at school and social isolation due to their speech sound disorder. Whilst severity of speech sound disorder cannot predict future difficulties in reading and writing, research suggests that children starting school with a speech sound disorder have lower emergent literacy and word reading skills.

What treatments do we offer for Speech Sound Disorder?

We love finding the perfect fit treatment for each child’s delightfully unique speech skills, personality, interests, attention etc. There is no single approach suitable for all children, so we customize our approach to your child’s individual needs drawing on techniques from a variety of different approaches including:

Speech Sounds - Ages and Stages

Check out the latest data provided by the Mcleod 2018 Treehouse speech norms to see what age 75-90% children have mastered pronunciation of consonants.

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