ADHD Speech Therapy Sydney

Sessions focus on three connected areas, though the mix changes for each child based on what is actually getting in their way. Conversation skills come up constantly. Turn-taking, staying on a topic long enough to complete a thought, picking up the social cue that a conversation is ending so you do not keep talking past it. These are not abstract social skills drills. I target them using real scenarios from the child’s week: asking to join a game at recess, explaining something to their teacher without getting sidetracked, dealing with a younger sibling who is winding them up.

Narrative organisation is the second area, and often the one parents describe the most clearly. Kids with ADHD usually know exactly what they want to say, but it comes out in the wrong order. I work on structuring narrative: who, what, when, where, why, in an order that a listener can follow. This shows up everywhere. Written work in class where the teacher cannot follow the flow. Oral presentations that go over time. Retelling something funny from school in a way that actually lands with friends instead of losing them halfway through.

Language processing is the third area and often the most overlooked. Children with ADHD frequently struggle with multi-step instructions in class, not because the language itself is complex but because attention drops somewhere in the middle of the instruction. I work on processing strategies: chunking instructions into steps they can remember, using visual supports to anchor the sequence, and self-monitoring (checking back with yourself to see if you caught all the parts before you start acting on the instruction). These tools generalise once a child has them, which means the work in sessions shows up in classroom behaviour later.

For bilingual children with ADHD, assessment in both languages is standard. Language processing difficulties show up differently across languages, and English-only testing often underestimates bilingual kids generally.

Funding: NDIS (plan-managed and self-managed) for eligible participants, Medicare Chronic Disease Management plans (with GP referral), and private pay. All funding options at speech pathology services Sydney.