Speech Pathology Services Sydney

The first stop for most families is paediatric speech therapy. It covers the full range from birth to 18: early intervention, late talking, school-age language, social communication, autism, ADHD, hearing-related delays, and intellectual disability presentations.

For assessments specifically, speech therapy assessment covers standardised assessments and written reports for both children and adults. I do initial assessments, NDIS annual progress reviews, and out-of-area assessments for families outside the 30-kilometre Arncliffe catchment who need a one-off report without ongoing therapy.

Speech sound therapy covers articulation errors, phonological disorders, and childhood apraxia of speech, for a child who is hard to understand, leaving sounds off words, or producing patterns of errors that do not match their age.

Language is the biggest category on my paediatric caseload. Language therapy covers expressive language, receptive language, language delay, developmental language disorder, and late talkers across all age groups from toddlers through secondary school.

For children with an autism diagnosis, autism speech therapy covers social communication, functional language, AAC therapy for children using communication devices, and work with autistic children who also have an intellectual disability. The approach adapts to the individual profile rather than running a generic autism protocol.

ADHD has a communication dimension that most families do not know about until they start looking. ADHD speech therapy focuses on conversation skills, narrative organisation, and language processing in classroom settings. Medication helps focus. It does not teach the communication skills that go with focus.

Reading, spelling, writing, and phonological awareness are speech pathology territory. Literacy and reading support covers this from foundation year through secondary school, including dyslexia and the language underpinnings of reading that reading tuition on its own does not address.

Stuttering therapy for preschoolers and older children runs on the Lidcombe and Camperdown programmes respectively.

Video sessions are available anywhere in Australia through telehealth speech therapy. Medicare CDM, NDIS, DVA, and private pay are all eligible. It works well for adult presentations, older children, teenagers, and families in areas I cannot reach in person.

Face-to-face at your home is covered under mobile speech therapy. I travel across the Arncliffe 30-kilometre catchment. Home visits are the model I use for most of my paediatric caseload, for DVA clients, and for older adults managing multiple health conditions who do not want to travel.

For children whose goals are tied to the classroom, school-based speech therapy means sessions happen at school during the school day. I liaise directly with teachers and learning support staff. The classroom is where a lot of the language and social communication demands actually land, so that is where the work is most useful.

Community speech therapy covers sessions at community disability hubs, preschools, and other community sites. This service also covers parent coaching, using Hanen-influenced strategies for everyday communication at home, and AAC therapy for clients using picture-based systems or communication devices.

Assessment and therapy in English and Mandarin is available for all presentations. See bilingual speech therapy for the full detail.