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What is the NDIS?

The NDIS is a national scheme, which is being implemented across Australia to provide targeted support and better coordination and access to services for people with a disability. The scheme is a single national system catering people with any kind of disability anywhere in Australia with the aim of providing equal access to existing health care services across the country.

For children on the current Better Start and HCWA (Helping children with Autism) schemes this means that funding for therapy will transition and eventually by provided through the NDIS. For adults with disability, this will allow for access to private health care services at no cost to the individuals or their families.

How can the NDIS help individuals with speech difficulties?

Individuals with disabilities will be assessed on their needs including their physical needs and if deemed eligible they will be provided with funding to attend sessions with health professionals such as Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists to help meet their physical needs at home as well as during recreational and vocational activities. The same applies for the individuals mental needs.

Once assessed, the individual may then be eligible for therapy services to meet their mental health and communication needs. This means they will be eligible to receive funding for psychology and speech pathology services.

The amount of sessions they can receive for each service is then determined collaboratively by the individual, their Carer, the NDIS, and the specialist they are seeing. The NDIS is different from the current schemes in that funding for adults with disability is now provided through a single scheme. This means adults who have disabilities such as Down syndrome or Autism receive therapy to assist with their communication and swallowing. This means they can improve their ability to speak to members of their family at home, make new friends in the community or help them to gain employment and engage with colleagues at work.

For more information about the National Disability Insurance Scheme visit the NDIS website

Contact us for results focused speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have questions about language activities, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post What is the NDIS and how can it help adults with speech difficulties appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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1. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

Repetition is truly the key when it comes to picking up a language. Just as we need to hear a new word a few times before we truly understand what it means and how to use it, children require the same. Using the same word in a different context such as identifying a car outside and a picture of a car will help your child to solidify the concept of the word, especially with children who struggle with attention and may need to see the object physically in a form that attracts them.

2. Take turns and build on what has already been said

When we are hoping to get a child to interact, we often bombard them with questions, this can be overwhelming and most likely lead to a stunned silence. Instead wait for your child to point out something interesting to them and build on what they say e.g. if your child says car when they see a toy car you can model back a slightly longer phrase like ‘red car’ or push the car and say ‘car go’.

3. Use, interpret and respond to non verbal language

We can do the same for children who don’t yet speak by interpreting their body language e.g if your child points to the car, we build on this communicative intent by elaborating on the gesture and saying ‘car’. It is important to not only lookout for this communicative intent but also model with gesture by pointing and showing the object to the child as we say the word.

4. Slow down and stress key words

When using longer sentences especially, slow down your speech and stress the words that are important within the sentence. They may not necessarily be the most important words in the sentence; instead, they are the words that you are trying to teach. For instance in the example where the child says ‘car’ and you say ‘red car’, you want to stress the word red as the child is already familiar with the word car.

Most importantly, make it fun, so your child enjoys the experience and wants to interact with you more. This ensures that the learning continues and their language will flourish.

Contact us for results focused speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have questions about language activities, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post If you are using these 4 strategies then you are modelling language well for your child appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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This is a common question for many people looking to book a speech pathology appointment. The real answer to this question is actually anyone. If you have a concern regarding your child or yourself, you can call a speech pathology clinic to book an appointment without a referral from another profession. While there are referrals you can get for speech pathology which entitle you to Medicare rebates, you do not need a referral to see a speech pathologist.

In order to receive a Medicare rebate for speech pathology session though, you do need a referral from either a general practitioner or a paediatrician. Both these health care providers can provide you with a care plan to receive rebates.

Often the first point of contact with a health care professional will be either a General Practitioner or Paediatrician however; you or your child may be examined by your GP for an Ear Nose and Throat assessment. An ENT specialist may then send you for a hearing assessment with an Audiologist to ensure there are no hearing difficulties at play. Both these health care professionals are important in determining the cause of a speech or language delay and once you attend a visit with a Speech Pathologist you may be sent to see either an ENT specialist or Audiologist. So it is useful to come prepared with results from both, if you have already completed these visits. The reason for this is that hearing difficulties may be the reason for a communication delay and will need to be addressed to help rectify the issue. Similarly, an adult may find that they have lost their voice and a check up of their throat with an ENT specialist may identify a structural change that requires addressing to assist with their communication difficulty.

For children, childcare workers and teachers may be the point of referral. While they are not health care professionals, they encounter many children on a daily basis and can give you an indication of how your child is progressing compared to other children their age. They can also identify issues that your child might be having which you may not notice yourself. This is a very common occurrence as you are more likely to be familiar with your child’s way of communicating and therefore can understand the message they are trying to get across more easily.

If your child has been referred for a speech pathology assessment by a childcare worker, ENT specialist, teacher or Audiologist; be sure to visit your GP to get an enhanced primary care plan or EPC referral so you can receive a Medicare Rebate where applicable.

Contact us for results focused speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have speech pathology related questions, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post Who can refer you to a speech pathologist? appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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The powerhouse museum will be holding an exhibition from now until the 28th of January where you can learn about the human voice, how it locates us socially, geographically and psychologically. This interactive exhibit combines performance, video, visuals and sound to present works by artists and vocalists and incorporated paintings, manuscripts, medical illustrations and ethnographic objects to take you on an acoustic journey. Learn about how the voice is so flexible that it can be altered with treatment and training, much like what occurs in Speech Pathology intervention. The exhibition will take you on an interactive tour showing you through the vocal tracts as well as speech devices to see how we convey meaning and emotion through voice patterns of rhythm, stress and intonation. This exhibit is a fantastic way for older children, especially those who have difficulties with their voice, to discover the power of voice beyond the words that make up our communication and understand the human voice.

Understand language through Chinese whispers

Chinse whispers is a great way for children to understand how volume plays a significant role in effective communication and how a message can be changed completely just by one sound being distorted. The game starts with everyone sitting in a circle and one person thinks of a short phrase. This person whispers it in the ear of the person to their right and that person then does the same and passes the message to the person on their right until the it comes around full circle. The last person then says the message out aloud and everyone has a laugh at how different the phrase has become.

Send messages through a DIY telephone

This activity is a nice way to get kids together to have a closer listen to how their speech sounds through a fun crafting activity. All you need is two cups, a piece of string, a pair of scissors and a needle or sharp pencil. First, poke a hole with the needle in the centre of the bottom of each cup just big enough to fit the string through it. Place the string though each hole, a few metres of string between each cup and tie a knot so it sits inside each cup to hold the string in place between the cups. Now the phone is ready for some talking. Make sure the sting is tight and the two speakers are far from each other. Place one cup over your mouth and the other person places their cup to their ear. Now talk loudly into the cup and the other person should be able to hear your message on the other end. This activity is great for listening and practicing speech sounds as well. Take turns making sounds and the other person has to guess what sound it is and make it back. This activity is also great for teaching children how the voice causes vibrations in the air, which travel in waves down the string the out the other end so our ears can interpret the message.

Contact us for results focused speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you require speech therapy, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective treatment targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post This is a Voice Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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One of the most popular misconceptions about children with speech and language delay is that taking a ‘wait and see’ approach cannot hurt. While this approach may not lead to anything life threatening, it can have serious repercussions for a child’s entire future following poor performance at school leading to decreased opportunities in further education, career and employment.

Here are a few examples of a child’s delayed language skills influencing their performance at school:

  • If a child is unable to understand basic concepts (e.g. before, after, then, same, different, or, between), they will have difficulties following a number of instructions given by their teachers and educators in the classroom and on the playground
  • e.g. “Put your books away before you get a test paper” or “Make sure to pick up a question sheet that is the same colour as your answer sheet”.
  • In both these cases, not understanding the instruction can lead to having a book open while completing a test, which may be misconstrued as cheating, and while this may not have been intentional, this means the child will already present in a negative light.
  • A child who is unable to follow multiple step instructions may have difficulty completing their schoolwork. They may complete the first step however, they be unaware that there is more work to be done. This inability to complete their work will affect the child’s grades. These kids are often the ones who are seen as disruptive as they become bored once they have “completed” the task, then wander off to do something else and distract others around them.
  • Those children who have difficulty answering ‘wh’ questions will often be unable to answer simple questions their teacher asks them, such as “whose bag is this?” or “Where did you put your book?” They will also be unable to answer questions in tests such as “Who is the main character or “If I have two apples and you have three apples, how many apples we have together?”.

These are just a few of the many difficulties a child with language delay may experience in the classroom and although they may not intend to be the disruptive child, it is a slippery slope for a child that is unable to participate in class due to these setbacks.  Early intervention is the key to bridging the gap and ensuring your child is able to learn and develop at school and socially with others to their best ability.

Contact us for results focused speech therapy

This article was written by our Speech Pathologist Ashleigh Fattah who is a Speech Pathology Australia member. If you have speech pathology related questions, make an appointment. We‘ll provide you with simple and effective therapy targeted to your concerns. Contact us today.

The post The impact of language delay at school appeared first on ENT Wellbeing Sydney.

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