Speech Therapy & CounselLing

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 The Speech and Language Therapist will assess your child's speech production. Speech production is a complex process, involving the brain, mouth and lungs. Speech sound development can affect reading, writing and spelling. 

A detailed analysis of speech production will allow the Speech and Language Therapist to deferentially diagnose the nature of your child's speech impairment. Speech impairment may include sounds being mixed up (i.e. saying 'tar' instead of 'car'), leaving out sounds (i.e. saying 'seep' instead of 'sheep') or mispronouncing sounds (i.e. a lisp). The Speech and Language Therapist will work closely with your child to determine what sounds are produced correctly and incorrectly. 

The Speech and Language Therapist will assess all aspects of a child's language development, including their understanding and expression.

A language delay occurs when a child’s language is developing slower than other children of the same age, but it is following the typical pattern of development.  A language disorder is marked by language that is slow to develop and the way in which language is developing does does not match the typical developmental pattern. 

The Speech and Language Therapist will use formal, informal (play based therapy) and parental questionnaires to evaluate your child's language. 

A cleft lip and/or palate occur when the tissues of the mouth and/or lip do not form properly during early foetal development.

A cleft palate is a hole in the roof of the child’s mouth. A cleft lip is when the top lips do not join together and a gap is left in the lip. 

Children with cleft lip and/or palate may require a Speech and Language Therapist to evaluate their feeding, speech or resonance skills. 

The Speech and Language Therapist assesses a child's Feeding, Eating, Drinking and Swallowing (FEDS) skills. A feeding disorder refers to problems in the development of feeding skills, such as sucking from breast or bottle, eating from a spoon, chewing, or drinking from a cup. Swallowing difficulties refers to problems in one or more phases of the swallowing process. 

FEDS difficulties may be related to many factors, such as developmental disability, neurological disorders or sensory issues.  

Your Speech and Language Therapist will assess your child's presentation and determine the most appropriate intervention. 

Stammering affects the flow of speech. It begins during childhood and can continue right through a person’s life. It is characterised by specific types of disruptions or disfluencies in the production of speech sounds that occur regularly and impact on communication. 

There are different types and characteristics of stammer. Your Speech and Language Therapist will complete a holistic evaluation of your child's presentation and determine the most appropriate therapy plan. 

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is characterized by difficulty learning to read despite normal intelligence and exposure to reading instruction. Star Bright can conduct an assessment to  diagnosis dyslexia.

If your child is dyslexic, the Speech and Language Therapist will provide  a comprehensive evaluation of language. This will focus on the assessment of receptive and expressive language, phonological awareness, reading ability and word finding skills.