Speech pathology week: Speaking up so kids can communicate

According to Speech Pathology Australia, 1.1 million Australians have difficulty communicating.

Sunday August 25 marks the start of national Speech Pathology Week and Sydney speech pathologists Bec Lucas and Rebecca King are raising awareness about how children’s speech and language can affect their futures.

‘The statistics are very compelling’, said Bec Lucas, who is part of the children’s health team at Kids First Children’s Services in Brookvale.

‘Studies have shown that 20% of Australian four year olds have difficulty understanding or using language.’

“Children with a language impairment are also six times more likely to have a reading problem than kids who don’t.”

‘These kinds of figures are frightening, but sadly they paint a pretty accurate picture of the challenges kids with communication problems face in northern beaches preschools and schools today.’’

Rebecca King supports children aged 2 to 12 at Kids First and agreed that early intervention is the key to solving children’s communication problems.

“Children’s self-esteem, friendships and learning can take a battering when they can’t communicate as well as their peers at preschool or school’, she said.

“I recommend that parents of pre-schoolers closely monitor their child’s speech and language skills in the years before they go to school.”

“If a child’s difficulties can be overcome when they are three or four, they have a much better chance of being happy and successful at school.”

‘Early intervention can also reduce a child’s risk of joining the 14% of Australian 15 year olds who have only basic literacy skills and for whom later education and work choices become limited.”

The theme of 2013 Speech Pathology Week is ‘Start the Conversation about Communication.’

Speech Pathology Australia, the national body for professional speech pathologists, can help you to find a speech pathologist in your area. http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/

For more information about paediatric speech pathology at Kids First Children’s Services, call 9938 55419 or visit www.kids-first.com.au

143 Comments

- - ljsalomon said
  - 12 Jan 2014
    11:51 am
My friends twin daughters are still having difficulty getting the school to initiate speech pathology for them.

- - memo said
  - 08 Jan 2014
    12:18 am
speech pathologists do a great job with kids

- - bankstownbrats said
  - 31 Dec 2013
    11:16 pm
Thank you for sharing this .

- - kathryn said
  - 31 Dec 2013
    1:37 pm
Mine is just starting to talk so good to know what to look for

- - misschriss said
  - 29 Dec 2013
    12:40 am
Reading this has made me realise that my youngest should probably see a speech pathologist as he does struggle a bit with saying words correctly.

- - neenee said
  - 28 Dec 2013
    4:55 am
A very thought provoking article. My children are born talkers in fact hubby says why don’t they have a mute button. LOL He forgets he doesn’t stop either.

- - kelly laundess said
  - 27 Dec 2013
    3:29 pm
Speech is the best my son could only say 3 words at age 3 but now omg he fond be quiet excellent people an programs

- - meimei said
  - 25 Dec 2013
    10:14 pm
Great recommendation and advice – thank you 🙂

- - jadeeeee said
  - 18 Dec 2013
    12:50 pm
interesting read, thanks for sharing

- - emmij said
  - 13 Dec 2013
    12:59 pm
i hope i don’t need to ever do this but i think its a great idea

- - linaianna said
  - 05 Dec 2013
    3:00 pm
thanks for sharing this article

- - etschman said
  - 30 Nov 2013
    11:29 pm
interesting read with great advice
- snoopy replied
  
  28 Jan 2014 , 3:09 pm
  Yes that’s what I was going to say.
- - bianca_bonakey said
  - 30 Nov 2013
    9:54 pm
they say all kids should string a sentence by the time they are 2 ?? is this correct

- - veesmithie said
  - 28 Nov 2013
    1:36 pm
My son has been seeing a speech therapist for nearly two years and it has made a huge difference. He went from being mostly non verbal a three years to being able to have conversations and ask questions at five.
We still have a long road ahead of us but with speech tharapy it will be a lot easier.

- - araff said
  - 26 Nov 2013
    5:18 pm
my twin boys lost their top two teeth before they were 5 they are now 8 and the teeth are only now emerging it has caused them to not sound those th/sh sounds correctly

- - youngoldlady said
  - 21 Nov 2013
    5:55 pm
Without speech therapist I would not be talking nor would my children talk as well as they do. Children need to hear proper speech to be able to talk properly and learning that can be hard if their parents do not have very good speech. While help my sons with their therapy it was interesting to see how much they changed in other things. The one thing I learnt was as I was busy with 2 of my older children another was told he had speech problems, I had not noticed as it was normal for me. It turned out his speech while not normal was way beyond his years as the speechie said she forgot she was listening to an eight year old and thought he was in early teens.

- - shazzajt said
  - 21 Nov 2013
    1:48 pm
My daughter use to see a speech therapist and it helped her so much..gave her confidences

- - cylic1 said
  - 11 Nov 2013
    2:00 pm
My daughter first started seeing a speech therapist when she was 3, diagnosed profound deaf, she has continued to see speechies all her life. She is now 13 years old in turn I learnt many techniques from the speechies that I have used with her at home and with other students at school. She does have cochlear Implants and speaks beautifully. Tonight she is receiving an award for acedemics yr 8 no support in the classroom. She is amazing .

- - kikidaz12 said
  - 08 Nov 2013
    8:32 pm
I had a viral infections and lost my voice. I have been diagnosed with a paralysed vocal cord, currently having speech therapy, it’s not easy. So please do what you can for your kids!

- - catlover said
  - 07 Nov 2013
    11:12 pm
Speech Pathology is so important and helps bring out strong confidence in children…