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	<title>Latest News</title>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/meet-our-speech-pathologists-eve_105s98</link>
<description><![CDATA[I was drawn to study speech pathology because I believe that communication is a basic human right, and every person deserves to have a voice to express their wants and needs.

I feel very privileged to be a small part of my client&rsquo;s communication journey. My goal is to give my clients the tools they need to participate meaningfully in their families and communities, either through verbal speech or alternative and augmentative communication (AAC).

I am passionate about building the capacity of parents and educators in supporting children with communication difficulties. My special interests include working with children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, bilingualism, and stuttering.

During my spare time, I enjoy playing the piano, watching documentaries and also making bread (a new skill I have developed during this period of isolation).&nbsp;I look forward to seeing you all soon.
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Meet Our Speech Pathologists: Eve]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/meet-our-speech-pathologists-eve_105s98</guid>
<pubDate>13 Sep 2020 18:25:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/is-there-more-to-speech-pathology-than-what-meets-the-eye_105s97</link>
<description><![CDATA[&ldquo;I had people in my life who didn&rsquo;t give up on me. My mother, my support worker, my teacher. I had one-on-one Speech Pathology. I had a nanny who spent all day playing turn-taking games with me.&rdquo; - Temple Grandin. 

Dr Grandin did not talk until she was three-and-a-half years old. She was fortunate enough to have early Speech Pathology intervention. Her teachers also taught her how to wait and take turns when playing board games. Temple Grandin is autistic. Temple Grandin is also a prominent author and speaker on both autism and on animal behaviour. 

We, as Speech Pathologists, have high expectations for your child, no matter how severe their impairments. We have high expectations because we believe everybody deserves the best chance. 

Speaking of Learning not only looks at the impairments of the clients we see. We look at the individual, their personality, their likes and dislikes, and we work together with them, to give them the best chance at using their gifts and abilities in the society and world they live in. 

From addressing speech clarity and smooth speech, working on grammar and sounding out of phonemes, learning to engage with people by abiding by the rules of conversation, to understanding emotions and other peoples perspectives, we meet your child at every angle of their communication. 

Using eye-contact and body language to get a message across can be profoundly ground-breaking for some of our clients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). 

Understanding how to generate a syntactical and grammatically correct sentence both orally and in written form can greatly benefit a child&rsquo;s progress in class. 

Understanding how to regulate emotions, weigh up the size of a problem and adjust reactions accordingly, can help our clients develop a stronger and deeper connection with their siblings and friends. 

Teaching our clients to make requests verbally and understand instructions will act as a catalyst for them engaging in their kindergarten activities and learning. 

As Speech Pathologists, one session at a time, we have the deepest desire to inspire and enlighten our clients with their potential and incredible ability, beyond how they appear to the common eye. Our greatest motivation is to encourage each of our clients to see beyond their impairments and be all that they were created to be. 
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Is there more to Speech Pathology than what meets the eye?]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/is-there-more-to-speech-pathology-than-what-meets-the-eye_105s97</guid>
<pubDate>13 Aug 2020 09:43:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/i-like-to-move-it-move-it_105s96</link>
<description><![CDATA[Eve Tan is an experienced Speech Pathologist who works part-time at Speaking of Learning. In her other job, she works in a Key Worker role, utilising her Speech Pathology skills and also collaborating with other professionals (including OT and Psychologist) in providing early intervention to children with additional needs. 

Are you a parent who gets stressed-out home-schooling your children and juggling other responsibilities (work, cooking, house chores, the list goes on&hellip;) during this stay-at-home period?

Does it sometimes feel like there are so many things to tick off the to-do-list that it is almost impossible to get some exercise done, or to just&hellip;take a break?

As a therapist running online therapy sessions throughout the day, I can relate to this to a certain extent. I often have to set reminders on my phone to take a break from looking at the screen and get some movement breaks in between seeing clients. Movement breaks make such a huge difference to our headspace, and while it&rsquo;s tempting to power through the school-supervising/work hours so that we can &lsquo;get this over and done with&rsquo;, we need to allocate frequent breaks throughout the day to keep our physical and mental health in check. These breaks are so important to us and our children to help regulate our bodies. Here are some tips on how we can get moving within the current constraints, be it the colder weather or the lockdown restrictions. Hope you&rsquo;ll find them useful!

When you&rsquo;re stuck indoors, consider pairing one of the fun movement break ideas below with a learning task your child does not usually enjoy doing, as an incentive given after: &lsquo;Alright, how about you finish your narrative writing task, then we&rsquo;ll do a quick, fun break!&rsquo;. &nbsp;Quick is the key word because we know you&rsquo;re busy!

1. Red Light, Green Light

Find an open area in your house. When you say, &ldquo;Green light,&rdquo; your child has to walk fast, then the child stops when you say, &ldquo;Red light.&rdquo; Allow your child to say &ldquo;red light, green light&rdquo; for you to stop and move, too! This is a fun activity which you can target following instructions and turn-taking skills. Win-win!

2. Dance Party

Play a song and do some silly dance moves. Pause the song every once in a while to get the child to &lsquo;stop&rsquo;/&rsquo;freeze&rsquo;, and play the song to start again. This is a great movement break for little children who are still learning basic concepts such as &lsquo;Stop&rsquo; &lsquo;Go&rsquo; and &lsquo;Wait&rsquo; &ndash; Similar to the &lsquo;Red Light, green light&rsquo; game, this dance party idea targets important words for road safety too, so it is good to practise these concepts in a fun setting.

3. Animal Walk

Give instructions to your child to do animal walks around the room, such as &lsquo;hop like a bunny&rsquo;, &lsquo;crawl like a lion&rsquo;, &lsquo;stomp like an elephant&rsquo;, &lsquo;leap like a frog&rsquo;. Not only do you get to help your child burn off some energy, you are also targeting language concepts such verbs (action words: hop, crawl, stomp) and pairing them with actions to help them remember the verbs more easily.

4. Wall Push-Ups

This is my personal favourite and one I learned from my colleague who is an Occupational Therapist &ndash; sometimes it helps to push on those walls a bit to help us feel like we have enough breathing room. Get your children to lean against the wall with their hands and do some upright push ups or pretend to push the wall outward.

5. I Spy/Scavenger Hunt

Write down a few adjectives (describing words) on pieces of paper, fold them up and put them in a bowl. Get your child to pick a piece of paper from the bowl and find an object around the house that matches the description. &lsquo;Find something that is&hellip;round,&rsquo; &lsquo;Find something that is&hellip; alive,&rsquo; &lsquo;Find something that is&hellip; shiny.&rsquo; This is a great activity to target adjectives, and you can absolutely put in trickier adjectives for the older children, e.g. &lsquo;Find something that is...pliable,&rsquo; &lsquo;Find something that is&hellip;concealed,&rsquo; to help them expand their vocabulary as well.

That&rsquo;s all for now. I shall stop typing because it&rsquo;s time for you to get moving!
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[I like to move it, move it!]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/i-like-to-move-it-move-it_105s96</guid>
<pubDate>12 May 2020 14:31:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/telehealth-all-the-time-in-the-world-lets-use-it_105s95</link>
<description><![CDATA[It&rsquo;s tough as an adult to occupy our time when required to be at home for weeks on end. A walk or two might get the jitters out, along with numerous cups of tea to sip on to pass the day away. But, we manage, right?

With winter fast approaching, the looming thought hanging over the heads of many parents today is&hellip; What do we do with our kids to keep them occupied? How do we continue Speech Pathology whilst at home? How do we help our kids engage in therapy tasks?

At Speaking of Learning


	we &lsquo;do&rsquo; respect.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; praise.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; fluency.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; mistakes.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; working hard.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; language.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; LOTS of practice.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; questions.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; laughter.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; social skills.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; risk taking. We &lsquo;do&rsquo; friendships.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; articulation.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; listening.
	We &lsquo;do&rsquo; learning.


And guess what? We, along with you, can do all of that, and so much more, in the comfort of our own homes!

Therapy looks vastly different to many of us currently. Instead of the usual routine of coming to clinic for face-to-face sessions, we are being asked to engage with our clients and Speech Pathologists, via webcam&hellip;Crazy times!

Let&rsquo;s take the opportunity to embrace what life has thrown at us. Join us on this exciting new journey and become the Speech Pathologist in your own home! Let US help YOU, to occupy your child&rsquo;s time, with meaningful activities that target therapy goals to benefit your child and help progress continue to be a reality.

So here are three practical tips for you to engage with Speech Pathology via telehealth:


	Ask your Speech Pathologist lots of questions - There is no such thing as a silly question! Ask for extra homework tasks, ask for more explicit instructions, ask for extra resources that you can use at home. Let US help YOU to work with your child.
	&nbsp;
	Utilise every aspect of your day -&nbsp;Speech Pathology work does not always have to be a sit-down activity. Do it whilst riding your bikes. Do it whilst going for a walk. Do it during &lsquo;tv time&rsquo;. Do it over the dinner table. Do it whilst making your numerous cups of tea (or hot choccy)! For more ideas on how you can incorporate speech and language skills into your daily routine, you can check out this blog post.
	&nbsp;
	Encourage your child to engage in activities with incentives. And get creative! Save your cookie baking until after you have talked about emotions in characters from the movie. Save the lollipops until the whole book has been read. Use a &lsquo;walk in the park&rsquo; as an exciting incentive to help your child complete their list of spelling words. Move &lsquo;TV time&rsquo; to the end of the day, after you have worked on your joint attention and turn-taking. &nbsp;&nbsp;


Our thoughts are with parents worldwide, who desperately want their child to remain engaged in Speech Pathology, and feel like they can&rsquo;t. Rest assured&hellip; You can, and you will! Together, we will.
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Telehealth- All the time in the world? Let&#39;s use it!]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/telehealth-all-the-time-in-the-world-lets-use-it_105s95</guid>
<pubDate>08 May 2020 10:51:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/encouraging-meaningful-communication-with-your-children-during-this-stay-home-period_105s94</link>
<description><![CDATA[During this period of isolation, it can be difficult to juggle different things at one go &ndash; from working, getting essential supplies (oh, the joys of finding that 24-pack toilet rolls at Woolworths!) to keeping children occupied (hands up if you&rsquo;re feeling overwhelmed looking through endless parenting blogs and Facebook posts to find &lsquo;stay-at-home activities&rsquo; and &lsquo;home-schooling ideas&rsquo;!)...if you are a parent reading this post, I just want to start off by saying you deserve a pat on the back!

This can be a stressful, challenging time for parents with children with additional needs as well. However, I would like to reassure you that there are many things that you can be doing to help your children develop their communication skills at home. Yes, that&rsquo;s right, you don&rsquo;t have to have a degree in Speech Pathology to be your child&rsquo;s best therapist during this trying time! In fact, the increased time spent at home means you can assist your children in transferring the skills they have learnt in their Speech Pathology sessions to their daily routines.

Did you know that different parts of your daily routines can be used to target various speech and language skills? It doesn&rsquo;t always have to be &ldquo;fun and games&rdquo;! Here are some ideas below:

1. Planning your day:

Writing or drawing a daily schedule, and placing it somewhere where your child can see it, can help create some predictability and structure in your child&rsquo;s routines. It can also build excitement for all the fun activities ahead. For older children, you can also create your plan together.

You may find that short spurts of learning (e.g. half an hour of writing activity followed by a quick snack or movement break), may be more productive than dedicating 2 hours for English.

2. Mealtime:

For younger children, mealtime is a great way to encourage basic oral language development. Get them involved in meal preparation and talk about what you&rsquo;re doing &ldquo;Crack the eggs into the large, red bowl&rdquo; &ndash; you are providing the children the opportunities to learn various language concepts such as verbs (crack), prepositions (into), and adjectives (large, red).

Getting the children to help with simple tasks is also a great way for them to follow simple, 2-steps instructions &ndash; &lsquo;Get the plates from the cabinet and put them on the table.&rsquo;

During meals, you can get your child to comment on the colour, taste, and texture of the food, e.g. &lsquo;The snow peas are green and crunchy.&rsquo; &nbsp;For older children, you can get them to practise conversation skills. Some ideas include: talking about one thing they are thankful for, one thing that didn&rsquo;t go so well today, and one person they helped today (I got this idea from this blog post by Fun Cheap or Free). Get the conversations flowing, but also do remind them to wait for their turns!

3. Putting away grocery items:

This activity may seem mundane but it contains many great opportunities to target language concepts, such as irregular past tense &ndash; &ldquo;Dad went to the shops and he bought ________ ,&rdquo; as well as prepositions, &ldquo;Put the apples on the bench, put the ice cream in the freezer.&rdquo; If you bought 20 items from the shops, that&rsquo;s 20 repetitions the child gets to practise his past tense verbs and prepositions!

4. Book Sharing:

It&rsquo;s NOT about getting a specific book, but it&rsquo;s about how you can share the book to make it a language-rich (and fun!) experience for the child. There are so many new and different things children could learn while listening to a story, so don&rsquo;t be afraid to read the same story book a few times, focusing on different elements each times. Perhaps today you want to focus on labelling the objects on the pictures. The next time you want to focus on getting the child to describe what the story characters are doing, and after that you may want to get the child to practise his /f/ sound by finding all the words that contain the /f/ sound throughout the story book.

For younger children who are more hands-on, you can get those Touch-and-Feel and Lift-the-Flap books and model some verbs as the child carries out the action (&lsquo;pull&rsquo;, &lsquo;push&rsquo;, &lsquo;open&rsquo;, &lsquo;close&rsquo;).

For children who are learning about emotions, you can get them to talk about how a character is feeling, and why they might feel that way.

For children who are working on their narrative skills, you can prompt them to retell the story in their own words, encouraging them to use &ldquo;first&rdquo;, &ldquo;next&rdquo;, &ldquo;then&rdquo; and &ldquo;last&rdquo;.

There are no hard or fast rules when it comes to reading a book to your children. The sky is your limit!

&nbsp;

I always remember this quote from Stanley Greenspan - &ldquo;Always look for the gleam in the child&rsquo;s eye. Look for the affect. The biggest mistake to make is not looking for the light in the eye.&rdquo; When you see the gleam in a child&rsquo;s eyes, you know the interaction is going to be meaningful and functional. Even with seemingly mundane daily tasks, you can still engage in meaningful communication with your children.

Here are some other fun children websites which you can visit:


	Zoos Victoria Live
	Cooking with Jamie and his kids
	30 day Lego challenge
	Playdoh Ideas

]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Encouraging Meaningful Communication With Your Children During This Stay-Home Period]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/encouraging-meaningful-communication-with-your-children-during-this-stay-home-period_105s94</guid>
<pubDate>14 Apr 2020 15:25:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/trugs-at-home-selling-online-now_105s93</link>
<description><![CDATA[TRUGS at home

Teaching Reading Using Games at home&nbsp;provides students with a structured phonics experience which reinforces and consolidates letter-sound correspondences.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The game format engages, whilst the cards provide the reading drill required for the development of step-by-step phonics-based reading skills. All the words on the cards are decodable &ndash; i.e the letter-sound correspondences are &lsquo;regular&rsquo;.

In&nbsp;TRUGS at home, each stage provides three games &ndash; Get It (2 players), Match It, Take It.

Shop our Online Store Now
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Trugs at Home - Selling Online Now]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/trugs-at-home-selling-online-now_105s93</guid>
<pubDate>31 Oct 2018 16:50:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/how-should-students-revise-a-brief-guide_105s92</link>
<description><![CDATA[&nbsp;

A revision guide for secondary students, explaining a range of useful techniques.

https://chronotopeblog.com/2018/05/05/how-should-students-revise-a-brief-guide/
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[How should students revise? A brief guide]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/how-should-students-revise-a-brief-guide_105s92</guid>
<pubDate>24 May 2018 11:12:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/specific-language-impairment-sli-versus-speech-sound-disorders-ssd_105s91</link>
<description><![CDATA[&nbsp;

This article discusses the differences between a specific language impairment (SLI) and a sppech sound disorder, and the importance of identifying an SLI in order to provide appropriate treatment.

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/specific-language-impairment-sli-versus-speech-sound-disorders-ssd/44789/
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Specific Language Impairment (SLI) versus Speech Sound Disorders (SSD)]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/specific-language-impairment-sli-versus-speech-sound-disorders-ssd_105s91</guid>
<pubDate>24 May 2018 11:07:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/specific-language-impairment-sli-versus-speech-sound-disorders-ssd_105s90</link>
<description><![CDATA[&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/specific-language-impairment-sli-versus-speech-sound-disorders-ssd/44789/
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Specific Language Impairment (SLI) versus Speech Sound Disorders (SSD)]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/specific-language-impairment-sli-versus-speech-sound-disorders-ssd_105s90</guid>
<pubDate>24 May 2018 11:03:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/speech-pathology-in-schools_105s89</link>
<description><![CDATA[This article discusses the importance of including speech pathology within the school environment to support a range of student difficulties

&nbsp;

http://www.edureporter.com.au/latest/?utm_source=The+Australian+Education+Reporter&amp;utm_campaign=301e9564df-The_Australian_Mining_Review_Online_May-2017&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_46181ca185-301e9564df-72130805#page=48
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Speech Pathology in schools]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/speech-pathology-in-schools_105s89</guid>
<pubDate>06 Mar 2018 16:28:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/the-importance-of-decodable-texts-for-children-learning-to-read_105s88</link>
<description><![CDATA[Decodable text enables children to read at the level of letter-sound combinations that they have been taught, without the confusion having to rely on context to guess unknown words.

&nbsp;

https://johnkennyweb.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/what-are-decodable-texts-and-why-are-they-important/
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[The Importance of Decodable Texts for Children Learning to Read]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/the-importance-of-decodable-texts-for-children-learning-to-read_105s88</guid>
<pubDate>06 Mar 2018 15:42:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/australian-declaration-for-young-children_105s87</link>
<description><![CDATA[&nbsp;

This article highlights the importance of using evidence-based practice in the recording of childhood development, and subsequent treatment.

&nbsp;

https://colab.telethonkids.org.au/areas-of-research-focus/australian-declaration-for-young-children
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Australian Declaration for Young Children]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/australian-declaration-for-young-children_105s87</guid>
<pubDate>20 Feb 2018 11:15:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/reading-to-your-child-is-important-don39t-forget-to-talk-with-them-too_105s86</link>
<description><![CDATA[A study from Macquarie University shows the importance of talking with your child to support their literacy skills

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/childrens-literacy-study-links-hearing-words-to-reading-ability/8697138
]]></description>
<title><![CDATA[Reading to your child is important - don&#39;t forget to talk with them too!]]></title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/reading-to-your-child-is-important-don39t-forget-to-talk-with-them-too_105s86</guid>
<pubDate>04 Aug 2017 11:43:00 +1000</pubDate>
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<link>https://www.speakingoflearning.com.au/latest-news/why-a-speech-pathologist-for-a-student-at-school_105s84</link>
<description><![CDATA[In the last eighteen years working in the teaching profession, I have seen significant changes in the classroom environment. As a graduate teacher in the year 2000, I was given a year one and two class. My colleagues were shocked to discover that I had been allocated two students diagnosed with ADHD. In addition to that, I had a boy who had come from a non-English speaking background. I was sent off to a 10-session professional development course to help me learn how to support him! In that educational era, a teacher would have a natural variety of academic abilities represented within the classroom. We had graduated from our teaching degrees with an understanding of how to modify a worksheet to cater for two or three ability groups. We were even tutored in the various ways by which you could keep your class &lsquo;under control&rsquo;. It was called &lsquo;Behaviour Management&rsquo;. Basically, if I just praised my students for the good and tried to ignore the bad, I should be okay. There was also the detention system if my students&rsquo; behaviour needed further intervention. Somehow or other, I managed to get through that year. One of the students with ADHD went on medication and the other one was drawn to my sense of humour, so the year wasn&rsquo;t all that bad. My student from the non-English speaking background&hellip; Well I did my best. However, unbeknown to my colleagues and I, the landscape of mainstream education was changing more rapidly than we could have ever imagined. In the next few years, more and more parents came to us to share the news that their child had been &lsquo;given a diagnosis&rsquo;. Some children came with sensory processing issues. Others, developmental delays, auditory processing delays, autism spectrum disorder, physical disabilities, the list went on and on. It was no longer a case of just a couple of children in my class needing a little extra care. Now, up to a third of my students had needs that ought to be taken into consideration in my weekly planning. I dearly wanted to carefully address the needs of every student in my class, but I was one woman in a sea of 25 students. I was one woman with four years of university training that didn&rsquo;t equip me with the skills to address the very individual, specific needs of all my children. The fact of the matter is, a teacher is trained to provide education in the areas of literacy, numeracy, humanities, sciences, the arts and sport. We were never trained to provide ongoing remediation for a child with who has sensory processing issues. We were never equipped to help a child learn how to read social cues and respond appropriately. We were never taken through a course on how to help a child with a poor working memory to compensate for his memory gaps. Sadly, we weren&rsquo;t taught how to help a child deal with the constant barrage of sensory overload that occurs every day in the school environment. Actually, there is a whole lot of things that we weren&rsquo;t trained to do. Even now, returning to university to complete my Masters of Special Education, there is still a whole pool of knowledge that I will never truly understand. This area pertains to how we use minute elements of speech and language to draw meaning from the words and actions of others, and how we use our own speech, language and emotions to communicate our intentions. Sure, I can teach a child how to write a persuasive essay, comprehend a basic text, structure and present a class talk&hellip; but if a child is struggling to communicate at the same general level as their peers for whatever reason, there is only so much I can do in the classroom. It is for this reason, that the role of the Speech Pathologist is becoming increasingly important in our schools. Speech Pathologists bring a whole area of expertise that even the most seasoned teacher does not have access to. They have been trained in the nuances of communication and have the time and knowledge to pin-point seemingly small yet significant factors that may be impeding a child&rsquo;s communication skills. When a Speech Pathologist spends time with a child, their attention is solely on that child for 30 minutes straight. There are no other students vying for their attention; all the therapist is thinking about is that one child in that therapy session at that moment. When I am a classroom teacher in a busy school, there is no way I can give a student 30 minutes uninterrupted time, let alone provide intervention for their communication development. Whilst teachers continue to try and keep abreast of developments in multiple disciplines, particularly with regard to technology, Speech Pathologists continue to focus on their one specific domain. Communication. A Speech Pathologist is required to continue perfecting their discipline, and their membership of their association (Speech Pathology Australia) is dependent upon their continual professional development. When a child is struggling to communicate at an age-appropriate level, either by word or written text, or they are unable to keep up with the messages and signals being communicated to them, then it is time to call a Speech Pathologist. The educational landscape has quickly changed in the past 15 years, and we need to realise that classroom teachers are no longer the solution to every struggle our child faces. If your child is struggling in the classroom, perhaps it is time to enlist some additional help. Why not ask the Special Education Teacher in your school to recommend a well-respected Speech Pathologist to assist your child in their educational journey?

Louise Griffiths Educational Consultant Exploring All Options louise.c.griffiths@icloud.com

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<title><![CDATA[Why a Speech Pathologist for a student at school? ]]></title>
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