Hearing first approach

Hearing in children can change gradually over time so it’s important to monitor their hearing, even if they have passed tests previously like the newborn hearing screen. If children do have a hearing loss, it can impact their speech and language development.

Hear and Say’s qualified audiologists are here to help – come and see the team for a hearing test. We work with babies, children and adults and can make recommendations suited to your or your childs individual needs.

Child With Cochlear Implant Looking At Women In Mask
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Qualified Speech Pathologists on the Sunshine Coast

Hear and Say has quite a unique set up in that we are a one-stop-shop for hearing and speech therapy services for children and adults. You can book an appointment with our qualified speech therapists for a speech and language assessment. This will help you get a better understanding of your child’s current developmental level and any communication challenges they may be having.

Common signs of speech delays

For children who may be experiencing speech and language developmental delays there are a few signs to watch for. Sometimes it can be hard to know whether a child is taking slightly longer to hit a milestone than their peers or if they're possibly experiencing communication difficulties. Below are some key signs of speech and language delay to look out for in their first two years:

  • Not saying individual words by 15 months of age
  • Not saying two words together by the time they're two
  • Has trouble when following instructions
  • Finds it difficult to put words together in a sentence
  • Leaves some words out of sentences
  • Finding it hard to articular or understand what is being said to them, even basic instructions
  • Any speech is unclear or hard to understand

Our Speech Pathology Services

At Hear and Say, we work with children who have been diagnosed with a hearing loss and also children who may be experiencing speech or language difficulties and don’t have a hearing loss. This includes:

  • Children who are late talkers or not talking
  • Any middle ear concerns
  • A delay in speech (clarity or articulation in their speech)
Aubree In Speech Therapy Lesson

Speech pathology for kids

Before staring speech therapy with children, Hear and Say's paediatric speech pathologist will undertake a speech and language assessment to ensure they have all of the informality available. The speech and language assessment uses standardised tests to look at a childs developmental level and how they communicate and interact with others around them.

Speech Therapy Lesson With Child

Speech pathology for babies and children with hearing loss

Babies and children may have their hearing loss picked up at different stages – from being diagnosed at birth to when they’re a toddler or in school.

Via a combination of hearing technology and specialist speech therpay (known as listening and spoken language therapy), kids can grow up to hear and speak and reach milestones like their siblings and friends.

Group Speech Therapy

Hear and Say runs group speech therapy or group social skills programs to help babies, children and young adults work on their social and communication skill. This is led by our experienced speech pathologists and audiologists with a range of age-appropriate activities.

Online and Telehealth

We offer online speech therapy appointments no matter where you live. Some people even opt to have a hybrid approach by having a combination of in-centre and online appointments.

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The Hear and Say Approach To Speech Therapy

Hear and Say’s unique approach to speech therapy works with families to tech children to learn to speak through listening. Our team of qualified speech pathologists guide and coach parents so they have the skills and age-appropriate strategies to carry out in an everyday environment, for example interactive play, reading books or singing songs.

Our services are tailored to each individual child and their family so everyone can reach their own unique goals and potential.

Visit Our Sunshine Coast Speech Pathology Clinic - in four easy steps

Sunshine Coast

60 Windsor Road, Nambour Qld 4560
 
P 07 3850 2111
F 07 3366 1803
 
Hours of operation:
Monday – Friday 8.30am – 4.30pm

Referral

Each referral pathway can be quite different depending on your unique circumstances. If your child was born with hearing loss and picked up via the newborn hearing screen, you may be referred to our Early Intervention program via your Family Support Facilitator.

If your child is having possibly speech and language delays your GP or even school teacher may recommend a referral. If you have any concerns, you can also self-refer, just give us a call!

Booking

You can request an appointment for speech therapy online or you can phone our team to book your appointment.

Arrival

Before your speech therapy or speech and language assessment appointment, our friendly team will email a link through to gather some background information.

Your First Session

Each appointment at Hear and Say is individually tailored to yours and your childs needs by our qualified speech pathologists.

We're here to help

Book a speech and language assessment or online speech therapy appointment for your baby, toddler or child. We have online speech therapy appointments as well as a number of hearing clinics in Queensland.

Brisbane | Gold Coast | Sunshine Coast | Toowoomba | Townsville | Telehealth

Book an appointment

Speech Therapy FAQs

Speech therapy starts with a speech and language assessment to understand the child's current development level and ability to interact with people around them.

Our team of speech pathologists work with children and their families to develop the child's speech through listening. This approach closely follows a child's natural developmental progression in listening, language, speech, literacy, cognition and social skills. 

It is normal to have lots of questions about speech pathology especially if you’re not sure what to expect for your child’s first appointment with a speech pathologist or what ongoing therapy may look like.

To help the speech pathologist get an accurate picture of the current communication skills of your child, it is important to bring along any past reports, letters, diagnoses or other information that could help them interpret their results. Sometimes, it is helpful to bring a child’s toy or favourite book, or a snack and a water bottle as well, to help the child feel more comfortable in a clinic room or help build rapport with the Speech Pathologist.

The cost that you are paying for a comprehensive assessment includes three hours of the clinician’s time. Even though you may only see your clinician for an hour for the assessment, there have been two hours dedicated for them to score and interpret the assessments completed with your child, and to write a thorough report detailing your child’s communication skills. This time may also include their planning of therapy for their initial therapy session with your child, should it be decided that your child needs ongoing therapy.

Speech pathologists are governed by their practising body (Speech Pathology Australia), and ethically, as a private practice, we should not be offering to conduct assessments without providing a report. The report can be a screening report or a comprehensive report, and this will be determined by the Speech Pathologist. We routinely book all new clients in for a comprehensive report to ensure the Speech Pathologist is allocated the correct amount of time to provide high-quality services and feedback to you about your child’s communication.

In this case, it would be important for you to send the report to us before your assessment so that our Clinical Lead or treating speech pathologist can decide whether a comprehensive or screening assessment is appropriate for your child. This often depends on how recent the report was conducted (ideally within the past 6 months), as a child’s communication abilities may change, or improve a lot compared to what was reported a year ago. Please forward your report to mail@hearandsay.com.au before your appointment to help your speech pathologist plan for your child’s upcoming assessment accordingly.

Our speech pathologists often see multiple clients a day with their busy caseloads which means that we cannot guarantee to offer a super quick turnaround time for reports. For a screening report, please allow up to two weeks for your child’s report to come through. If your child has been booked for a comprehensive assessment, please allow up to four weeks for your report to come through. If however, you have a specific upcoming appointment with another health professional or NDIS case manager that you are requiring the report by, please let your Speech Pathologist know at the time of the appointment. Our speech pathologists will try to complete your report as soon as they can, but we do appreciate your patience with this. Your report will be sent to you electronically via email and a physical copy can also be given at your next session as requested.

Our schedule of fees is one of the important documents we attach to our welcome email. We always try to keep the cost down for families. For instance, we’ll help you access funding and link you to government-funded services to help reduce your out-of-pocket costs where possible.

Yes. Ideally for speech pathology sessions to be effective speech pathologists need to work together with the parents as a team. This often means being involved in sessions, watching and then modelling strategies used by the speech pathologist within the session so that you can continue to work on these at home. Sometimes home activities and home practice will also be set to ensure the child or client is working on their communication goals in between sessions.

Every session will be different, depending on the needs of the child or adult we are working with. Generally, we start with an assessment to understand their communication goals and then we’ll work together with you to continue working on specific areas that your child is having difficulties with to help improve their communication. We believe in working with our clients and their families to make therapy fun, so we often play games and do interactive activities as part of our sessions. Your speech pathologist will also likely set some home activities or homework for you and/or your child to complete in between therapy sessions.

The number and frequency of therapy sessions will depend on:

  • your child’s current abilities
  • the severity of their speech delays
  • type of therapy being implemented
  • their progress in response to this therapy
  • the family’s familiarity and confidence with the home strategies and activities

Therapy sessions run for either 30, 45 or 60 minutes and take place weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. They may be scheduled in therapy blocks or on an ongoing basis. They also include additional administration time for the therapist to plan activities, document progress, and write reports.

Yes. If you have private health insurance with extras cover, it is always a good idea to contact your private health provider to see if speech pathology is one of the items that your current policy covers. If it is recommended that your child requires continued speech pathology appointments, it may be worth checking to see if increasing your premium to include speech pathology services is worth it for your and your family’s circumstances.

Your GP may prescribe a General Practitioner Management Plan (GPMP) or a Team Care Arrangement (TCA) to help your child access services from a variety of allied health professionals. Please note that this is up to your GP’s discretion. Normally they can provide a Medicare rebate for up to five services with any allied health professionals within a year.

No. Unfortunately, the Medicare rebate for GPMPs cannot be used for you or your child’s initial assessment appointment. However, the GPMP Medicare rebates can be used for ongoing speech pathology sessions. Normally your GP will receive a letter from your speech pathologist after the first session and after the number of prescribed sessions for speech pathology have been completed.

Government funding programs such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) may also assist families in accessing services. For more information about this, please visit our website: Registered NDIS Provider – Hear and Say

Your speech pathologist may also discuss this further with you and your family depending on your child’s communication needs.

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Online learning

From tinnitus, to cytomegalovirus, to teaching kids with hearing loss – further your knowledge with our on demand webinars.

2023-24 Annual Report

Read about the families we have supported and the great outcomes our dedicated staff have helped them achieve this year.

Celebrating powerful communicators

Four courageous children and clients of Hear and Say shared their stories at the inaugural Power of Speech event.

Workplace giving

“The program gives our staff a sense of pride in the company and for the work they do at Sci-Fleet." – Allison Scifleet, Guest Experience Manager, Sci-Fleet Motors.

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