Speech Therapy FAQs

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.