News From Box Hill Speech Pathology Clinic
Greetings from Vincent Borg
Welcome to another update of speech therapy ideas from the team here at Box Hill Speech Pathology Clinic. We have
had a busy year so far and the second half looks set to be even busier! We are welcoming some new staff, saying goodbye to some good friends, as well as introducing some exciting new programs in the Clinic.
In this issue we will talk about new programs such as “Skype That Stutter”, Orofacial Myology (or tongue thrust therapy), early feeding skills, stuttering skills development, signs of literacy difficulties, social skills necessary for school readiness, bilingualism, ideas for treatment success, the importance of praise, funding available through Medicare and parent ideas.
New Faces:
We are pleased to welcome to the team Megan Murphy (left) and Dora Chan, Speech Pathologists, who will be joining us part-time (including Saturdays). Megan (left) has a particular interest in the areas of infant feeding/
swallowing and its implications to language difficulties, as well as general speech therapy, particularly with preschool aged children.
Dora Chan (top-right) will be available from to see children of all ages, including children with ASD and related speech and language difficulties, in our Saturday clinic.
We are thrilled to now have Megan and Dora join our team. Please see page 3 for more detailed information on Dora and Megan.
Farewells
We will be saying goodbye to Kimberley Smith and Naomi Musolino. Kimberley has been with us for over two years
and has added tremendously to our speech and language services for the preschool population.
Naomi Musolino has been delivering our Saturday program over the past year, and her enthusiasm and commitment to her work will be greatly missed.
We also said farewell to Jess Mueller in Admin. Kimberley, Naomi and Jess will be sadly missed.
New programs at BHSP Skype Therapy
Box Hill Speech Pathology is now offering therapy via Skype for people of all ages who stutter, and school aged
and adolescent clients with tongue thrusting difficulties. Some clients are unable to access our service due to distance or difficulties in attending the Clinic and therapy over the Internet using a web cam can help overcome those obstacles and yet provide individuals wherever they may be located, access to high quality speech and language services for these two areas.
Early Feeding
Megan Murphy is now our resident specialist Speech Pathologist seeing young children with early feeding difficulties which may be related to early communication difficulties. Megan has worked in a specialist hospital in
London where she has developed this interest and she is keen to pursue this area with us in Box Hill. Any young children, including toddlers, with feeding difficulties will be in expert hands with Megan.
Stuttering and Anxiety
Box Hill Speech Pathology Clinic has a very special interest in individuals of all ages who stutter and the many
clients who are having difficulty with fluency of speech. Children from as young as two years of age can be helped to address their stuttering difficulties.
It is well known that adults and adolescents who stutter are more at risk of becoming anxious however recent findings suggest that even preschool children are likely to have elevated levels of anxiety because of their stuttering difficulties.
Therapists here are now providing elements of cognitive based behavioural therapies to help preschool aged children, adolescents and adults who stutter in conjunction with effective speech and language therapy in order to
improve their fluency.
Stuttering and Bilingualism
We live in a multicultural society and a number of children come from bilingual homes.
We are often asked to see children who are bilingual and asked whether if they are stuttering in one language
may effect the development of another language.
There are no consistently held views on whether just one language or two or more languages should be encouraged in a child who is stuttering.
There is no strong evidence that omitting one language necessarily helps a child with a stuttering difficulty. Where possible we try to encourage bilingual development. Individual children are assessed on a case by case basis.
Busy with 0-6 year olds
The Clinic continues to see a large number of very young children with speech, language, stuttering, early literacy and voice difficulties.
Early identification and treatment of these difficulties is strongly advocated.
Early treatment for many of these difficulties can help prevent the risk of associated difficulties with behavioural, educational, and emotional problems that may develop because of continuing communication difficulties.
Social skills and readiness for school
Along with traditional speech and language difficulties, we often see children who may develop social skills difficulties because of their limited communication for example asking or answering questions, problem solving,
participating in story telling etc.
A number of the therapists in our Clinic are well trained to assist with social skills training that may be associated with speech and language or communication difficulties.
Parents Corner
Welcoming Your Input and Recognizing Your Support
We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of those parents, carers and special friends who are diligently
supporting their children in their home practice between therapy sessions.
It is very encouraging to see so many parents being committed to their children’s therapy and putting in maximum efforts to work towards the best possible results.
We would like to include photos of your children to include in our next newsletter. If you would like to participate please see Sheridan who can take photos of your children whilst in therapy, or otherwise please send in your favourite photos of your children (preferably if the photo demonstrates something to do with speech, talking or communicating). You will receive copies of any pictures taken in Clinic.
If you have any suggestions for topics or information you would like to see in future Newsletters, we welcome your input.
Dr Simone Arnott and her good friend Lachlan.
DID YOU KNOW?
Former British P M W i n s t o n C h u r c h i l l , Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe and music legend Elvis Presley
struggled with stuttering?
Erin busily creating a work of art.
Helping Children With Literacy Difficulties
What are Literacy Difficulties?
Literacy difficulties are experienced by children who my struggle to make progress at school with pre-reading skill (phonemic awareness), reading, hand-writing and/or spelling. Some of the most important factors to consider when a child is struggling to learn literacy skills are to see if difficulty is being experienced in one or more of the following areas:
You may wish to seek assessment if your child:
- Phonemic Awareness Skills (the ability to identify, segment, delete and blend sounds in words)
- Indentify and create rhyming words
- Blend a string of sounds together to make a word
- Separate individual sounds from words
- Decode sounds in words for reading
- Relate the sound to a letter shape and write it
- Understand the meaning of individual words
- Remembering a string of words and understand their meaning within a sentence
- Relate different sentences to each other We have an array of assessments and our therapists
choose appropriate tests depending on the person’s age, skill level and individual needs. The results obtained will then determine the recommended outcome for each student.
“Write to Read” Program
This highly successful literacy program integrates spelling/decoding, phonemic awareness, listening, reading fluency, comprehension, writing and vocabulary.
Clients are guided along the reading and writing journey with great success. They transform their attitudes and behaviours to literacy as well as their skill level.
Our literacy program here at Box Hill Speech Pathology Clinic is run by Dr Lisa Furlong, Speech P a t h o l o g i s t . Lisa is available to see clients Wednesdays and Saturdays.
FUN FACTS:
There aren’t any words that rhyme with orange, purple, silver, or month. The oldest word in the English language is
“town”.
Treatment Success Tips
What makes for successful treatment in speech therapy?
There are many factors that influence treatment success.
These are our top 7.
1. Fully informed parents
2. Comprehensive assessment
3. Clear therapy plans
4. Commitment by therapists and parents to the treatment plan
5. Regular home practice that is fun!
6. Reinforcement with regular home practice
7. Praise the effort, not the result
Preschool and Kindergarten Presentations
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Speech T h e r a p y and M e d i c a r e Rebates
Are you aware that there is some limited funding that is available through the Enhanced Primary Care Program (EPC) which is a Medicare initiative?
GP’s are able to provide an EPC to patients where there is a chronic or ongoing health related condition requiring the attention of an allied health specialist, such as a speech pthologist.
An EPC plan entitles you to five sessions per calendar year where you can claim back a portion of your session fee through Medicare. (Fees are still payable in full on the day of service in the Clinic). We encourage you to discuss with your GP if you may be eligible for an EPC plan.
Appointments
The office is attended between 8:00am and 6:00pm Monday through to Saturday, and we welcome bookings and enquiries during these hours.
Out of hours, we encourage you
to leave a message on our answering machine and you will be contacted in response as soon as possible the following business day. We can be reached via phone on 9899 5494 or send us an email at enquiries@speech-therapy.com.au
Cancellations
Commitment Agreements and cancellation policies such as ours are common in private facilities across all fields of healthcare and specialist therapy.
Please remember that we do require at least 24 hours notice to cancel an appointment.
Cancellation with less than 24 hours notice will result in 50% of the session fee being payable.
If an appointment is missed and there has been no contact, the full session fee is payable. If you need to cancel an appointment out of hours, please leave a message on our answering machine and state the date and time of your call to ensure that you are not incorrectly charged a cancellation fee.
We Are Now Taking Term 3 Bookings
If your child will be continuing therapy throughout term 3, we encourage you to contact us to arrange your term 3 appointments as soon as possible. If you have a preferred day or time for your sessions, we recommend
booking as early as possible to maximise the chance of your preferred booking being available to you.
