Did you know 1 in 12 children aged between 3-17 will experience a disorder related to voice, speech, language, communication or swallowing?* While these disorders are common, parents can struggle to find appropriate help for their children.
Mater Health and Wellness offers a comprehensive and specialised speech pathology service for children from birth up to school age for speech and up to fourteen years for feeding.
Support for speech is offered through assessment and intervention for early communication skills, connecting and engaging with others, unclear or limited speech plus alternate communication methods.
Paediatric Speech Pathology Team Clinical Lead Alana Turbitt said her team support eligible children with speech up until school age giving them the best possible start for their education.
“Since the introduction of prep for children aged five, we have seen an increase in parents accessing speech pathology services for their children,” Alana said.
Alana also explains the speech pathology services support children up to the age of fourteen years with feeding concerns including chewing, swallowing, tube feeding or tube weaning.
“Our team see both inpatients and outpatients, we can follow them from the neonatal critical care unit, parenting support centre, Mater Children’s Private Hospital right up to their regular appointments,” Alana said.
“We run a multidisciplinary tube feeding clinic supported by our other clinicians and allied health practitioners, this is predominately for children with disabilities and is supported through the NDIS.”
Alana said the speech pathology services at Mater were a great resource for parents to access should they need assessment and recommendations.
“You don’t need a referral to get in, we offer parking vouchers of parents for up to 90 minutes and we can also do appointments via Telehealth if required,” Alana said.
To find out more about Children’s Therapy Services at Mater please call, 07 3163 6000, email info.wellness@mater.org.au or visit the website here.
*https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-voice-speech-language