This is the last blog in our series on speech development in children. See what other topics we’ve covered to learn more. As we have discussed in previous blogs, our little ones don’t learn to speak clearly all at once, but slowly over a number of years. This process of learning involves making mistakes and […]
This is the third instalment in our series of blogs on children’s speech. Check out our previous blogs on Speech Sound Development and Intelligibility. When I tell people what I do, people often ask ‘do you work with lisps?’. This is actually a very small part of my caseload, but we do see it sometimes. A […]
If you’ve ever watched a child learn to speak, you’ll know that they don’t suddenly open their mouths and say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”.When children are first learning there are lots of words that are too tricky for them to say. So cat, might sound like ‘tat’ for a few months, and sticker might sound more like ‘dider’. […]
Intelligibility All this month in our blogs, we’re talking about speech sound disorders. One of the words you’ll hear a lot when talking about speech is ‘intelligible’. Intelligibility is how clear and comprehensible a person’s speech is. If a child is 100% intelligible, that means that everyone can understand everything they say. If you find […]
Alison McDonald, Certified Practising Speech Pathologist Being a parent is a tough gig. No one can disagree. Along the journey, we are often plagued by doubts in our parenting abilities, and swallowed by the uncertainties of what results our efforts will reap. In my early years as a mum, I was swept up thinking about […]
A strong, robust vocabulary is a very important part of being a proficient English language user. A rich vocabulary helps us to express our thoughts, hopes and desires with accuracy and clarity. As speech pathologists we regularly work with our clients to help develop their vocabulary. Often, we will work on less common, but highly descriptive words (such as ‘enormous’ or ‘huge’) to give our clients an alternative to a common, but broad word (like ‘big’). While reflecting on the work we do in this area, I started thinking about how some words hold more importance to me than others.
I adore children’s books. I love the simple, hilarious stories, the anthropomorphised animals, and the amazing illustrations. Reading books with young children is an absolute joy for me and as a Speech Pathologist it’s now a significant part of my job! When sharing books with our children, we’re creating opportunities for them to learn language. […]
As we’ve already discussed in our previous blog, my goal when reading with children is always to interact with them and have a conversation, not to finish the book or to ‘tell’ them a story. On that note, here are some ways you can have a conversation while reading with your little one: 1. Follow […]
Welcome to winter! Are you ready to embrace the frosty mornings and nippy nights? If you’re like me, winter this year has caught me off guard. Surely it was only a few weeks ago that I was tidying up the pool toys! I’ve already had a nasty cold and winter has barely begun. When you’re […]
Here at Newcastle Speech Pathology we work with people of all ages who experience many different communication difficulties. One particular area we enjoy working in is helping those with voice disorders. Unfortunately voice disorders are not very well known in the general public and people often don’t realise that Speech Pathologists can help improve your […]
