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    Speech Pathology Week - Communicating with Confidence

    Speech Pathology Week 25 August 2020

    This week marks the beginning of Speech Pathology Week. With more than 1.2 million Australians living with a communication disability, speech pathologists play an important role in supporting people who have a communication disability.

    This year's theme is communicating with confidence – an appropriate theme for this year’s Speech Pathology Week, given the challenges we are all facing with communication being different in COVID times.  

    Did you know?

    • 1.2 million Australians live with a communication disability.
    • Communication disabilities are largely unseen.
    • Only 38% of people with communication difficulties are in the workforce.
    • Children and older people make up most people with communication disability.
    • Children are more likely to have profound/severe communication disability than older people.
    • Three in 5 people who have an unmet need for formal assistance with communication were children.
       

    What do speech pathologists do?

    Many people have a very narrow idea of what a speech pathologist does. At MCM’s Early Childhood Intervention Services, we have a wonderful team of speech pathologists. Our Speech Pathologists work with families to help children confidently say what they want to say, when they want to say it and how they want to say it. Here are some of the things our Early Childhood Intervention Speech Pathologists do:

    • Support families to understand how children learn communication skills through their social relationships and their everyday routines.
    • Support children to use and understand a greater variety of words, concepts, longer sentences and important grammatical features.
    • Work with babies and children who have difficulty eating or swallowing and find safe ways for them to experience mealtimes.
    • Some children find it hard to use verbal speech, so we work with families to help children communicate in different ways, like using high-tech devices.
    • We emphasize the importance of play in children’s lives, and support children to participate inclusively in play.
    • Work with families and children to set them up for a lifetime love of reading, by focusing on important early reading skills.
    • Support children to develop healthy secure relationships with parents, caregivers, family and friends.
    • Work with families and children to develop their understanding and use of the language needed to support co-regulation and emotional regulation in the context of secure relationships.
    • We work with families to help them understand their child’s behaviour and how to respond safely. Every behaviour is communicative and has a purpose, we see the person - not the behaviour.
    Speech pathologist at MCM

    Meet one of our Speech Pathologists

    Eamon is one of MCM's Early Childhood Intervention Speech Pathologists.

    Eamon's role with MCM involves working with families of children who have a developmental delay or disability. He speaks below about why he loves his job and what Speech Pathology Week means to the community.

    Every day is very different, as every client and interaction is unique. A normal day might involve a variety of sessions with clients and families, this could be therapy sessions at their home, kinder/school, at a local park, or as COVID-19 has shown us, via telehealth! We also support families to be self-advocates, so they can get the necessary support their child needs to participate inclusively at kinder, school and in the wider community.

    The theme for speech pathology week this year is communicating with confidence. I think that gets to the heart of the work we do. Communication is at the very core of the human experience. It’s how we connect with each other, develop relationships and engage with the world. In Australia today, communication disability remains largely invisible, unseen and out-of-sight. Every child has the right to say what they want to say, when they want to say it, and how they want to say it. I love that I get to work with children and families, to support them to develop the confidence to go out into the world and make their voice heard. The world needs to listen to their voices.

    EAMON, SPEECH PATHOLOGIST AT MCM'S EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION SERvices

    For more information about our speech pathology services or any of our early childhood intervention services, call our friendly team on 1800 343 287 or send us an enquiry.

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