Chit Chat 4 Kids Speech Pathology Service provides assessment and treatment of children aged 0-10 years with delays in play, receptive and expressive language, social interaction, speech production, fluency and eating and drinking.

Leah specialises in the following areas:

• Receptive language delay/disorder – this may include difficulty understanding spoken instructions, directions and questions.
• Expressive language delay/disorder – this may include difficulty formulating meaningful spoken sentences to express wants, needs and thoughts.
• Learning difficulties – this may include problems in listening, reasoning, memory, attention and processing visual and/or auditory information.
• Auditory processing disorder – your child has normal hearing levels BUT difficulty processing auditory information and making sense of what they hear. Some of the difficulties may include having difficulty listening in background noise, difficulty following instructions, difficulty following conversations, poor memory and limited vocabulary.
• Speech delay / Articulation disorder – delayed or disordered sound production: that is the way the consonants and vowels in words are put together is incorrect for the child’s age
• Childhood Apraxia of Speech(CAS) – this can cause a child to have severe speech difficulties. The difficulties are related to the inability to coordinate the muscles of speech accurately and smoothly to produce sounds, syllables and words. The sounds in words are mispronounced or missed altogether. The child may know exactly what he wants to say, but just cannot say it clearly.
• Phonological Awareness – relates to early literacy skills. These skills are necessary when learning to read and write. They include skills such as rhyming, syllable identification and listening for the initial sounds in words. Children start to develop these skills around the age of 3-4 years.
• Social communication difficulties – difficulties with understanding social rules, interpreting non verbal communication and developing friendships.
• Stuttering – problems in the control and coordination of speech.
• Delayed play skills – Play is a child’s ‘work’. Children learning language through engagement and play. Play enables children to make sense of their world, develop social and cultural understanding and express their thoughts and feelings. Delayed play skills typically impact on language development.
• Eating and drinking difficulties –challenges in this area may be attributed to delayed oral motor skills, swallowing difficulties, sensory difficulties and /or behavioural challenges.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder – a disorder that affects a person’s communication, social interaction and behaviour. A child with ASD will most often have sensory challenges that impact on daily functioning. Repetitive behaviours and obsessions are often present also.

If your child has difficulties in any of the areas listed above, please contact us to discuss how we can help.

No referral is required.

Chit Chat 4 Kids Speech Pathology Service is a mobile service in Berwick that services Berwick and the surrounding suburbs (e.g. Beaconsfield, Narre Warren, Hampton Park). We provide assessment and therapy within the child’s own environment (e.g. home, childcare, kinder). The use of a familiar environment reduces stress and anxiety for many children. The familiar environment supports the acquisition of a new skill. It also provides the opportunity to practice new skills within a naturalistic environment.