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- Newsletter
Welcome to our August Newsletter!
As winter comes to a close and spring approaches, we’re excited to bring you the latest updates from our clinic. It’s been a season of growth and progress.
This month, we’re diving into the benefits of group therapy. With our school holiday programs just around the corner, we hope this will give you a better idea of how group therapy can be a wonderful support for your child’s speech development.
Our Resource of the Month is the Djeco Animal Stacker, a fantastic tool for enhancing cognitive and motor skills through engaging play. It’s great for at-home practice and fun.
And meet Kalliope, one of our amazing speech therapists! Get to know more about her interests and contributions to our team.
Thank you for staying connected with us. We hope you enjoy these updates!
Are Speech Therapy Groups Helpful for My Child?
Speech therapy groups can be very helpful for preschool and school aged children. Groups provide a more natural environment for practicing the skills learnt in their individual therapy sessions. Children get to use their communication skills in real-life scenarios, such as engaging in conversations, playing games, and working on group activities. This supports generalisation, meaning they’re more likely to independently use these skills outside of therapy.
Speech therapy groups allow children to work on their social skills, including turn-taking, listening, sharing, and responding appropriately to others, which can be harder to practice in one-on-one settings. Children learn to negotiate and adapt their language to different social situations and peer interactions, enhancing their problem-solving skills.
Groups also allow children to further develop a range of language skills. This includes vocabulary building, sentence structure and story retelling. Working on a mutual task with other children helps them apply such language skills in collaborative settings, which can improve their ability to communicate effectively in team situations. Group activities with lots of games, role playing and storytelling make learning more engaging and enjoyable too! Click here to continue reading.
Join Our Upcoming Holiday Programs!
School holidays are quickly approaching and our team have been busy planning groups and intensives to keep your child’s progress on track while school is out. We’re excited to offer a Language and Social Skills Group for 4-6 year olds:
- Dates: Tuesday, October 1st – Thursday, October 3rd
- Time: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
We’d love for you to take advantage of these sessions. Save the dates and contact us today!
If your child is new to the clinic, they’ll need a 30-minute screener. Call us at 9398 3020 to register and secure a spot.
Resource of the Month: Djeco Animal Stacker
Looking for a fun way to support your child’s speech and language development? The Djeco Animal Stacker is an excellent resource for at-home therapy. This colorful toy not only entertains but also enhances key skills.
Use the Animal Stacker to build vocabulary. Name and describe each animal, discuss their colors, and talk about their features to expand your child’s word bank. Improve listening skills by giving simple instructions like, “Place the pig on top of the giraffe,” which helps your child follow multi-step directions.
Encourage creativity with storytelling. Create imaginative tales using the animals, such as, “Once upon a time, a lion and a monkey went on an adventure.” This helps develop narrative skills and imaginative play.
Incorporate sound-based games to make learning enjoyable. Ask, “What sound does a cow make?” or encourage your child to imitate animal sounds. These activities make learning fun and support sound recognition.
Finally, use the stacker to practice social skills like taking turns and sharing, which are essential for effective communication.
By integrating the Djeco Animal Stacker into playtime, you can support your child’s speech and language growth in an engaging and interactive way.
Meet Kalliope!
Kalliope is dedicated to helping both children and adults communicate effectively and meaningfully. Her warm and positive approach ensures engaging and impactful therapy sessions that help clients achieve their goals.
With experience spanning a wide range of communication challenges—including speech, language, literacy difficulties, and developmental delays—Kalliope supports clients with various needs. She works with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down Syndrome, ADHD, Global Developmental Delay, and Intellectual Disabilities.
Kalliope’s collaborative spirit shines through her work with multidisciplinary teams. She values close cooperation with families, teachers, and other allied health professionals to help clients reach their full potential.
She is skilled in PROMPT© therapy and has experience with the Lidcombe Program for preschool and school-age stuttering. Additionally, Kalliope is trained in the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), LAMP Words for Life, and Key Word Sign.
Fluent in conversational Greek, Kalliope enjoys tailoring her therapy to meet the needs of clients from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Eastside Speech is a vibrant private speech therapy practice centrally located in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.
Operating since 2001, our team of dedicated speech pathologists are passionate about helping the world to communicate better.
The practice is an approved NDIS service provider. We are registered with Medicare and are able to see clients using the Chronic Disease Management referral scheme. All our therapists are PROMPT trained.
