Speak Out February 2018

Accolades In November, Dr Dimity Dornan AO was named Senior Australian of the Year 2018 for Queensland as part of the Australian of the Year nominations. Rosalie Martin, former Tasmanian Branch Chair, was the Tasmanian Australian of the Year for 2017. Public awareness campaigns As part of Speech Pathology Week in August 2017, the Association launched Communication Access Alliance to work towards the goal of producing National Standards for communication Access. The initial meeting of the Alliance drew 25 representatives from across 17 organisations. Swallowing Awareness Day 2007 was held on 15 March. Advocacy In October 2017, the Association was able to reverse the decision of South Australia Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to remove speech pathology from its service. CAMHS now retains a specialised speech pathology service of 3.0 EFT Senior Level positions. The NDIS specified that a number of professions (including speech pathology) must hold current membership of their relevant professional association, i.e., speech pathologists must hold practicing membership with Speech Pathology Australia, in order to register as an NDIS provider. South Australia’s Department of Education and Child Development announced additional funding for literacy which includes hiring an extra 10 speech pathologists to work in schools and preschools.

and to assist with professional development and advocacy opportunities. The Speech Pathology in Schools Resource is a 48-page booklet, which is available in two formats from the Association’s website. Communication milestones With the assistance and leadership of its Queensland Branch, the Association released the Communication Milestones Kit for parents and carers. The kit provides information about the role of speech pathologists and assists parents and carers unsure about whether their child is having difficulty with his or her speech, language and communication.

Communication milestones

Understanding and speaking “between the flags”

At 2 years children can usually...

At 12 months children can usually... • understand about 10words • respond to their name • recognise greetings and gestures, such as ‘hi’ and ‘bye-bye’ • recognise a few familiar people and objects (e.g.,mummy,blankie, teddy) • make eye contact. • start to use sounds,gestures,and say a fewwords • continue to babble • copy different sounds and noises.

At 18 months children can usually... • understand up to 50words and some short phrases • follow simple instructions (e.g., ‘throw the ball’) • point to familiar objectswhen named • point to some pictures in familiar books. • say 6 to 20 singlewords – some easier to understand than others,but becoming more consistent • copy lots ofwords and noises • name a few body parts • use objects in pretend play (e.g.,hold toy phone to their ear and say ‘hello?’). At 4 years children can usually... • answermost questions about daily tasks • understandmostwh-questions, including those about a story they have recently heard • understand some numbers • show an awareness that some words start or finishwith the same sounds. • usewords,such as ‘and’,‘but’ and ‘because’, tomake longer sentences • describe recent events,such as morning routines • ask lots of questions • use personal pronouns (e.g., he/she,me/you) and negations (e.g.,don’t/can’t) • count to five and name a few colours.

Children learn to communicate by interactingwith early childhood educators, family,and friends. This poster showswhen,and how children develop communication skills.Early childhood educators and speech pathologists can support children to build their communication and keep them developing“between the flags”. We canwork together to: • find outwhich children are understanding and speaking “between the flags” • create communication-supporting learning spaces • help childrenwith a range of communication needs. Speech pathologists can also provide therapy to help childrenwith: • understanding and using pictures,symbols,signs,gestures, Please speak to parents about their child’s communication as soon as you have any concerns.Get advice from Speech PathologyAustralia by phoning 1300 368 835. Work togetherwith a speech pathologist in your area. You can contact speech pathologists: • through local community health centres and not-for-profit organisations • by calling or emailing private practices. Try searching for speech pathology services online,or at www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au (click on ‘Find a Speech Pathologist’). Language and cultural differences Children from different backgrounds, includingAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds,may usewords differently when learning English.Thismay not be a problem. Always encourage families to use the language(s) at home that they are comfortable speaking. Childrenwho are learning English needmeaningful language experiences through stories,music,nursery rhymes,play and LOTS of repetition. If you’re unsure about their progress, checkwith a speech pathologist. speech sounds,words and sentences • taking turns andmaking eye contact • building skills for later reading and spelling • stuttering,voice and feeding difficulties. Don’t “wait and see”

• follow simple two part instructions (e.g.,‘giveme the ball and the car’) • respond to simplewh-questions,such as ‘what’ and ‘where’ • point to several body parts and pictures in bookswhen named • understandwhen an object is ‘in’ and ‘on’ something. • saymore than 50 singlewords • put twowords together (e.g.,‘bye teddy’, ‘no ball’) • use their tone of voice to ask a question (e.g.,‘teddy go?’) • say ‘no’when they do notwant something • usemost vowel sounds and a variety of consonants (m,n,p,b,k,g,h,w, t,d) • start to use ‘mine’ and ‘my’.

Get face-to-face withme whenwe communicate.

When you talk tome,WAIT forme to respond before you saymore.

understanding

understanding

understanding

..

speaking

speaking

speaking

At 3 years children can usually... • followmore complex two part instructions (e.g.,giveme the teddy and throw the ball) • understand simplewh-questions,such as ‘what’,‘where’ and ‘who’ • understand the conceptsof ‘same’ and ‘different’ • sort items into groupswhen asked (e.g., toys vs food) • recognise some basic colours. • say four to fivewords in a sentence • use a variety ofwords for names, actions, locations and descriptions • ask questions using ‘what’,‘where’ and ‘who’ • talk about something in the past, butmay use ‘-ed’ a lot (e.g.,‘he goed there’) • have a conversation,butmay not take turns or stay on topic.

At 5 years children can usually...

No need to always read the whole book. Talk about pictures that interestme.

• follow three part instructions (e.g.,put on your shoes,get your backpack and line up outside) • understand time relatedwords (e.g., ‘before’,‘after’,‘now’ and ‘later’) • start thinking about themeaning ofwords when learning • understand instructionswithout stopping to listen • begin to recognise some letters,sounds and numbers. • usewell formed sentences to be understood bymost people • take turns in increasingly longer conversations • tell simple,short storieswith a beginning, middle and end • use past and future verbs correctly (e.g., ‘went’,‘will go’) • usemost speech sounds,but stillmay have difficultieswith ‘s’,‘r’,‘l’ and ‘th’.

Figure out what Iwant to say,and put it intowords for me.

understanding

understanding

understanding

speaking

speaking

speaking

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

To download this poster as handy information sheets visitwww.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/milestones

Diversity to the fore In October the inaugural meeting of the Association’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee took place. The committee meets quarterly and is tasked with embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait values in relation to culture, land and history into the values and business of the Association. In addition, the committee is working on the development of the Association’s Reconciliation Action Plan. Videos galore As part of the promotion of Speech Pathology Week 2017, the Association produced a series of seven videos. In the period 20−31 August, these videos were viewed over 169,000 times!

New publication In November, the Association had its estimate of the number of Australians living with a communication disability “officially” endorsed. With the release of the new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publication, Australians Living with Communication Disability , came confirmation that 1.2 million

Australians have a communication disability. The release of the new publication follows a prolonged advocacy effort by the Association to convince the ABS of the value and need for it. Australians Living with Communication Disability plus all the relevant data may be accessed via www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/abs Speech pathologists in schools In October, the Association released a series of resources for speech pathologists who work or wish to work in schools. The resources are designed to inform a speech pathologist’s practice

With thanks… In May 2017 Robyn Stephen stepped down from the Association’s Board of Directors. Robyn was a director for over six years, including time as Vice- President Operations, Vice- President Communications, and a member of a number of key committees.

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February 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out