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2 Speak Out December 2017
National Office
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E
Chief Executive Officer
Gail Mulcair
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Speech Pathology Australia Board
Gaenor Dixon – President
Belinda Hill – Vice President Operations
Tim Kittel – Vice President Communications
Chyrisse Heine – Director
Brooke Sanderson – Director
Lee McGovern – Director
Marleen Westerveld – Director
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Speak Out Branch Editors
ACT – via
New South Wales – Edward Johnson and Arabella Ludemann
Northern Territory – Christina Spinella
Queensland – Leanne Sorbello, Catherine Hicks, Erika Campbell
and Rebecca Sexton
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Print Post Approved PP349181/01711
ISSN 1446-053X
SpeechPathologyAustralia
@SpeechPathAus
speechpathaus
SpeechPathAus
Conte n ts December 2017
3 From the President
6 Membership renewals open
10 ASHA Congress report
12 Speech pathology in schools
14 Aged care update
16 Vale – Joyce Alley
18 Feature story – SPs in Ghana
22 Policy and advocacy
24 In practice – What is in your contract?
26 DLD update
28 National Conference – Adelaide
35 Branch news
in focus...
Communication milestone poster
p4
..
To download this poster as handy information sheets visit
At 2 years
children can usually...
• 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’.
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...
• 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’.
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?’).
Communication milestones
Understanding
and speaking
“between the flags”
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.
understanding
When you talk
tome,WAIT
forme to
respond before
you saymore.
Get
face-to-face
withme
whenwe
communicate.
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 can work 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 children with:
• understanding and using pictures,symbols,signs,gestures,
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”
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
(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.
No need to
always read the
whole book.
Talk about
pictures that
interestme.
speaking speaking speaking
speaking speaking
speaking
understanding understanding
understanding understanding understanding
Figure out
what Iwant to
say,and put it
intowords for
me.
Cover image - Bron Davidson
with Masters of Speech and
Language Therapy Students
and faculty at the University of
Ghana. Read their story on
page 18.