Next week (7-13 August) marks Speech Pathology Week, celebrating in the theme Creating Futures. When we think of the children at AEIOU Foundation, this theme is especially significant. We understand early intervention is essential to helping our children develop and create their futures. Communication and language disorder is a main area of difficulty for children diagnosed with autism and speech pathology is a key component of the AEIOU program, which provides opportunities for lifelong outcomes.
Speech pathologists analyse a child’s communication, whether this be sounds they make, words they say or even the technology they use to communicate. Speech pathologists target expressive language skills which helps the child to communicate what they want or need. The speech pathologist also looks at what the child can understand; do they know how to follow the instruction that was given to the class, can they find the objects that were named and put them into their bag for school, do they respond when their name is called? This is then targeted to develop the child’s receptive language skills. If a child can understand more language, they can listen to the words being used around them and begin to process and learn from their world.
Why are these skills important for creating futures? At AEIOU, the speech pathologists work with the program teams to help teach functional skills. We work to teach the children to be independent, participate in classroom activities and play games with their peers. These skills help them to learn in a group setting and how to see what they can be good at. We give them opportunities to express their feelings and tell us about what they like best. So, if one day, a child says “I want to be a firefighter” or “one day, I’m going to play for the Brisbane Lions” they have the skills to learn how to do so and become the best that they can be.
About the author:
Becky Mead is a Senior Speech Pathologist. She spent more than five years with AEIOU Foundation, starting as a graduate speech pathologist and working her way up to Program Coordinator, where she was responsible for the clinical supervision of speech pathologists across AEIOU’s centres, as well as supporting centres in implementing the program.
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