Skill Builders Speech Language Therapy offers high quality assessment and therapy for young people with stuttering, speech, language and literacy difficulties aged 3 and above. 

Assessment

A comprehensive assessment of your child’s stuttering, speech, language and literacy skills provides information about their current abilities and areas of difficulty. A thorough assessment involves all team members (parents, child and speech language therapist), allowing us to jointly identify the communication problem your child is experiencing and its effect on his/her life. Assessment is conducted over two sessions to enable a detailed investigation of your child’s communication profile before therapy commences. It is important that you bring copies of your child’s school reports, previous SLT assessment reports and work samples to provide a fuller picture of his/her speech, language and literacy skills. Typically, over the two assessment sessions, a combination of formal tests and observation will be used to determine your child’s area of difficulty. For the older child, this may include a regime of reading, writing and spelling tests and self-rating questionnaires. 

At the end of the assessment, results are discussed and a team decision is made on whether or not to enrol into therapy. A detailed report will also be written which can be forwarded to your child’s teacher and other professionals.

Therapy

Once your child has been assessed and all team members agree to enrol into therapy, you will select a regular time on a Monday or Thursday which best fits your family’s schedule. Therapy sessions are 45 minutes and weekly sessions are usually recommended for maximum progress, though fortnightly sessions are also available. For learning and skills practise to take place, therapy is conducted in a fun environment where children feel safe and valued. 

At the end of each session, detailed feedback regarding skills practised and strategies learned will be provided along with home-based activities to consolidate on the learning that took place in the session. It is important to support your child in completing home-based activities to maximise his/her progress in reducing the communication problem and improving his/her skill sets.