Does your child need extra learning support?

It is at this time of the year that the school reports come home and the plans are being made for the coming year.

It is also at this time that perhaps some difficulties have been uncovered and possibly the results are not quite what everyone would have liked or thought they should be.

There may be a niggling feeling that reading is not progressing the way that it should be, or that something is not quite right with learning and no-one can quite put their finger on why.

Reassuring comments of ‘they will grow out of it’ can often serve to just supress the concerns and delay the implementation of the actual support that may be needed.

The school holidays may be the best time to consider having a detailed language and literacy assessment completed to determine what is really happening underneath these vague but genuine concerns.

At Bellfield Speech Pathology they regularly find that there are underlying difficulties with listening, comprehension, attention, speaking and organising thoughts into sentences that are at the heart of difficulties being experienced in the classroom and socially.

The links between language and literacy have been well researched.

It is critical that these patterns are identified as early as possible to make sure that the long-term impact is minimised so skills can be strengthened in readiness for the next layers of information and learning that will be occurring.

They are also observing an increasing incidence of what appears to be depression in younger children, who are not being accurately identified as having language difficulties.

When you are not able to reliably make sense of the instructions and information around you – you begin to feel isolated and the negative self-talk begins to creep in.

Accurate, detailed language assessments are critical to identify if there is an underlying language disorder that is impacting on the emotional wellbeing of the individual.

At Bellfield Speech Pathology they have a team of Speech Pathologists who are committed to understanding and working with each unique individual’s needs and provide support to develop the language and literacy skills needed to participate fully in life and their communities.

During January 2017 they will be running a series of group programs: School readiness (preliteracy skills); Prep-Grade 1 Literacy; Speech2Writing – for older students; THRASS groups; Cellfield Reading Programs; 123 Magic-Effective Discipline for Children ages 2-12; as well as individual therapy programs.

Please contact Bellfield for an assessment if there is someone that you are concerned about or to make enquiries about any of the programs that they are running, by phoning 5622 1055 or emailing them on bellfieldadmin@ bellfieldsp.com.au