Frequently Asked Questions

We currently have a short wait list for appointments with our Speech Pathologists and Therapy Assistants. The waitlist can fluctuate and wait times will depend on your child’s needs and your availability to attend appointment times. For an update on expected wait times, please contact our friendly client care team. If your child requires support from a Speech Pathologist with specialised training, or if you have limited availability, the wait for an appointment might be longer.

Siblings are welcome to attend appointments. If your child performs better without you and their sibling in the room, please let the Speech Pathologist know and you may wait outside of the room for part or all of the session. We recommend that parents stay in the room with their child during assessment if it is what helps the child to feel most comfortable and at ease.

We value our Speech Pathologists’ time. Mobile services require a therapist to spend time: picking up/dropping off resources from the clinic, packing and traveling in their car, parking and signing in/out of school or day care offices.

Our clinic also incurs additional costs including a per kilometer employee travel allowance, the purchase and maintenance of additional mobile resources, and additional room rental costs (if charged by the location visited).

A travel fee is charged for all off site appointments to make mobile services financially feasible for our service to provide.

Our initial assessments are typically booked as a package of three appointments. Each appointment is charged separately on the day of service.

In the first appointment, your Speech Pathologist will spend some time building rapport with your child to help them feel comfortable and perform to the best of their ability during the assessment tasks. A variety of assessment approaches may be used including formal standardised assessment, informal observation, language transcriptions, play or therapy activities, and parent questionnaires or case history discussions.

The second follow-up appointment may involve further assessment, and/or the trial of some therapy activities and goals. This provides the Speech Pathologist with enough time to complete a thorough assessment and observe how your child responds to therapy. They will then complete an analysis of the assessment data, formulate a summary of results or diagnosis, and develop a written treatment plan.

The third appointment booked is a parent only feedback and treatment planning session. During this session, the Speech Pathologist will discuss your child’s strengths and difficulties and will involve you in developing therapy goals that are targeted to your child’s needs and in line with what you would like to achieve for your child. They will also provide some ideas for supporting your child at home. A written treatment plan is sent to you after the parent feedback appointment.

At the parent feedback session, your therapist will complete a treatment plan and discuss their recommendations for the length and frequency of therapy required. Typically, a block of therapy occurs in school term blocks (10 – 12 weeks).

At the end of a treatment block, your therapist will review your child’s progress and complete a new treatment plan with you before the next block of therapy commences. This will ensure you have a clear understanding of how your child is responding and progressing in treatment, and will ensure their therapy goals are continuously reviewed and updated. It will also provide an opportunity to discuss your child’s school/daycare supports, social and peer group relationships and any therapy activities or strategies that you have been completing with your child in the home environment.

A report is recommended for all children who complete an initial assessment and are identified as having difficulties that impact on their ability to engage, participate or function successfully in their home, school, childcare or social settings. The written treatment plan you receive after your assessment will only include a statement about the identified area of need/diagnosis, along with the long term and short term goals for the therapy block. A comprehensive report will provide substantial detail about the assessment areas, results in each assessment area and functional implications, and strategies for supporting your child e.g. at home or in the classroom.

If you have already attended an initial assessment and have a comprehensive Speech Pathology report that outlines the assessment results and recommendations, the Learn and Grow Speech Pathologist may not need to do any further assessment. You will be asked to share the report prior to attending your initial appointment so that the Speech Pathologist can review the report and plan the goals and activities for your first appointment. The appointment will still be charged at the same rate as an initial appointment as the Speech Pathologist will require additional time to review the documentation you have provided.

Learn and Grow understand that life with children can be unpredictable! If you need to let us know in under 24hr that you are unable to attend your face to face appointment, we will convert your appointment to one of your preferred alternative service options so that your child can continue to receive support. These options are billed at the same rate as your original appointment and may include: telehealth treatment, parent only session, home therapy activity. Our therapists prepare sessions ahead of time, so we are unable to cancel appointments with under 24hr notice.

Learn & Grow Speech Pathologists believe that therapy should be fun, motivating and achievable for children and their families. A huge selection of games, toys, and activities that suit all ages and interests are used to keep kids excited about coming to their next Speech Pathology appointment. Goals for sessions are constantly reviewed and adjusted to ensure kids experience success and continue to build confidence with their communication abilities.

The NDIA recommends having a written service agreement so participants and providers are clear about what each party has agreed to. Service agreements help make sure the participant and provider have the same expectations of what supports will be delivered and how they will be delivered.

Our payment policy requires clients to pay on the day of service. Once you have made payment, you will receive a receipt. You can then make an NDIS Payment Request online using the myplace portal. Money from your NDIS plan budget will be paid by the NDIA into your nominated bank account within 24 to 48 hours.