Impact of speech pathology at Hornsby
Eve with her mum Hadar at her speech pathology appointment at Hornsby Hospital
Three-year-old Eve has been attending speech pathology appointments at Hornsby Hospital since she was born. Speech pathologist Sarah Oberg said speech pathology first helped Eve with swallowing and then with talking. “When Eve first started seeing us for her communication, Eve’s mum Hadar said Eve was first taught how to sign so she could communicate. “It was great – but pretty quickly Eve started using sounds and then words to talk to us,” Hadar said.
“She is very social and can use two-to-three-word sentences to share ideas that are important to her and let everyone around her know what she needs.” Sarah said Eve’s favourite thing about speech therapy is ‘chickens’. “Every week Eve requests that chickens – her favourite animal – be part of the games that we play. “We’ve had chickens reading books, microwaving dinner and going for a swim. “We use her interests to design motivating activities to teach her to communicate ideas which are important to her.”
she wasn’t yet able to initiate interaction with another person to play games like peek-a-boo or tell her family when she needed something,” she said. “With consistent therapy and her family’s strong commitment to implementing the strategies at home, Eve is now a very keen communicator.
“It’s so exciting to watch Eve’s talking improve and we really thank speech therapy for helping her to get her message across to her day care educators and friends.” One in seven Australians experience a communication difficulty.
55 NSLHD 2023 Year in Review
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online