Flourish Speech Pathology

Get to know Flourish Speech Pathology

From Flourish Speech Pathology's website.

• Our approach

  Sessions draw on evidence-based strategies delivered in a warm, welcoming environment designed to make therapy engaging and interactive. The approach is family-centered, with each therapy session tailored to your child's unique needs. Depending on your child's goals, they may work on speech sounds, literacy skills, motor planning for speech (in childhood apraxia), or fluency challenges. For speech sounds, comprehensive assessment of both speech and oral muscle function guides the work. Literacy sessions integrate the Sounds-Write and Little Learners Love Literacy approaches, which are systematic phonics methods. Fluency work may use approaches such as the Lidcombe Program, Syllable Timed Speech, or the Camperdown Program, selected after careful assessment of your child's stuttering pattern.

• Working with families

  Education and collaboration with families are central to the practice philosophy. Parents are involved in the initial assessment process and findings are discussed with them following the evaluation. Reports can be written for your personal records or shared with other professionals involved in your child's care, such as teachers, allied health clinicians, and paediatricians. The contact page notes that enquiries are welcomed via email or phone, and a free 15-minute phone consultation can be scheduled if your child matches the service criteria.

• Meet the team

  Esther de Bell is a paediatric speech pathologist who completed her Masters of Speech Pathology at the University of Melbourne, where her thesis focused on sex differences in stuttering severity in children with persistent stuttering. She takes a family-centered approach and has specialised in articulation and phonology, literacy, childhood apraxia of speech, and stuttering. Esther is trained in specific, evidence-based therapy approaches including DTTC, ReST, and the Nuffield Dyspraxia Program for apraxia, and the Lidcombe Program, Syllable Timed Speech, and the Camperdown Program for fluency. She is committed to incorporating the best available research evidence into her practice and continuously developing her clinical skills.

• Your first visit

  The initial appointment is typically one hour long and may take place over multiple sessions depending on your child's needs. A comprehensive assessment will be conducted that matches your child's area of difficulty—for speech sounds, this includes assessment at single word and conversational level plus evaluation of oral and facial muscle structure and function; for literacy, phonological awareness and literacy skills are assessed; for apraxia, a motor speech assessment and muscle assessment is performed; and for fluency, a detailed assessment characterises your child's stuttering pattern. Early literacy skills may also be assessed when relevant to speech difficulties. Following the assessment, the clinician will discuss findings and potential treatment approaches with you.