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When do you need to contact a speech pathologist?
Help as an adult
Speech Pathology will assist adults who have difficulties in the following areas:
- Language:
Language difficulties may occur after a stroke or traumatic brain injury, as well as a result of neurological conditions, brain tumour or Dementia.
Language difficulties can include problems with:
- finding the right words to say
- putting words together to make a sentence
- understanding and following instructions
- reading and writing
You might like to look at our fact sheet on Language disorders
- Speech:
Speech difficulties may occur after a stroke or traumatic brain injury, as well as a result of neurological conditions (such as Parkinson’s disease or Motor Neuron Disease) and oral surgery (e.g. cancer treatment).
Speech difficulties can include:
- slurred speech which is difficult to understand
- difficulty making correct speech sounds
We have an additonal fact sheet on Speech disorders.
- Voice:
Voice difficulties can occur as a result of voice misuse (e.g. excessive use), neurological diseases or other physical conditions
of the vocal area.
- husky, hoarse or nasal voice
- running out of breath whilst talking
- inappropriately soft or loud voice
- unusually low or high pitch
- painful, sore voice
- unable to produce voice e.g. after a laryngectomy (removal of the larynx)
Voice disorders are also covered in another fact sheet.
- Swallowing:
Swallowing difficulties may occur after a stroke or traumatic brain injury, degenerative neurological conditions, oral surgery and old age.
- difficulty chewing
- difficulty swallowing
- persistent dribbling
- coughing or a ‘gurgly’ voice during and/or after swallowing
You can find more information on Swallowing disorders on this website.
To make an adult referral
To make an inquiry or an appointment, contact Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Health Service Speech Pathology department
Ph: 9477 9554 (Monday-Friday, 8am-4.30pm)
For those individuals requiring an assessment of their voice, a referral from an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist is required.
For children's (paediatric) services
Speech Pathology will assist children who have difficulties in the following areas:
- Speech sound development:
Some children have difficulty acquiring speech sounds that are appropriate for their age. (NB. Children acquire speech sounds in a particular order and at approximately the same age.
However, the speech sounds that a 2½ year old will acquire are different to those expected from a 7 ½ - 8 yr old child). We also have a fact sheet on Speech delay in children.
- Stuttering:
Children that have trouble speaking fluently. Types of stutters include:
- Repetitions
- Single sound eg. ‘d-d-d-daddy’
- Syllables eg. ‘ba-ba-baby’
- Word eg. ‘I -I -I want a drink’
- Phrase eg. ‘I want- I want -I want a go’
- Prolongations
- A sound is stretched out eg. Where’s the ca-a-a-a-t?
- Blocking
- A silence occurs as the person tries to speak ‘__ I want to.’
- Overuse of filler words
Our fact sheet on Stuttering covers both adult and child issues.
- Language:
For children who experience difficulty understanding language (e.g. following instructions) or using language (using the correct word or grammar expected for their age).
You might like to read more on Language delay in children.
- Voice:
Voice difficulties can occur as a result of voice misuse (e.g. yelling, excessive use) or other physical conditions of the vocal area.
- husky, hoarse or nasal voice
- inappropriately soft or loud voice
- unusually low or high pitch
- Social Problems:
Children that experience difficulty with the social aspects of language such as; eye contact, taking turns in a conversation and initiating a topic of conversation.
- Feeding difficulties:
Difficulty with breast-feeding or transitioning to solid foods (babies). More information on this topic is available in our Feeding disorders in children fact sheet
To make a paediatric referral
To make a referral for a child, one of the child’s parents must telephone the Speech Pathology intake line.
This operates on Wednesdays between 1-3pm only. Information obtained at this time by a qualified Speech Pathologist will be used to plan appropriate management.
Intake telephone number: 9477 9554
Contact details for Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Health Service Speech Pathology are on this website.
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