Fremantle Speech Pathology

22/10/2026

October 22nd is International Stuttering Awareness Day 🗣️

1 in every 100 people has a stutter, which means they experience disruptions to the rhythm and flow of their speech.

The factors influencing, and presentation of, a stutter are unique to each individual.

As communication partners, it is important to listen and wait if someone experiences dysfluency. Every person deserves to be heard and to feel comfortable and confident when communicating. 🩵

As of March 2026, stuttering is covered under the Medicare M10 Plan. If you have observed your child's stuttering, it is a good idea to seek an assessment with a speech pathologist. They can help identify the characteristics of an individual's stutter, then provide recommendations for supporting their fluency and communicative confidence.

16/10/2026

💜 Today is DLD Awareness Day! 💜
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a neurodevelopmental condition which impacts 1 in 14 people.

This week, we sat down with a 16-year-old with a diagnosis of DLD and dyslexia to gain valuable insight into her experience.

For more information about DLD, some amazing websites are listed below. The following organisations are just doing amazing work in this space to advocate for and educate people about DLD.
https://thedldproject.com/
https://radld.org/

12/10/2026

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month!

An estimated 20% of the population has dyslexia and it has been shown that early identification and intervention is vital for supporting literacy development and participation.
The goal of early identification is to support the literacy skills of individuals experiencing these challenges and to develop their confidence and capacity.
Dyslexia is not a measure of intelligence, rather it is characterised by differences in the way the brain processes language. It is important to celebrate the individual strengths that people with dyslexia demonstrate and support them to achieve success. ☺️

29/09/2026

These are the key findings from the DLD Hypothetical that we help on September 17th with Professor Courtenay Norbury at the helm.

This is the context she is dealing with in England......Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) throughout England are set to benefit from earlier, more consistent specialist support.

Professor Courtenay Norbury is assisting to shape evidence-based standards.

From September 2026, specialists will work alongside schools to identify needs and provide support.

We went through the process of how to design a trial for this support, and navigated some difficult but important questions.....This is what we settled on!

Designing a DLD intervention trial
• Evidence gap: Few SLT-led trials are rigorous. A new trial must be scalable and meaningful to families.
• Outcomes: Vocabulary is easy to measure but may not matter most. The idea was a taught language skill as the primary outcome, then checking flow-on effects on participation and wellbeing.
• Participation: Classroom supports could be both goal and method. Attendance was a possible measure.
• Tiered support: Universal to specialist levels, with direct access to specialist help when needed.
• Consistency vs tailoring: A consistent set of responses to individual needs may achieve both. Existing programmes may help high-need children only modestly.
• Inclusion (unresolved): Several favoured including ADHD. Norbury preferred excluding autistic children initially.
• Age (unresolved): Adolescent evidence is scarce.
• Key point: Success means real-world delivery and meaningful life impact, not just task gains.
• Agreed: Ages 8–10, a language focus, and a school-based model with SPs supporting educators.
• Why 8–10: Rising literacy demands and visible difficulties, with scope for explicit language teaching.
• Measures: Primary is a language measure matched to the intervention. Secondary is participation and wellbeing, with no agreed measures.
• Identification: Many options were raised, none agreed. Unassessed children are hard to find.
• School factors: Leadership, staff commitment and competing programmes affect delivery and sustainability.
• SP role: Assess, design, coach, monitor, and provide specialist intervention.
• Implementation: Needs ongoing coaching rather than one-off training, balanced against feasibility.
• Still open: Eligibility, participation measures, dosage and trial length.

20/09/2026

Looking for an intensive course to boost your child's skills in phonics, writing or essay writing? We still have spaces available in our upcoming Holiday Groups! Visit our website to see more information and book online.
Bookings will close on Thursday the 24th of September. Groups are subject to numbers.
🌐 https://www.freospeech.com.au/holidaylearning

19/09/2026

Courtenay Norbury never fails to deliver, and Thursday night was no exception.

We were privileged to have Courtenay lead us through The DLD Hypothetical, where we were given this challenge.....$5 million, 500 school-aged children with DLD and the task of designing a landmark language-intervention trial.

Which aspects of language should we prioritise?
Which interventions are our best bets?
Who should be included?
How would age and individual profiles influence the approach?
How would we know whether the intervention had truly worked?

Then came the twist: improving language scores is important, but what else must change if children with DLD are to participate, learn and thrive in mainstream classrooms?

Courtenay challenged our assumptions, drew us back to the evidence and encouraged us to think differently about intervention, assessment and inclusion.

Thank you to Courtenay and to everyone who contributed so thoughtfully and enthusiastically.

It was a stimulating evening filled with questions, debate, laughter and plenty of ideas to take forward +++++pizza, w**e, cake and a lolly salad.

As one participant said, "What a great night it was last night discussing difficult things with a room full of clever people!"

07/09/2026

In our Essay Writing group, students will learn how to analyse the language and conventions within written texts and formulate their ideas into structured and impactful essays.
The course has been designed for Years 10, 11 & 12 students who would benefit from explicit instruction and additional support to analyse texts and construct essays.
Grace is running the course in the Term 3 school holidays and brings her knowledge about language, themes and text analysis while supporting students to break down concepts and ideas, find appropriate evidence and structure their written responses.

🔗 Book via our website or by using this link: https://fremantle-speech-pathology-services.au1.cliniko.com/bookings?practitioner_id=1088891833691407955&appointment_type_id=555105

You only need to book on day one of the course.

🌐 Find out more info about all our groups via our website: https://www.freospeech.com.au/holidaylearning

06/09/2026

Our Years 4, 5 & 6 Holiday Narrative Writing Group supports students to discover how to create fun characters, exciting adventures, and endings that tie everything together. They will get to share their ideas, play with language, and learn simple tricks to make their writing shine.
Kellie is running the group in October and brings her previous experience as an upper primary school teacher to support students to develop their writing skills. Students will be shown how to build a character and a setting, plan and write exciting stories and expand on their vocabulary and sentences.
The course is 2.5 hours per day, for 4 days.

🔗 Book via our website or use this link:
https://fremantle-speech-pathology-services.au1.cliniko.com/bookings?practitioner_id=1846194875410679401&appointment_type_id=582360

You only need to book on day one of the course.
🌐 Find out more info about all our groups via our website: https://www.freospeech.com.au/holidaylearning

05/09/2026

Our Early Phonics Holiday Group is all about having fun while learning the building blocks of reading and spelling. Through games and hands-on activities, children will explore letter-sound connections, blending sounds to make words, and breaking words up into individual sounds.
This course is designed for students in Pre-Primary and Year 1 and Charlotte will be running the course in the upcoming October holidays!
The course is 1.5 hours per day, for 4 days total.

🔗Book online via this link: https://fremantle-speech-pathology-services.au1.cliniko.com/bookings?practitioner_id=1846193206589392488&appointment_type_id=570219

You only need to book on day one of the course.
🌐 For further information or to view our other groups, please visit our website: https://www.freospeech.com.au/holidaylearning

26/08/2026

The video recording of, "Using a Narrative Lens to Analyse and Teach Oral Language" is now available for purchase on our website. https://www.freospeech.com.au/shop

There are prices for individuals as well as groups + the accompanying handout can also be downloaded.

This workshop explores how a narrative context can be used to identify developmental patterns in kindergarten children’s language and inform the explicit teaching of oral language.

Drawing on large-scale kindergarten narrative data from the "Teapot Swap" project, the workshop examines developmental growth across both macrostructure and microstructure, highlighting how children’s narrative language develops over time.

The workshop also explores the emerging role of AI in narrative analysis, demonstrating how AI platforms can support clinicians and educators to:
analyse oral and written narrative samples,
identify developmental trends in kindy children's language,
generate teaching targets, and
improve efficiency in clinical and educational settings.
Importantly, the workshop also considers the strengths, limitations and reliability of AI-assisted narrative analysis, with a focus on how AI can be used thoughtfully alongside professional judgement.

Browse and shop resources and tools for budding speech pathologists and professionals alike.