Common questions
Straight answers about getting started, CAS, fees and funding, and how we work.
Do I need a referral to see a speech pathologist?
There is no requirement for a referral. You can contact Include Me Speech Pathology directly if you have concerns about your child’s speech, language or communication.
You don’t need to know exactly what is causing the difficulty before getting in touch. Part of our role is helping families understand their child’s communication profile and determining what supports may be appropriate.
How do I make an enquiry?
Leave a few details on our enquiry form and we will give you a call to talk things through. It is relaxed, and there is no obligation.
Is there a waitlist?
It depends on the area and the time of year. We will always be upfront about current availability when you get in touch.
What happens at the first session?
The first visit is a calm, unhurried assessment — a careful look before any plan. We will always explain what we can offer before you start.
What ages do you work with?
We primarily work with children and teenagers.
Rather than deciding whether we can help based on age alone, we consider the person’s communication needs, therapy goals and whether our skills and mobile service model is an appropriate fit for your needs.
What communication skills do you support?
We work with a range of communication needs including:
- complex speech sound disorders
- unclear speech
- Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
- motor-speech difficulties
- phonological speech disorders
- orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT)
- receptive language difficulties
- expressive language difficulties
- developmental language disorder
- phonological awareness and literacy development
- social and pragmatic communication skills
- communication differences associated with autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions.
If you’re unsure whether your child’s needs fit our service, you’re welcome to contact us to discuss directly with our speech pathologists.
Do you work with autistic children?
Yes. We work with autistic children and teenagers when their communication goals and support needs are appropriate for our mobile service model.
We don’t determine suitability based simply on an autism diagnosis or support level. We consider each child individually.
Because we are mobile clinicians working in community environments rather than a multidisciplinary clinic, we may not be the most appropriate service for children requiring intensive behavioural support or a highly supported clinical environment.
Where do sessions happen?
We are a mobile practice, so we come to you — at home, at school or in an educational setting. Telehealth is also available where it is clinically appropriate.
Which areas do you cover?
In the Illawarra, Michelle covers the northern suburbs of Wollongong to Shellharbour. In Ballarat, Ann travels within 20 km of Ballarat Central. Telehealth appointments are available Australia-wide where clinically appropriate.
Do you offer Telehealth speech pathology services?
Yes. Include Me Speech Pathology offers Telehealth appointments for children, teenagers and families across Australia, where Telehealth is clinically appropriate for the individual’s communication needs.
Depending on your child’s needs, sessions may involve direct therapy with your child, parent coaching and education, assessment, consultation, or a combination of these approaches. Visit our Telehealth page to find out more.
Do you work with children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)?
Yes! This is our special interest area — helping children to find their voice is our passion.
CAS is an area of particular clinical interest for Include Me Speech Pathology. Both Ann and Michelle have undertaken additional professional development in the assessment and treatment of CAS and welcome referrals for children with diagnosed or suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech.
We also understand that families may have spent considerable time trying to understand why their child’s speech isn’t developing as expected. Your child does not need to already have a CAS diagnosis before contacting us.
What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)?
CAS is a motor speech disorder where a child’s brain struggles to tell their mouth muscles exactly how to move to make sounds and words. It is not a problem with the muscles themselves, and it is not about a child’s intelligence.
Instead, think of it like a communication mix-up between the brain and the mouth. A child with CAS knows exactly what they want to say, but the brain’s ‘control panel’ has trouble sending the correct instructions down to the lips, tongue, and jaw. Because of this, it can take a lot of extra time, effort and practice for them to produce clear, consistent speech.
What if I think my child might have Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Please get in touch.
CAS can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from other speech sound disorders, particularly in younger children when their speech is limited or not progressing.
Assessment involves looking at a child’s speech movements between syllables and words when talking or attempting to talk, rather than just the specific sounds within words. Dynamic assessment of a child’s speech across various settings helps us to better understand how your child is communicating or attempting to communicate.
We can conduct CAS specific assessments and discuss our findings with you, including recommendations for the most appropriate, CAS specific, evidence-based therapies available.
What does therapy for Childhood Apraxia of Speech look like?
CAS is a motor-speech disorder, so therapy needs to address the planning and programming of the motor movements (movements of the muscles involved in controlling the tongue, jaw, lips, cheeks and vocal tract) required for speech.
Therapy is therefore usually highly structured and involves many opportunities to practice speech movements and carefully selected words or phrases.
The exact approach will depend on your child’s age, severity of CAS, communication profile and individual needs. Therapy should never simply be a generic speech program with a CAS label attached to it.
What CAS therapies do your clinicians use?
DTTC: For children with moderate to severe CAS, where clinically appropriate, therapy may incorporate principles and techniques from Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC). This therapy approach has been found to be beneficial for children with a limited number of speech sounds or words who need support with functional communication.
ReST: For children with mild to moderate CAS, Rapid Syllable Transition (ReST) therapy has been shown to achieve smooth speech transitions between syllables and words, using high repetitions of nonsense words combined with principles of motor learning (PML) to achieve clear, intelligible speech in conversations.
The therapy approach we recommend will depend on the individual child’s presentation. Both Ann and Michelle have undergone additional training to deliver these programs.
My child has been in speech therapy for a long time but is still difficult to understand. Can you help?
Potentially, yes.
Persistent speech difficulties can occur for many reasons. If a child has made limited progress despite previous therapy, it can be useful to look again at the underlying nature of the speech difficulty rather than simply continuing the same approach.
We particularly welcome enquiries regarding children with complex or persistent speech sound difficulties, including families seeking further assessment of possible Childhood Apraxia of Speech or general speech difficulties.
My child is hard to understand — should I be worried?
By around 3, most of what a child says is understood by family and friends. If that is not the case, it is always okay to get things checked — early advice is never wasted.
Will my child just grow out of it?
Some children do, and some do not — and there is no reliable way to tell in advance. That is why “wait and see” is not always the best advice, especially in the early years.
Should I get my child’s hearing checked?
If speech is unclear, a hearing check is a smart first step — children learn sounds by hearing them clearly. An audiologist can check at any age.
How much do you charge for your services?
- Our standard hourly rate for speech pathology services is $193.99.
- We charge an hourly rate of $97 (capped at 30 minutes for NDIS plan managed clients) to cover the time required to travel to appointment locations.
- We charge $1.00 per kilometre to cover the travel expenses incurred from running a mobile therapy service.
We’ll take you through our service agreement, including fees and cancellation terms, before your first appointment. If you would like to discuss our service fees and how they may apply to your individual circumstances, please get in touch with our team.
What type of funding and payment methods do you accept?
Our clinicians support the following funding sources:
- NDIS plan managed and self-managed clients
- Medicare GP Chronic Condition Management Plans (GPCCMP)*
- Medicare M10 services for complex neurodevelopmental conditions and eligible disabilities*
- Private Health Funds that cover speech pathology services
- Credit card facilities available on request
All invoices will be issued on the day of service and payment is due within 7 days.
*A gap fee applies to all Medicare and private health insurance funded services.
This is general information — every child is different. For advice about your child, make an enquiry and we will help.
Start an enquiry and we will point you in the right direction — no question is too small.