Leichhardt is one of Sydney’s little gems, a bustling community close to the city with great coffee thanks to its rich Italian heritage.
For almost 10 years now, we’ve been based on Norton Street, close to the centre of our community. It’s our privilege to support families in Leichhardt and its neighbouring suburbs through speech therapy and occupational therapy that helps kids and families thrive.
How do we do that? By blending our professional skills with your in-depth knowledge of your child and family. That enables us to provide evidence-based therapy supports that are tailored to your family’s needs.
Let’s see how speech therapy or occupational therapy could help your child.
What is speech therapy?
Speech therapists are university-qualified healthcare professionals who can help your child develop their communication skills. We can also help children who experience challenges with food, eating or swallowing.
Speech therapy can help kids who:
- Were born with a cleft lip and/or palate
- Have childhood apraxia of speech
- Are autistic
- Have hearing loss
- Have trouble communicating or whose speech is hard to understand
- Are finding it hard to read or spell
- Have a stutter
- Have an acquired brain injury
- Have physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities
- Use alternative or augmentative communication methods (AAC)
- Have difficulties with feeding including fussy eating, food avoidance, difficulty with the skills of eating such as chewing and swallowing, and experiencing different textures in food.
What is occupational therapy?
Occupational therapists – or OTs – help children gain skills needed to live well and engage with their community.
Occupational therapy can help children who:
- Need some extra help to do any tasks that are part of childhood
- Are autistic
- Have a disability such as Down syndrome and Cerebral Palsy
- Have developmental delay or suspected developmental delay
- Are recovering from a brain injury or stroke
- Have Developmental Coordination Disorder
- Have ADHD.
Paediatric occupational therapy can help children with:
- Fine motor skills including handwriting, cutting, doing zippers, manipulating small objects and playing with toys
- Gross motor skills, including learning to ride a bicycle, participating in sports, playing on playground equipment
- Social skills, including being able to self advocate, identifying peers with similar interests, engaging in meaningful play with friends.
- Self care skills, including toileting, self feeding, dressing and managing their belongings.
- Develop regulation skills and strategies including sensory needs, emotional regulation and managing their level of alertness/arousal to support their attention and participation.
- School participation including engaging in the classroom, completing work independently.
Kids’ therapy in Leichhardt
If you live in or close to Leichhardt, your child can attend our Norton Street practice.
Another option is to join one of our group sessions, which target individual goals while fostering a sense of togetherness. These interest-based groups help build your child’s social skills along with their speech and language development, fine and gross motor skills or sensory integration.
We also run parent programs such as Hanen It Takes Two to Talk, Hanen More than Words, Model as a MASTER PAL and PACT - Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy..
We also travel throughout the Inner West area of Sydney to many schools, childcare and early learning centres, preschools, after school care centres, homes, parks... pretty much anywhere kids usually spend their time. This is so that we can provide occupational therapy and speech pathology support in these natural environments.
We also run a popular telehealth program – Telekids – for kids in rural and regional areas. But this service is also used by families in Sydney (and across Australia) who like the flexibility of accessing support in their home.
Where to find us
You’ll find us on Norton Street directly across from Pioneer Park (where you’ll find a fun and recently upgraded playground that is enjoyed by many families from our local community and by the children and family we support before and after their clinic based sessions).
Our address is:
Level 1, 256 Norton Street
Leichhardt NSW 2040
If you have time after your child’s appointment, you’ll find some great coffee downstairs and a park across the road where your child can burn off some energy before you head home.
If you’re wondering whether your child would benefit from occupational therapy, speech therapy or a group program, please contact us for an assessment.
Disclaimer
All information is general and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.
References
- Speech Pathology Australia, What is a speech pathologist? https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/Public/Public/services/About-speech-pathologists/What-speech-pathologists-do.aspx, [Accessed 2 September 2024]
- Occupational Therapy Australia, About occupational therapy, https://www.otaus.com.au/about/about-ot, [Accessed 2 September 2024]
