In the spirit of Dystonia Awareness Month I thought I would share this story… This year I worked with Tom*. Tom lives in another state, Tom has a rare form of Parkinson’s disease, Tom has laryngeal dystonia or spasmodic dysphonia (spasm of muscles that impacts the voice and swallowing) and...

Like breathing, swallowing is a reflex and essential to everyday life. Humans swallow at least 900 times a day: around three times an hour during sleep, once per minute while awake and even more often during meals. We swallow food, liquids, medicine and saliva. People who have trouble swallowing are...

Due to increased life expectancy and low fertility rates, Australia is getting older. By 2050, there will be 36 million Australians and 1.8 million will be aged 85 and over. Along with this growth, the number of older Australians experiencing communication and swallowing problems will rise. As people age their...

Every 10 minutes, an Australian suffers a stroke – that’s more than 60,000 strokes each year. In the next 10 years, it is estimated that more than half a million people will suffer a stroke, making it the leading cause of disability in Australia. 60% of people who have had...

What is AAC?Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is any type of communication strategy for people with a range of conditions who have significant difficulties speaking. There are two main types of AAC – aided AAC and unaided AAC.Aided AAC is any external item used to aid communication (e.g. object symbols, communication boards, books, key-ring mini-cards, wallets, speech generating...

Stuttering is a speech disorder that causes interruptions in the rhythm or flow of speech. These interruptions may include repeated sounds (c-c-can), syllables (da-da-daddy), words (and-and-and) or phrases (I want-I want-I want). Repetitions might happen once (b-ball, can-can) or multiple times (I-I-I-I-I want, m-m-m-m-m-m-mummy). Stuttering may also include prolongations, where...

Learning to read and write is a crucial part of a child’s development. Reading and writing (literacy) are essential skills for adults. Being literate means that people can understand and follow written instructions, find out information online or in books, write letters and emails, and send text messages. It also...

Learning to speak is a crucial part of a child’s development and progress made in the preschool and early school years is crucial to mastering the rules of language. Even though children vary in their development of speech and language, there are certain ‘milestones’ that can be identified as a...

Learning to speak is a crucial part of a child’s development and the most intensive period of speech and language development happens in the first three years of life. Even though children vary in their development of speech and language, there are certain ‘milestones’ that can be identified as a...

Language is fundamental to your baby’s development. Every baby learns to speak by listening, playing with sounds and talking to others. Babies begin to learn from the moment they are born – first receptive language skills (understanding what they hear), then expressive language skills (speaking). You can help develop both...