Speech Pathology

At Echo Speech, we provide children’s speech therapy that is grounded in connection, empowerment, and evidence-based practice. Every session is thoughtfully designed to support your child’s unique strengths, interests, and learning style. We use interactive, play-based activities to make therapy engaging and meaningful, helping children participate with confidence and enjoy the process of growing their communication skills.

We take a holistic approach to development, recognising that children thrive when the adults around them work together. Our team collaborates closely with families, educators, and local professionals including Occupational Therapists, Psychologists, Paediatricians, and Physiotherapists to ensure your child’s goals are supported across all environments. This collaborative model helps create consistent, practical change for children and their families.

Echo Speech appointments are available in our welcoming Nelson Bay clinic, at local schools and preschools, and through home visits across Port Stephens, including Medowie. We offer flexible options to ensure therapy is accessible, convenient, and tailored to your family’s needs.

Assessments

Our comprehensive assessments help you understand your child’s communication strengths, challenges, and the underlying reasons for their difficulties. Each assessment is clear, thorough, and followed by a detailed explanation of results so you know exactly what the next steps are.

Families appreciate that we turn complex information into practical, easy-to-follow recommendations — giving you clarity, direction, and a plan that truly supports your child’s success.

At Echo Speech, our assessments are designed to be engaging, child-friendly, and truly meaningful. We use a blend of formal standardised tests, play-based activities, conversation, and interactive tasks to get a clear picture of your child’s strengths and needs across a range of areas, including:

• Speech sounds and articulation (speech clarity)
• Early language development
• Preschool and school-aged language skills
• Fluency of speech (stuttering)
• Social communication and interaction
• Literacy skills, including Dyslexia Diagnostic Assessment
• Feeding and mealtime skills
• Adult dysphagia (swallowing) 

To make sure we understand the whole child, we also seek information from the important people in their world such as teachers, educators, psychologists, paediatricians, GPs, and occupational therapists. Combined with your insights as the expert on your child, this helps us create an individualised therapy plan that supports genuine progress and confidence.

Early Intervention

Early support can make a remarkable difference in a child’s communication development. Our early intervention programs focus on building strong foundations in connection, play, interaction, language, and early social skills. Using approaches like DIR Floortime, Hanen “It Takes Two to Talk,” and play-based learning, we work with you to create joyful, responsive interactions that help your child grow. We support children in the clinic, at home, and in educational settings giving families the tools and confidence to support communication in everyday routines.

Feeding & Swallowing

For children, we work with difficulties such as chewing and swallowing challenges, sensory sensitivities, food refusal, restricted diets, and oral-motor delays. Therapy is gentle, supportive, and child-led, combining evidence-based feeding approaches with each child’s interests and motivation to encourage positive participation and progress.

For adults, we offer dysphagia (swallowing) assessment and management for individuals experiencing coughing or choking during meals, difficulty swallowing food, fluids or tablets, recurrent chest infections, weight loss, or changes in voice after swallowing. Dysphagia may occur following neurological conditions, illness, surgery, ageing, or disability.

Across all ages, our approach is holistic and collaborative. We assess the underlying causes of feeding or swallowing difficulties and develop personalised management plans that may include therapy strategies, texture or fluid modifications, mealtime supports, and collaboration with families, carers, GPs, and other health professionals to ensure safe, enjoyable mealtimes.

DIR Floor Time

DIRFloortime® (Floortime™) is at the heart of what we do at Echo Speech. This relationship-based approach meets your child exactly where they are and builds their communication, emotional development, and social connection through joyful, meaningful interactions. By following your child’s lead and expanding their play, we help them become more engaged, regulated, and confident communicators. DIRFloortime® is especially helpful for neurodivergent children, including autistic children, children with ADHD, and children with developmental delays. Families love how connected, understood, and empowered they feel through this approach.

Literacy

Strong reading and writing skills open the door to confidence, independence, and success at school. At Echo Speech, our literacy intervention is evidence-based, using structured, systematic, and explicit teaching to support children with dyslexia, reading difficulties, spelling challenges, and written expression. We blend these proven approaches with each child’s unique interests and motivations to keep learning meaningful, engaging, and enjoyable. Our therapists help children understand how words work, build decoding and encoding skills, and express their ideas clearly in writing. Families appreciate that we go above and beyond to make literacy feel achievable using clear steps, multisensory tools, and personalised learning plans that lead to real, lasting progress.