Speech and language

What are speech and language problems?

Speech and language problems include difficulty using and/or understanding words and sentences, or correctly producing speech sounds. It includes children who may have difficulty with language following neurological events such as stroke or head injury. Speech and language problems also involve children with swallowing, feeding, voice and fluency problems and children who require an augmented communication system.

This service area also deals with children at risk of future speech or language problems and children that have undergone cleft palate surgery and tracheostomy.

How do we help children who have speech and language problems?

The Speech Pathology Departments of the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network (SCHN) provide evidence-based diagnostic and therapeutic services to children with a range of speech, language, communication and/or feeding problems, who attend the Network hospitals and community services as inpatients and/or outpatients.

Additionally, the departments offer clinical education programmes to undergraduate and postgraduate speech pathology students from multiple universities across the State.

The departments are responsible for providing information and advice to speech pathologists and other health professionals throughout NSW. They also provide professional development to hospital staff, teachers and other professionals as appropriate and necessary.