The hybrid speech therapy program is a way of combining the expertise of our Certified Practicing Speech Pathologists (CPSPs) and the availability of our Allied Health Assistants (AHAs).
We want to provide quality speech therapy to more children in our community. Our Speech Pathologists do not currently have enough time to see all the children that need our help but we still want to do as much as we can.
1. A Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) assesses your child and writes a report.
2. Together with the family, the CPSP writes a therapy plan with clear goals for everyone to work towards.
3. An Allied Health Assistant (AHA) is instructed on how to provide the therapy to achieve these goals.
4. The AHA works regularly with the child and meets with the CPSP to make sure the therapy is going well.
5. The CPSP has an appointment with the child and family once per school term to support the child, family, and the AHA to continue working towards their goals.
This program is not appropriate for all children, please speak to your speech pathologist about whether your child is eligible for this program.
All our Allied Health Assistants have been chosen as suitable for this role for a variety of reasons, many are speech pathology students who are working towards being Certified Practising Speech Pathologists themselves.
These therapy sessions are currently being offered at our clinic in Officer.
Your CPSP appointments will be one-off appointments once per term.
Your regular appointments with your AHA are available Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
You have just finished your speech pathology degree – congratulations!
If you want to work in private practice, you will need to join Speech Pathology Australia and register for Provisional Certification so that your clients will be eligible for rebates and funding under Medicare and National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), among other funding schemes. Once you have your certification, you can use the postnominals ‘CPSP’ which stands for Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist.
Speech Pathology Australia has lots of information about the requirements for certification and here at Talking Fish we have read it thoroughly and created a plan to get our new graduate speech pathologists up to standard and feeling confident within their first three months of working with us. From there, it is simply practice, practice, practice (and follow your professional development plan)!
Week 1: Orientation
we start with the usual paperwork, getting familiar with resources and technology
2 clients per day, there will likely be time to observe other therapists with their clients throughout the week as well
formal meetings with supervisor on Monday and Friday to get ready for the week and to debrief at the end. Everyone at Talking Fish does a ‘Weekly Wrap-Up’ to summarise their achievements and learnings for the week.
Week 2: Planning
this week we create a professional development plan. Everyone at Talking Fish Therapies has one of these and we regularly refer back to them
begin the Speech Pathology Australia Ethics module. This is one of the requirements for certification
2 clients per day plus observation of other clinicians
formal meetings with supervisor on Monday and Friday to get ready for the week and to debrief at the end
Week 3: Ethics
complete the SPA ethics module. This is a 6 hour module so we allow 2 weeks for it to be completed
3 clients per day plus observation if time allows
formal meetings with supervisor on Monday and Friday to get ready for the week and to debrief at the end
by the end of this week you will have completed one of the requirements for certification: completion of the ethics training.
Week 4: Cultural learning
a Speech Pathology Australia module on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is required this week. This is not a requirement for your initial certification but it is very important to the Talking Fish team so we have included it here, early in the new graduate program
3 clients per day plus observation if time allows
formal meetings with supervisor on Monday and Friday to get ready for the week and to debrief at the end
Week 5: Evidence Based Practice
Speech Pathology Australia’s Evidence Based Practice module 1
3 clients per day plus observation if time allows
formal meetings with supervisor on Monday and Friday to get ready for the week and to debrief at the end
Week 6: Evidence Based Practice
Speech Pathology Australia’s Evidence Based Practice module 2
3 clients per day plus observation if time allows
formal meetings with supervisor on Monday and Friday to get ready for the week and to debrief at the end
by the end of this week you will have completed two more requirements for certification: completion of EBP training and 12 hours of individual supervision
Week 7-12: Practice, practice, practice
4 clients per day
weekly formal meetings with your supervisor to continue to improve your practice
by the end of this period you will have completed the final requirement for certification: 200 speech pathology practice hours
From here, everyone’s journey is different. At Talking Fish Therapies we recommend training in DIR Floortime early in your career but this may not be appropriate for everyone, depending on their caseload. This is why a well thought out Professional Development Plan is important and should be referred to often.
If you would like to join us for your new grad year and beyond we would love to hear from you!
We are excited to announce that Talking Fish is partnering with several other local businesses to create a new home at the Your Therapy Team Clinic at 101/445 Princes Hwy, Officer. From the April 2022 school holidays we will be offering clinic-based services at this location.
We can’t wait to see you there!
Our therapists will still be offering mobile services in certain circumstances but this will now incur a travel fee if the therapy location is outside Beaconsfield/Officer.
Talking Fish is excited to announce that we have an online course!
Over 2 hours of videos teaching you over 100 signs to help you communicate with people who use sign as part of their communication system. We have broken all this amazing information down into 11 modules of core and fringe vocabulary. There is also lots of information about how signing works, what it is and what it isn’t, and how to best use this communication system with the complex communicators in your life.
Please note that this is not a course in Auslan or any other sign language. It is using sign alongside spoken language to enhance communication for people with complex communication needs.
It’s a difficult time for everyone at the moment. Whilst allied health services such as speech pathology are eligible to still operate in person, Talking Fish Therapies has made the decision to operate completely via telehealth. Telehealth comes in many different forms, so we will be speaking to our families about what will work best for them during this time.
We are also working on some innovative solutions to get around some of the difficulties we are facing. Keep an eye out for updates on these!
Stay safe everyone, keep in touch, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need any assistance.
