In response to the growing demand for speech therapy services, the Y WA is partnering with Speech Pathology students from the Edith Cowan University (ECU) School of Medical and Health Sciences to provide targeted support during the most critical years of a child’s learning. This unique program will bring students into a real-life early learning setting and deliver early speech and language support across several of the Y WA Early Learning Centres (ELC).
Partnering for progress, third year Speech Pathology students are completing placement at the Y Brabham ELC and the Y Westminster ELC from August through to October, providing much needed support to families whilst offering a value-added service at no extra cost. The program provides students with the chance to apply their trade whilst learning and offers additional support to families using the Y’s ELC services.
The collaboration was successfully trialled at the Y’s Baldivis ELC in March and will now roll out across Brabham and Westminster over the course of 12 weeks, bringing timely support to families, who will reap the benefits of practical on-the-job training from students ready to make a real impact.
The students are supervised by a qualified speech pathologist, working with children in centres and developing resources that can be shared and used by parents across all Y ELCs. It will also assist to build educator capacity to provide additional support and intervention to the children who need it most, once the ECU students have completed their placement.
Y Brabham ELC Director Noureen Ansari said, “With some WA families waiting up to three years for speech therapy, this 12-week program provides invaluable support during the most critical years of learning, setting children up for success at school and beyond.”
The partnership complements the current, successful, School ReadY Program, which is offered across all 14 Y ELCs. Developed by the Y, School ReadY provides educators with the resources and coaching they need to make a difference every day by supporting children to develop skills in three fundamental domains – oral language & pre-literacy, early numeracy, and social-emotional wellbeing.
As part of the School ReadY Program, children complete a LanguageScreen assessment which helps to identify children who may benefit from extra help with their language skills. For Brabham and Westminster, the additional support from speech pathology students is invaluable for the Y, their families and their children.
Baldivis ELC Director, Amanda Broad, speaks on the success of the ECU partnership trial at the centre back in March. “There was a notable difference with the children who spent time with the ECU students. One child for example, was close to non-verbal. Following the 12 weeks that we had the students here, he now comes in each day and says hello to everyone, talks and sings with his peers, and he has moved up into a different Kindy room where he can fully engage with the School ReadY program.”
Y WA CEO Dr Tim McDonald adds, “Collaborating with ECU speech pathology students bolsters our capacity to intervene early if children are having language difficulties. Our aim is to ensure children do not start school behind, as we know that research shows it is much harder to remediate a learning difficulty the longer it is left. The Y WA are nurturing the next generation of allied health professionals while delivering real impact for children, families, and educators.”