Language Disorder Australia

31/08/2026

Learn how storytelling builds connection, belonging and engagement, helping students share their experiences and strengthen learning outcomes.

28/08/2026

The theme for Day 6 of Speech Pathology Week is: Communication Creates Possibilities to Participate

This Speech Pathology Week, we're celebrating the many ways communication helps children and young people participate in everyday life.

Whether it's making a friend, joining in classroom discussions, sharing their ideas and opinions, reading a favourite book, asking for help, telling a story, or advocating for their needs, communication opens doors to meaningful participation.

At Bright Door, our allied health team are privileged to work alongside children, young people and their families to build the skills, confidence and supports that help them understand, connect, belong and achieve.

27/08/2026

The theme for Day 5 of Speech Pathology Week is Communication Creates Possibility to Choose!

At Mancel College, our Speech Pathology team support choice by helping our students express preferences, make decisions and communicate what matters to them. A key part of this is our use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, or AAC, on our dedicated classroom talkers.

Our Speech Pathologists work alongside classroom teachers to seamlessly embed communication supports like AAC into the classroom environment. For example, one of our Year 7 classes recently used AAC to support learning. Through collaboration grounded in mutual respect and the shared goal of supporting our students, the Speech Pathologists and teacher worked together to plan and implement this lesson, with the Speech Pathology Team providing their knowledge of AAC and the class teacher incorporating that into meaningful learning activities. Activities included some work around closed vs open questions (where students were able to form questions using visuals to represent closed vs open), abiotic vs biotic environments in science (using visuals and text to categorise the different aspects of each environment up on the big screen), and scaffolding ideas for a story generation task (with dedicated vocabulary and support to visualise not only the content of the story but the structure as well).

AAC can be such a powerful tool for whole class learning and communication, and is just one of the many ways that our Speech Pathology team help to support our children to communicate, choose and make decisions.

26/08/2026

Day 4: Possibility to Belong

Communication creates possibility… to belong.
For many students with language and communication needs, belonging starts when the people around them understand how communication affects learning, friendships, behaviour, confidence and participation.

Through our Language Disorder Australia – School Support Services team, speech pathologists work alongside schools to help reduce communication barriers and support students to access classroom learning, social connection and everyday school life.

Inclusion is more than being present. It is being understood, supported and able to participate.

This Speech Pathology Week, we celebrate the role speech pathologists play in helping create communication-accessible environments where students can belong.

24/08/2026

The theme for day 3 of Speech Pathology Week is Communication Creates Possibility to Grow!

At Mancel College, our Year 1 and 2 students are developing the language foundations they need for success in mathematics and everyday life.

Through engaging activities in our Mini Woolworths and structured play sessions in a play cafe, students are learning about numbers, money, and other early numeracy concepts in meaningful, real-world contexts. These experiences help build confidence, independence, and practical skills that students can use in their daily lives.

Language is a vital part of learning mathematics. The Speech Pathology Team works alongside teaching staff and students to develop the vocabulary and concepts that support numeracy learning. By explicitly teaching and reinforcing key mathematical words, we help students understand, discuss, and apply mathematical ideas with greater confidence.

Current vocabulary goals for our Year 1 and 2 students include words such as "same", "count", and "match". Our students also follow directions such as “find 3 apples and 2 bananas”. These foundational concepts support later mathematical skills, including shopping, handling money, calculating change, and participating in workplace tasks such as retail roles.

By building strong language skills, we are helping our students develop the communication and numeracy foundations they need to navigate everyday life with confidence and independence.

24/08/2026

02/07/2026

Today, we had the pleasure of welcoming Kerry from The Brighton School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Language Disorder Australia during her visit to Australia.

It is fantastic to connect with colleagues from across the globe who share our passion for supporting children and young people with language-based learning differences. We loved spending time with Kerry, exchanging ideas and discussing all things language, dyslexia and education.

We also enjoyed showing Kerry around the beautiful Mancel College campus and sharing more about the work we do to support schools, educators and students across Australia.

Thank you for visiting, Kerry! We loved hosting you and look forward to staying connected as we continue learning from one another. 🌏📚💙

26/06/2026

Day 3 at the Speech Pathology Australia Conference on Yugambeh / Gold Coast, and we are still feeling energised by the conversations, learning and connections happening around the theme Impact Through Speech Pathology.

A huge highlight for our team last night was celebrating our Senior Speech Pathologist Beth McBride from our Mancel College team, who received the People's Choice Award for her poster “Language Lizards: A whole-class approach to language intervention”. Beth’s poster received the most votes from conference attendees! This is an incredible achievement and wonderful recognition of Beth’s expertise, creativity and commitment to practical, evidence-based language support in classroom settings. We are so proud of Beth and the impact of this work. Congratulations, Beth! 👏

Our booth has also been buzzing! A very special highlight was welcoming Jenny Nunn to the Language Disorder Australia booth. Jenny is part of our early Glenleighden story as one of the first speech pathologists to work alongside our founder, Mancel Ellis Robinson OAM. What a privilege to connect our history with the work we continue today.

If you’re at the conference for Day 3, please pop by the Language Disorder Australia booth. We’d love to chat, share our new resources and connect with others passionate about supporting children and young people with Language Disorder to connect, belong and achieve.

25/06/2026

Hello from Yugambeh / Gold Coast! 👋

Language Disorder Australia is excited to be at the Speech Pathology Australia 2026 Conference, where this year’s theme is Impact Through Speech Pathology.

Yesterday, we were grateful to be part of a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony, a meaningful opportunity to acknowledge the Yugambeh Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, pay our respects to Elders past and present, and reflect on the deep connection between Culture, Country, Language and Community.

The conference is already off to a great start, including this morning’s keynote, “Building firm foundations: designing early years systems to promote robust and equitable language development.” It was a powerful reminder that early language development lays the foundation for education, health, wellbeing and participation and that supporting children’s language requires coordinated, equitable systems across families, communities, health, education and social care.

If you’re at the conference, please pop by the Language Disorder Australia booth to say hello! We’d love to chat, share our newest resources, and talk about ways we can continue supporting children and young people with Language Disorder to connect, belong and achieve.