Katrina Walsh Speech Pathology

Now next year seems closer than ever, there will be many parents considering if they will start their child at school in 2015. Are they ready? Will they cope? Am I ready for my child to start school?

There are many questions parents debate within themselves, with their preschool or day care teachers and with each other.

There are a few things you can do to make this choice a little easier for you.

Firstly organise and tick of the things you can do: things you can have some control over.

1. Get a hearing test – not just a hearing test in the GP surgery with a ticking watch. Ring your local community Health centre and book your child in for a formal hearing test. “Why?” I hear you ask…”my child can hear everything!” That may be the case, however how well are they actually hearing? A formal hearing test… Continue reading →

It is a fact in our lives that time just seems to speed by. Making a decision to send your child to school next year is great when you feel like you have a whole year to increase their skills and allow them some time to develop. Around now – past halfway in the year – is the time some people become a bit worried about the lack of time left before their child is due to start school.

What should you be doing at this time? Choice of school should be an ongoing task – speaking with various school executives, friends who have children attending schools and observations of community comments regarding schools can be useful.

Viewing your child as the “big picture” and then checking out individual skills is a good task to start around now (if you haven’t already done so). Consider how well your child interacts… Continue reading →

Many teachers give out homework to the students in their class. Some homework is interesting and the children enjoy doing it, other homework may be difficult, too hard or uninteresting.

So how do you get your child to get used to doing homework, with waging World War III every afternoon?

Identifying why the homework is given, working with your child’s teacher to obtain homework that is beneficial, and organising both yourself and your child into a routine where homework is part of the afternoon course of events, will help.

Firstly, why is homework given? Most schools have a policy of giving homework. This is aimed to reinforce ideas, concepts and skills learnt at school, and to revise the days or week’s learning. It is also designed to review skills that are needed to be learned, for example learning times tables. It is not seen as a punishment, nor should homework… Continue reading →

Your child has just started school – so what are you worried about?

It is an exciting time when your child starts school for the first time. Uniforms, shoes, covering books, buying pencils, crayons, textas and hats in bags are all part of the process. But for most parents, while their child may feel excited with a little bit of apprehension, mum or dad, grandma or grandpa may feel more than a bit of anxiety about their little person starting school.

😕 Will their teacher know what they want?

😕 Will the other kids be friendly?

😕 What if they can’t open their lunch box?

😕 Do kids still take each others’ recess or lunch?

😕 Who will they play with at lunchtime?

These type of questions are very common, but in my experience, by far the biggest concern parents and grandparents have about their child starting school is if… Continue reading →