Speechcare Bayside

🍰 Cake & Comfort ☕

What if support for your family started with a piece of cake?

Join us for Cake & Comfort—a free community event where families can connect, enjoy some sweet treats, and discover how counselling support can help when school-related challenges, family stress, emotional wellbeing concerns, or sibling dynamics become difficult to navigate.

Meet Lauren, our family counsellor, and learn how counselling can support not just one child, but the whole family. From helping siblings better understand and express their feelings, to building resilience, confidence and stronger family relationships, support is available.

Sometimes the first step isn’t having all the answers. It’s simply having a conversation. ☕💙

📅 Tuesday 7 July
⏰ 9:30am – 11:00am
📍 SpeechCare Carina Clinic

🎟️ Register here:
Cake & Comfort Registration Form⁠

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=GBqlgdBhhku0OpzclIKGHEGHnIIBt2BDpXHLRB-dve1UNFY0REZaV081UkozV0lWMlNQUURPMUVENi4u&utm_source=chatgpt.com

Because every family deserves support, and nobody should have to navigate the tough stuff alone. 💙

forms.cloud.microsoft

Kim Hollander and Kate recently had the opportunity to meet with Ali France to discuss The Connected Child Project and the future of early intervention in Australia.

We explored a hub-and-spoke model of care that combines centralised expertise, training, mentoring, and quality assurance with locally embedded speech pathologists working directly within early learning centres and communities.

What struck me most was our shared understanding that meaningful change requires collaboration across all levels of the system. Government, NGOs, community organisations, educators, and private providers all have a role to play in ensuring children and families can access the support they need.

The early intervention landscape is changing. Funding models are changing. Expectations are changing. Community needs are changing.

But one thing remains constant: communication is fundamental to participation, learning, wellbeing, and inclusion.

There is still—and always will be—a need for speech pathologists and allied health professionals. Our challenge is to evolve alongside our communities and find new ways to deliver expertise where it can have the greatest impact.

The Connected Child Project was born from a simple but ambitious question:

What if we stopped waiting for children to access support and instead built communication-friendly, inclusive environments from the start?

What if best-practice communication supports were already embedded within early learning settings?

What if educators, families, and communities had greater access to training, coaching, and practical tools that supported all children—not just those with a diagnosis?

What if waitlists became less critical because inclusive practice was already part of everyday life?

I’m aiming high.

Because too many children are still being missed.

And because I believe every child deserves to grow up in a community that understands communication, values neurodiversity, and is equipped to support them to thrive.

The future of early intervention is not just about increasing access to services. It’s about building capacity, creating connected systems, and ensuring support reaches children before they fall through the cracks.

That’s the future we’re working towards.