Member Spotlight | Fiona Curtis
Meet Fiona Curtis the owner of Fiona Curtis Speech Pathology Services in Scarborough
Fiona obtained her B.A.Sc. Speech & Hearing from Curtin University and has always maintained her Certified Practising status with SPA. In recent years, her professional development has been very focused on stuttering. She has completed Lidcombe Program Training about 14 years ago and has also done training in how to work with school aged children who stutter. She has attended the Oxford Disfluency Conference twice, in 2014 and 2021.
Stuttering In Young Children
Stuttering typically begins in children before 6 years of age, most commonly in three year olds. Unlike many other speech and language disorders at that age, it begins after a period of normal speech and language development. This can make stuttering onset...
Executive Function, ASD and setting the scene for therapy
You may have heard of the saying, “when you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” Executive functioning difficulties and Autism Spectrum Disorders often go hand in hand, however not all children with ASD will struggle in the same EF areas to the same degree. If a child is seeing a psychologist, it may be worthwhile connecting with them to find out more information about which area the child needs the greater support.
What does high functioning autism look like?
Children on the spectrum, like any other children, can have a whole range of cognitive abilities. Many children diagnosed with ASD are very bright, or gifted. They may have an exceptional vocabulary and speak in sentences that sound mature for their age. They may have particular talents that match their interests and they can perform at an above-age level in an area.
ASD – it’s not all the same
Autism is referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) which acknowledges that the disorder has is variable and affects people to different degrees. It is often helpful to parents to know that their child probably does not exhibit all the symptoms that can be...