Sally Barrable

The therapy process

I offer an initial assessment of your child’s abilities, using both standardised and non-standardised assessment tools. I then provide feedback, either verbally or in the form of a written report.

If a one-off assessment does not allow the opportunity to gain a comprehensive idea of your child’s abilities, therapy may commence immediately and information may be gathered as therapy progresses.

Based on the information gained and with the parent’s valuable input, I create a detailed therapy plan for your child. This ensures that the most important areas of concern are being addressed.

I feel that communication with any other relevant specialists or teachers involved in your child’s day-to-day routine is vitally important.

Sessions are generally 30 minutes long and take place predominantly at my home office base, which offers a warm, relaxed atmosphere, allowing your child to feel immediately at ease. My enjoyment of working with children and their families spills over into the therapy process, allowing for lots of fun and learning through toys and games.

You are encouraged to attend therapy with your child (unless this is counterproductive) and observe the activities in action. In this way, you are able to gain the knowledge and skills needed to carry out activities suggested in the home programme.

Speech & language therapy can help your child with:

Developmental delays resulting in speech and language development where your child does not appear to be reaching their developmental milestones at the same age as other children or within the ‘normal range’.

Delays in speech or pronunciation. Your child may appear to have speech that is immature for their age or speech may be unclear and difficult to understand.

Auditory processing difficulties. Your child may have difficulty processing, remembering and therefore responding appropriately to what they hear. Difficulty may be experienced in remembering and following verbal instructions as well as in hearing sounds in words.

Learning difficulties. Your child may experience difficulty with reading, spelling and comprehension at school. Frequently, the underlying foundation skills are not firmly established, resulting in lack of progress in reading and difficulties in decoding sounds for spelling.

Expressive difficulties. Your child may find it difficult to express themselves adequately, producing vague, incoherent language and resulting in frustration for the child and the listener.

Sally Barrable
Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Hearing Therapy (Honours)

After qualifying as a Speech & Language Therapist in the early 1990’s, I worked in South Africa in both schools and private practice, conducting both individual and group therapy.

Since moving to New Zealand in 2000, I have been involved in private therapy, working independently as well as within teams of occupational therapists and educational psychologists.

I have worked as a clinical supervisor at the Massey University Speech Language Therapy Clinic for several semesters, supervising speech language therapy students as they carry out their clinical work.

As a therapist with over 20 years’ experience working in pediatrics, I am committed to keeping up to date with the latest research trends within New Zealand and internationally, participating in various webinars and workshops.

If you would like to find out how I can help your child, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Services

I provide comprehensive assessments and individualised therapy plans for
children having difficulties associated with:

  • Speech (articulation and phonology) & language
  • Pre-literacy skills
  • Auditory processing
  • Childhood apraxia of speech (Verbal dyspraxia)

Services

I provide comprehensive assessments and individualised therapy plans for
children having difficulties associated with:

  • Speech (articulation and phonology) & language
  • Pre-literacy skills
  • Auditory processing
  • Childhood apraxia of speech (Verbal dyspraxia)

“Sally has worked with both my kids as a speech therapist and we credit her completely for both of our kids success and huge gains in speech. She is amazing at what she does! She has years of experience and knowledge and it shows in every aspect of the therapy sessions. She has a patient, fun, kind and natural ability to work with kids, and my kids love her and look forward to seeing her every week. She has been absolutely invaluable to us with helping our kids and we certainly wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to anyone needing a Speech Therapist.”
Katie, Bayview

Our gorgeous boys had so much fun this morning with a range of the homework for this week! I was upstairs getting ready and came down to super speech production. Sol’s motivation is so high; it is wonderful.
Ida, Birkdale

I have known Sally for the past year as a Speech Language Therapist for my 4 year old son, supporting with therapy with his speech and language skills. I found Sally to be a very friendly, reliable, honest therapist, who has a lot of experience and patience when it came to the needs and support of my child. Our relationship has grown during the past year and she became a very important part of our lives. My son has been diagnosed with speech delay as a result of ongoing ear infections. We realized that his hearing has been affected as a result of this. This meant a lot of extra support and change of managing his daily needs. Having Sally involved as a Speech Therapist as part of this whole process has been a huge help to my son and I (and our whole family). Sally encouraged independence and exploration with each session we had with her. I can truly recommend her as a Speech Language Therapist.
Anja, Belmont

Sally began working with our daughter when she was 3 years old. Our daughter is on the Autistic spectrum and at the time only used echolalia as speech. Sally worked with Ella for 7 years and has helped her to communicate, understand and decipher words, understand others feelings and she has helped teach her how to act appropriately in certain situations. Our daughter has a wonderful bond with Sally. I can’t recommend Sally highly enough. She has made a huge difference to our daughter’s life and we will be forever grateful
Angela, Mairangi Bay