Paula is one of the Directors and the Principal Speech Pathologist at Voices and Minds. She completed a Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Speech Pathology in 2005 at the University of Sydney. Paula has worked for many years across private, government and not-for-profit sectors, as well as in primary and secondary schools both in New South Wales, Queensland and in the UK. She is passionate about helping children and their families to understand, manage and improve the communication difficulties they face. She believes that the best learning occurs while having fun, therefore she takes an enjoyable and engaging therapy approach and quickly builds rapport with the children to make them feel at ease. Paula has vast experience involving diagnostic assessment of and treatment for individuals with a wide range of communication difficulties, including; speech, language, social, fluency, voice, literacy and behaviour difficulties.
Paula's experience also includes tailored individual therapy, small groups, working within a classroom, implementing home-based programs, school-based programs, providing resources and information, and providing support to the parents/carers of her clients, as well as other professionals. She has extensive experience working with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and worked as a consultant in this area for 2 ½ years to support these children as well as their parents, carers and school staff.
Paula has also worked with children who have multiple and/or complex disabilities and as a result, often have complicated needs. A few examples of these are Speech Language Impairment (SLI), Down syndrome, Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder (ADHD/ADD), Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), Intellectual Disability (ID), Hearing Impairment (HI), genetic disorders and with social/emotional difficulties.
Paula has worked within school settings for over 17 years where she developed and implemented successful whole class programs as well as whole school initiatives that improve the communication outcomes for students. Paula has been, and is currently heavily involved in training and up-skilling of school staff to better support students with communication difficulties in the classroom.
Paula believes that training and education of parents and teachers is key in supporting children with communication difficulties as it equips them with the tools and strategies they need to help their child or student. She has a special interest in the areas of fluency, articulation, early language development and developing social skills. Paula believes that developing and fostering communication skills, directly improves a child’s quality of life.
