Parents are almost always the first to sense when something is going on with their child — long before any test says so. Below are the concerns we hear most, set out by age with the communication ones beside the sensory and fine motor ones, so you can compare what each looks like at your child's stage. You don't need to know which one fits, or which kind of therapist to ask for. That's our job.
Not every worry is a talking worry. Just as many families come to us about handwriting, shoelaces, sensory overwhelm, or a child who never stops crashing into things. Here they are together, so you can see what each looks like at your child's age — and again, you don't need to work out which column your child sits in. That's our job.
The first words, and the first wobbles
Few or no words when you'd expect more, lots of pointing and sounds, or a vocabulary that just isn't growing. One of the most common reasons families call us — and where an early start helps most.
Trips over nothing, drops things, hangs back at the playground while everyone else climbs. "Clumsy" is a label, not an explanation — the motor planning underneath it can be assessed and built.
The kindy years, and getting ready for school
You translate for your child, and strangers say "sorry, what?" Sounds get dropped, swapped or muddled. Clarity is very treatable, and we make the practice feel like a game.
Repeating sounds ("b-b-ball"), stretching them out, or pushing hard to get words out. Some bumpy speech is a normal phase and some benefits from early support — we help you tell the difference.
Buttons, zips, laces and cutlery still need you, long after you expected them not to. These skills are learnable, step by step, in the places your child actually needs them.
The school years, when the demands stack up
They can talk, but conversations are one-sided, jokes fall flat, or friendships are hard. Or they read the words and miss the story. These language skills quietly underpin school and social life — and they're teachable.
They understand the work but can't get started — or they start and lose the thread. Instructions evaporate between the kitchen and the bedroom. Executive functioning skills are built, not innate.
Both our Speech Pathologists and our Occupational Therapists work on these — often together, on the same goals.
Writing is slow, messy, or genuinely painful to produce — and met with real resistance. Or scissors, drawing and a comfortable pencil grip just haven't clicked. Handwriting is a motor skill long before it's an academic one.
Two things we see right across the age range
Instructions need repeating, your child seems to "tune out" language, struggles to answer questions, or gets lost in a conversation. Understanding language matters just as much as speaking it.
Clothing tags, seams, haircuts, the supermarket — every one a battle. Or the reverse: constant movement, crashing, chewing, never still. What gets read as difficult behaviour is often a nervous system doing its best.
Then a free Discovery Call is the right next step. Tell a clinician what you're seeing — sorting out what it means, and which kind of help it needs, is our job, not yours.
Book your free Discovery Call Or start gently with the free milestone guide.