Paediatric Speech Language Pathologists, or Speech Therapists are experts who work mainly with children, from birth up until they are 18. They assist children in most aspects of communication, and guide them in developing and improving both their verbal and non-verbal language skills. Additionally, they assist with issues pertaining to feeding and swallowing abilities.

For Paediatric Speech Pathologists looking to progress in their career, Medfuture can tell you everything you need to know!

The Areas of Focus of Paediatric Speech-Language Pathologists

The areas that Paediatric Speech Pathologists treat is wide, and some of the practices deal with the following:

• Expressive / Receptive / Social Language: In this case, clinicians assist the children that they treat to understand and absorb their surroundings better. They do this by helping improve their communication with other people, and by guiding them to use the correct language, words and sounds during their interactions in order to polish and improve their social skills.
• Swallowing: Individuals use the same muscles for both speech and swallowing. Due to the position of a child’s tongue, or the coordination of their throat muscle, they may sometimes find it difficult to swallow food and liquids. Paediatric Speech Pathologists help people to chew and swallow properly, and safely, ensuring that they receive all the nutrition that they require.
• Voice Disorders: A child’s voice is tarnished and reduced to a scratchy and breathy voice due to a reduction in their vocal quality. This occurs as a result of excessive shouting, a lack of water, or issues with their vocal cords. A Paediatric Speech Pathologist uses breathing exercises, vocal techniques, and vocal hygiene in order to help these children take care of their voices better.
• Hearing Impairments: Those who have difficulty in hearing others, and themselves, oftentimes find it difficult to speak audibly, the same way as most. This applies to children who are deaf, or have hearing impairments. Paediatric Speech Pathologists help children struggling to communicate by using both sign language, as well as speech sound instructions. This also applies to children who have been diagnosed with auditory processing disorders and struggle with processing auditory information.
• Stuttering: There is an extremely high number of people in Australia, as well as globally, who stutter, or find it difficult to talk without getting stuck on certain sounds or words while they talk. The frustration of having to face this in their day to day lives, oftentimes leads to psychological issues amidst children. SLPs not only assist children in overcoming their stutter, but consequently combat both the social and psychological issues that come with.
• Executive Functioning: These are skills that assist children in their daily functions. These include elements such as their attention span, their ability to plan and organise, the retention of their memory, as well as their analytical and problem-solving skills. SLPs utilise numerous strategies, in order to implement and improve these existing skills in the children that they treat.

The Shortage of Speech Pathologists and Paediatric Speech Pathologists in Australia

There is a high demand for paediatric speech pathologists in Australia. Due to the lack of specialised individuals in this field, there are clients, nationwide, without the help they need, who are actively on the lookout for empathetic and effective paediatricians who can support them or their children.

The states with the highest demand for Speech pathologists are Queensland, Victoria, and other regional areas. Australia is on a constant lookout for not just qualified experts in this field, but also new graduates, and individuals who are still at the early stages of their career and wish to start their journey into private practice.

There is an increase in the number of families that seek expert guidance in order to effectively maintain the progress of their children’s linguistic, as well as cognitive growth. Despite the fact that the number of speech pathologists has grown immensely in the last few years, Australia is finding it difficult to meet the ever-increasing demand from the participants of the NDIS.

It is said that patients of private practices often remain on waiting lists for a year or even more, before they are finally able to get an appointment. Comparatively, employers discuss how there have been vacancies for months, and sometimes years, with a lack of speech pathologists to take up these positions in the country.

Tim Kittel, The National President of Speech Pathology in Australia, claims that there has been a surge in the number of speech pathologists in Australia, making up almost 80% of the industry. However, contrastingly, Australia is still unable to keep up with the growing demand of the public and the NDIS for this service, resulting in long waitlists across the country.

Accessing paediatric speech pathologists in regional areas and the public sector is particularly difficult, and a concern to those with young children who cannot afford to be on the waiting list for a whole year as opposed to adults, considering that this would leave a large gap in their development.

The Demand for Speech Pathologists in Australia

Due to easier and greater access to funding thanks to the National Disability Insurance Scheme [NDIS] in Australia, as well as an increased awareness of the service of Speech Pathology and Paediatric Speech Pathology, the demand for these clinicians is increasing at an alarming rate. The NDIS has almost doubled their funding for disability services in comparison to when they began – over $18 billion a year.

General practitioners are said to be becoming more active than before in terms of identifying and diagnosing delays in early childhood development, and are therefore arranging for referrals to paediatricians more often than before. However, this has resulted in parents having to put their children on month-long, and oftentimes even year-long waitlists in order to get appointments.

New graduates, as well as paediatric speech pathologists who are still early in their careers are still considered highly employable due to the increasing demand. Students of speech pathology claim that they were offered jobs via platforms like LinkedIn even before they graduated.

Renato Ulpiano, VU Doctor of Business Administration student and co-founder of Ladybug House, which is a paediatric clinic for children with special needs, claims that the demand for speech pathologists is at an all-time high. In his discussion of the importance of the role that Speech Pathologists play, he says, “Ask yourself – what would your life be without communication? Then think about the difference you could make to others.”

Scope for Practising Paediatric Speech Pathology in Australia

Based on the average from 491 salaries, as of 2023, Paediatric speech pathologists make AU$92,750 on an annual basis, and AU$47.56 an hour. Entry-level positions begin at around AU$81,302 a year, and the more experienced paediatric speech pathologists earn up to AU$111,162 a year.

Another source shows that Paediatric Speech Pathologists get paid sometimes up to AU$138,000 a year! There are a wide range of Speech Pathology jobs that are available in Australia. However, out of the 25 highest paying jobs in Speech Pathology, Paediatric Speech Pathology has proven to have the largest scope for a wage hike, and is the highest paying out of all of the others. It also shows the largest range in terms of salary potential, when comparing the minimum and maximum wages of the industry proving that Paediatric Speech Therapy has the most opportunity for job and pay advancements.

Speech Language Pathology has been listed as one of the 100 Best Jobs in The World Report. Due to the increase in the population, and in the number of students being enrolled in schools annually, along with the combination of greater awareness and increased early diagnoses from general practitioners, there is a greater need for Paediatric Speech Pathologists in the education sector as well.

Paediatric Speech Pathology Services in Rural and Remote Australia

Children in rural and remote areas of Australia struggle without access to clinical help. The ever-changing and increasing needs of citizens of rural Australia who deserve equal help but do not receive it, adds to the demand of Paediatric Speech Pathologists nationwide.

Clinics are on the constant look out for SLPs and Paediatric Speech Pathologists to help the children in these rural areas, taking into consideration the lifelong and detrimental impact that a lack of assistance will have on the development of these children who have no guidance or assistance to combat their struggles.

Look to Medfuture as your solution!

If you are a Paediatric Speech Pathologist looking to explore your career in Australia, look no further! Medfuture, a reputed medical and healthcare recruitment agency, connects qualified and experienced healthcare professionals on a global scale, and will guide you through everything you need to know to kickstart your career.

For more information on open vacancies in healthcare administration, visit the Medfuture job board.