Gold Coast speech
pathology & therapy.

Where we are, and who we work with

Speech Sprout is based on the southern Gold Coast at Burleigh Heads, working with families from Coolangatta and Tweed Heads in the south through to Helensvale and Hope Island in the north. We see kids from age two, teens, and adults — including late-diagnosed autistic adults who have never had identity-affirming therapy before. Most of our clinical work is split between in-clinic sessions and Zoom telehealth, with the mix shaped by what suits the communicator and the family, not what suits the schedule.

We are a small, deliberately neurodiversity-affirming practice. That phrase gets used loosely; for us it means specific clinical commitments — we don't suppress stims, we don't redirect scripts, we don't shape eye contact, and we don't write goals that would only make sense as "looking less autistic". The goalpost is the communicator's own quality of life: connection, agency, regulation, and self-advocacy. That stance affects everything from how we run a first session to how we write an NDIS report.

What we work on

Across the clinic and telehealth caseload, the bulk of the work falls into six shapes, all of which can run alongside each other:

• Speech & language — articulation, phonology, expressive and receptive language, vocabulary depth, storytelling. Mostly kids 2–11, but we do see older.
• Autism speech therapy on the Gold Coast — identity-affirming work across the lifespan, including self-advocacy, unmasking for teens and adults, and late-diagnosis support.
• AAC on the Gold Coast — trial, NDIS funding, set-up, modelling, and long-term language growth on high-tech tablets, PODD, and everything between.
• Gestalt language processing for echolalic and scripting communicators — stage-based modelling that supports natural language acquisition rather than suppressing it.
• Parent coaching — sessions for the adults in the room, focused on co-regulation, advocacy and communication-rich routines that fit a real Gold Coast family's actual day.
• School & NDIS support — reports, consults, classroom observations, IEP attendance, and reviews timed to your funding cycle.

NDIS on the Gold Coast

We are an NDIS-registered speech pathology provider working with self-managed, plan-managed, and agency-managed plans. The Gold Coast has the full range of plan management styles in play, and a real mix of LACs and planners, so we write reports plainly and tie every recommendation back to a clear functional goal and the appropriate line item. If you are coming up for a plan review, we work backwards from the meeting date so the report lands in time. If your circumstances have changed, we can write the supporting evidence for a change-of-circumstance review.

For AAC specifically, we run the trial, write the assistive technology assessment, and recommend the device with reasoning a planner can follow. We do this enough that we know which devices, mounts and accessories typically sit inside a reasonable AT budget and which need a stronger case made — see the AAC funding guide for the longer version. More on how NDIS works at Speech Sprout.

In-clinic at Burleigh Heads, or telehealth

In-clinic sessions are 45 minutes at our Burleigh Heads space — calm, sensory- aware, with movement and break options built in. Easy parking, kid-friendly waiting area, and we don't expect "good sitting". Families who live further south (Coolangatta, Tweed) or further north (Helensvale, Hope Island) often prefer the flexibility of telehealth, especially once we know the communicator. Telehealth works genuinely well for most of what we do, with very few exceptions — our telehealth page covers when it suits and when in-person is the better call.

Working with Gold Coast schools and other clinicians

We do a lot of cross-team work with local schools — public, Catholic, and independent — including classroom observations (in-person on the southern Gold Coast, or via Zoom with a teacher liaison anywhere on the coast), teacher and SLSO consults, and attending IEP meetings. We coordinate with OTs, psychologists, paediatricians and dietitians across the coast, and we aim to be the easiest person on the team to work with.

If your communicator has a Gold Coast paediatrician, a Brisbane developmental paediatrician, an NDIS plan written by a Queensland-based LAC, and a school in another LGA — that is a normal Tuesday for us. We translate between the worlds.

Suburbs we regularly see clients from

Most of our Gold Coast caseload lives in one of these areas. For the suburbs we work with most, we've written specific notes on logistics, schools and how families typically mix in-clinic, telehealth and home visits:

• Burleigh Heads — our home clinic
• Robina — clinic, telehealth and home visits
• Southport — telehealth-led
• Coomera and the northern corridor

And the broader catchment we regularly see families from:

• Burleigh Heads
• Palm Beach
• Miami
• Mermaid Beach
• Broadbeach
• Robina
• Varsity Lakes
• Reedy Creek
• Currumbin
• Tugun
• Bilinga
• Coolangatta
• Tweed Heads
• Elanora
• Mudgeeraba
• Worongary
• Helensvale
• Coomera
• Hope Island
• Surfers Paradise
• Southport
• Labrador
• Ashmore
• Nerang

If you are further north (e.g. Logan, Brisbane south) telehealth is usually the right path. If you are in the Northern Rivers (Murwillumbah, Byron, Lismore) we see plenty of families from there too — telehealth for ongoing sessions, with the option of in-clinic when it makes sense.

What the first step looks like

Almost everyone starts with a free 15-minute call. It is on Zoom, no commitment, and the only goal is for us to listen — to what is happening, what has already been tried, what is working, what isn't, and what you are hoping for. If we are a good fit we book an initial session; if we are not, we tell you who on the Gold Coast might be a better match.

From the initial session we work out the right cadence (usually weekly or fortnightly to start), the right balance of in-clinic and telehealth, and what the family supports look like alongside direct therapy. There is no minimum contract and no upfront block — we run on what is actually useful, week to week.