Finding a Speech Pathologist Who Actually Listened

Our six-year-old son Luca has autism and a severe speech delay. For months we cycled through providers who treated him like a checklist. We were about to give up when we found a speech pathologist through a recommendation in a local NDIS parent group. She took the time to build rapport with Luca before ever introducing therapy tasks, and she trained us to support his communication at home. Within four months Luca was using two-word phrases. The lesson we learned: the right provider isn't always the closest or the first available — it's the one who sees your child as a whole person.