Impact

Our initiative

Speechie is a social enterprise, and we value giving back to the community through our Communication Currency for Kids Initiative which supports our initial appointment subsidy and free 4-year old communication screening programme. Our impact as at 18 October 2023:
Speechie  ​
$ Investment
Appointments
​Subsidised

​Initial appointment subsidy
We recognise that cost can be a barrier to accessing an appropriate level of service for many families and therefore offer a front-end subsidy to make the opportunity to discuss their concerns with a registered Speech-Language Therapist more accessible. Eligible families pay $40+ gst for their initial appointment. Eligibility for this subsidy is automatically assessed when families book now. This is a high-trust subsidy intended for families who do not have access to any outside funding to cover the cost of speech-language therapy at the time of their initial appointment AND whose children fall into the following vulnerability categories: 

  • Very young children (under 5)
  • Maori and Pasifika  children
  • Children living in a sole-parent family
  • Children living in (severe and persistent) poverty ​
 
Free 4-year old communication screening
We believe there is a duty of care to actively seek and find children with at-risk speech and language development, because a child's oral language at school entry is the greatest predictor of their success at school and in adulthood, and because early identification and early intervention lead to better outcomes for children with Developmental Communication Disorders.  

We advocate that the best way to identify children at risk of Communication Disorders is through systematic, comprehensive communication screening using a standardised test specifically designed to identify these children. So, we are getting ready to launch a free, before school communication screening programme for children in the Palmerston North City Council area - watch this space! 


​Acknowledging our Te Tiriti O Waitangi obligations and shortcomings

​We acknowledge that the speech-language therapy profession has a long way to go to enable equity for Maori tamariki and whanau, for example: Currently there are insufficient Maori Speech-Language Therapists, there has been inadequate research into Maori speech and language development, and there is a lack of evidence-based, culturally appropriate Maori speech and language screening and assessment tools.  

Our next step in this space will be to reach out and begin actively relationship building and consulting with local iwi and whanau and with local Maori health and education services; to seek to understand what they would like speech-language therapy services for themselves and their tamariki to look like and to work toward the possibility of designing something together.

We can't wait for the collective effort to enable equitable access and equitable outcomes for ALL children / tamariki with Communication Disorders, and for there to be financial backing to fund critical Te Reo Maori research and offer scholarships for Maori speech-language therapy students to create that there are Maori assessment methods, Maori speech and language norms, and Maori Kaiwhakatikatika Reo Korero to work with Maori tamariki and their whanau!