Inclusive Communication has been providing speech-language therapy, AAC (alternative and augmentative communication for people who can't rely on speech to meet their daily needs), and autism support in Wellington, Porirua, the Hutt Valley and Kāpiti since 2014.

We also specialise in providing training and professional development for education teams, including teaching assistants, who are keen to take the next step in supporting tamariki with language, communication, and literacy challenges. We also have years of experience in helping nuerotypical people better understand the lived experience and needs of neurodivergent children and adults.

How we work

Our services typically incorporate family, friends, siblings, teachers and co-workers to ensure that everyone feels comfortable communicating with and supporting people who have speech and language challenges, however at the heart of our service are the needs and wishes of the person experiencing communication challenges.

• We are patient and family-centred
• We are evidence-based
• We support the neurodiversity movement
• We come to your home, school, or other location that meets your needs

Our expertise

We specialise in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), Autism, neurodiversity, literacy development, and language disorders. Many of our clients are able to vocalize or speak some words, however at Inclusive Communication the ability to speak is not a prerequisite for speech-language therapy.

We also support people with strong verbal skills who are finding social interactions or high level language skills difficult. This often comes into play when people are finding it difficult to access other services due to communication challenges.

Who we help

We support people of all ages with cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disabilities and other conditions impacting on language, literacy and/or speech.

We also work with families with very young children who have speech and language disorders and delays. We specialise in supporting families who are wondering if their child might have autism or might need AAC.

Availability

We are currently running an active waitlist and offer single consultation appointments to people on the waitlist when we get cancellations. We are hoping to offer regular services to everyone on the waitlist by the middle of term 2 as our new staff build up their caseloads.

School PLD

Check for the next deadline for regionally funded PLD from the Ministry of Education

We offer custom professional development for school teams regarding:

• Behaviour and communication
• Autism, ADHD, and nuerodiversity
• Implementing AAC in the classroom
• Supporting students with more subtle language and literacy challenges
• Supporting language and literacy teaching for students who have limited speech

Services:

Individual speech-language therapy

We do assessments, consultations, and individual therapy sessions.

CAT 1 - assisitve technology assessments

We are able to provide privately-funded assessments for AAC (Augmentative and Alternative communication). If an appropriate solution is found, we can submit CAT-1 level funding applications to Enable (Ministry of Health) for publicly funded equipment.

Alternatively, you can self-refer to TalkLink for a publicly funded assessment for a publicly funded assessment (there is a wait).

Professional Development for schools, preschools, playcentres, kindergartens, and early childhood centres

In addition to the Ministry of Education's PLD facilitator scheme, we also do custom trainings for education settings.

Mental health

We collaborate with mental health professionals around supporting the language and communication needs of teenagers and adults with autism, language disorders and other communication needs.

All are welcome to contact us to see if our expertise could assist with your unique situation.