Grace is a paediatric speech pathologist with 10 years experience working across the education, not-for-profit and private sectors. As one of the owners of the Small Sprouts Therapy, she is deeply passionate about providing evidence-based, family-centred therapy to children and their families across Cairns and surrounding communities.
Grace is committed to supporting the broader community through program development and professional collaboration, including initiatives such as Kindy Uplift. She values strong partnerships with families, educators and other health professionals, and enjoys networking and working within multidisciplinary teams to achieve meaningful, practical outcomes for children.
Grace is also passionate about supporting early-career therapists to develop their clinical skills, confidence and professional identity.
Grace’s clinical interests include paediatric feeding, late talkers, and assessment, prescription and implementation of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). She has a particular interest in working with children with physical disabilities, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to identify practical communication solutions.
Grace has completed extensive professional development, including:
Key Word Sign
The Hanen Centre's It Takes Two to Talk Program
Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Feeding Approach
Feeding Therapy Australia's Responsive Feeding Approach
Sounds-Write Literacy Intervention
Parents As Teachers Program
Learn to Play Therapy
She has also attended national and international conferences, including the AGOSCI Conference (2017) and the ISAAC Conference (2018). Grace has experience prescribing a range of high tech and low tech AAC systems, including switch activated and eye-gaze technology.
Outside of work, Grace is raising a young family in Cairns and enjoys spending time with her cats, baking, reading, and needlework.