Common Questions
We work with new team members to determine what works for them and how this aligns with what families need.
Some of our team start later and finish later, some work full-time hours over a 4 day a week with a 3 day weekend. If you have an “ideal week” in mind perhaps we can make it happen?
This is a question we are asked very often!
The answer often depends on your experience and skill set. We believe that your capacity to help more families is often linked to how confident you feel in your role. Therefore, we place a strong emphasis on supporting you so you feel equipped to support families as your skills grow. We also believe in clear communication that goes both ways. We’ll communicate our expectations clearly and support you to feel confident to communicate how you're feeling about your caseload. Having said all this, we have developed a career progression document that outlines ballpark figures for how many families you should feel comfortable helping each week based on your level of experience. This document is shared as part of the recruitment process so you'll always feel like this is clear.
This very much depends on your level of experience and how much you feel you need.
Typically a new graduate and early career Speech Pathologist meets with a Senior Speech Pathologist once a week in addition to a weekly team meeting. We have an open-door policy here (mainly because we have an open plan staff area ;-)) so there are many opportunities for ad hoc support and learning.
As your career at Kids Spot develops, there are opportunities for you to progress into a mentor role for new team members or host students as part of your role.
We are passionate about helping families and we believe the best way to do this is by ensuring that you can do your best work.
In order to do this, we believe ALL team members should constantly be evolving and learning, both personally and professionally. We host many in house professional development workshops and all team members receive a yearly professional development allowance towards courses that will further their skills in areas of interest and passion.
Kids Spot provide services to a range of preschools and schools in the suburbs surrounding Bondi Junction. This gives us a unique opportunity to support children and their educators as part of their educational journey. We can observe and support children whilst they are at school and also support their teaching team. Typically each team member will spend one day of their week providing outreach services. You'll receive support from our practice manager to coordinate this. All other days will be allocated to clinic-based sessions.
We are a play-based service that believes in relationships, connection and attachment. Regardless of the family you are supporting, your therapy will be anchored in this model. We support a range of families and their children with a range of needs including: speech, language, literacy, writing, socialisation, stuttering, ASD, developmental disorders/delays, Dyspraxia. Approximately half of our caseload are NDIS registered and this means the scope of your practice will be broad rather than specific to one area of need. This means you can develop a range of skills or hone an area that you are particularly interested in.
Of course! Part of your role in supporting a family is the documentation of this support. This is built into every appointment and counted as your "billable hours" for a family. In addition to this, all team members are allocated extra admin time to research how best to support families, work on passion projects, create resources and support others.
Who we are & Our Journey so far
Kids Spot has been around for over 20 years!
Julia Orsini
Julia, the Director purchased the business in 2013 after working with the then owner for 2 years. Julia had always dreamt of being a business owner and developing a unique play-based service for children and their families. The opportunity arose when Julia’s second son was only 10 weeks old (yes, you read right!).
Since 2013, Kids Spot has grown from 1 full-time speech pathologist to 5 and a Practice Manager. In 2016 Kids Spot joined forces with Active OT 4 Kids with the vision of providing multidisciplinary care for families. Kids Spot have not looked back and we are now proud to offer: in-clinic sessions, school and preschool based sessions, food camp, craft groups, joint therapy sessions and collaboration with Active OT 4 Kids in their unique “Camp Reset” to support children who have experienced traumas to connect back into themselves.
Whilst Julia is the Director and one of the mentors at Kids Spot, she loves working with families and has always aimed to grow the business in a way that will still allow her to work with families.
Suzie Riddell
Suzie joined the team at the very start of our journey in 2013 and has been integral in developing a solid relationship with many preschools in the area as well as Cranbrook Junior School. Suzie joined the team as a Speech Pathologist but her role grew into a Team Lead and Mentor as the team grew. Suzie went on maternity leave after having her first child, Edward in 2017 and then returned to work part-time until having her second child in 2020. We are excited to welcome Suzie back!
Trudy Smith
Trudy joined the team in 2015 and is one of our Senior Speech Pathologists providing weekly mentoring sessions. She also regularly hosts students from various universities. Since joining Kids Spot, Trudy has developed a passion for working with children with complex Autism Spectrum Disorder and feeding difficulties. She is also a trauma-informed therapist and her role includes consulting with Yudi Gunyi School school; a behaviour school for children with complex family situations. Trudy does this on a weekly basis alongside an Occupational Therapist from Active OT 4 Kids. Her passion for working within the trauma space also includes work alongside the team at Active OT 4 Kids as part of Camp Reset.
Natalie Love
Natalie joined the Kids Spot team in 2020 as a New Graduate Speech Pathologist. She works part-time whilst caring for her family. Natalie's passion within Speech Pathology includes working with complex Speech Sound Disorders, Stuttering and Late Talkers. She was integral in developing Craft Group with Natalie Shofer and has a passion for the development of new ways of providing therapy and support for families.
Lily Teoh
Lily joined the Kids Spot team in early 2021 after a period of working in private practice at another service provider. Her interests lie within school-age language, specifically pragmatics and social skills. She is also passionate about working with preschool-aged children and those with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Callum Benger
Callum is a warm and fun Speech Pathologist who is eager to understand all there is to know about a child and their abilities along the journey to help them to achieve their goals. He brings laughter and enthusiasm to all his sessions for a connected experience for all. Callum enjoys working with children of all ages with a range of communication challenges
Anna Parker
Anna is an engaging Speech Pathologist who is passionate about revealing the competence of every child she works with. She brings energy and compassion to all her sessions and strives to make therapy a joyful experience for both clients and their families. Anna enjoys working with children of all ages with a range of communication challenges
Jasmine Pang
Jasmine joined the Kids Spot team in 2020. Jasmine initially worked as a lawyer and after having a family, she decided she wanted to move into a space where she could provide care to others alongside her family. Jasmine's role as practice manager means she supports families along their journey with Kids Spot as well as providing administrative support to the team.
What we offer our Team
At Kids Spot, we value support, mentorship, collaboration and the development of your career within the business. Being a part of our team means you get:
- A structured induction program so you’ll never feel like you’re being thrown into the deep end in your new role.
- Clearly outlined:
- Career Progression outcomes
- Expectations for Utilisation and
- How your Professional Development will evolve as part of your role.
- Weekly mentoring sessions with a Senior Speech Pathologist.
- Fortnightly check-ins with the Director.
- The opportunity to develop your skills as a leader and mentor, either to fellow Team Members or through the supervision of Student Speech Pathologists.
- Weekly Speech Pathology team meetings.
- Allocated administration time for every family you support - this is built into the families appointment.
- In-house professional development in many areas such as: ASD, DIR Floortime, Specific Literacy Instruction, AAC, Time Management, Effective Report Writing,
- Counselling, Trauma-informed care, Sensory Integration, Feeding and much more.
- Quarterly strategic and development meetings where you can put your stamp on the bigger picture within the business. An opportunity to make a difference in the future of the company.
- Quarterly “cuddles”; here the team get together to connect, get to know each other and have some fun.
- The opportunity to collaborate together to develop new service delivery and group programs. Examples of some of these include: Craft Group, Food Camp and Science Group.
Why you'll love working with us
All our work with families, the team and the community are anchored in our core values.
We are:
- Playful with Purpose
- Kind and Empathetic
- Organised and Efficient
- Always Learning
Kids Spot are a smaller team than other Private Practices and we believe this is what makes us unique and truly special.
Our team consists of 5 Speech Pathologists and 1 Practice Manager. We are a close team who know one another well and this means we can always support one another to do our best work.
We are also a unique workplace because of the close and collaborative relationship we have with Active OT 4 Kids and their Occupational Therapists. Whilst Active OT 4 Kids is a separate private practice, we share more than just the care of the families we work with. Kids Spot and AOT share a clinic space, staff room, many core values, interests and ways of working. This means there are many “corridor conversations” about families and their needs as well as the opportunity to arrange more structured meetings to formally develop plans for working with our families.
How the process works
At Kids Spot we often do things a little differently. Rather than starting with a formal interview, we’d prefer to meet you face to face to get a sense of who you are as a person and what you're hoping to get out of a role as a Speech Pathologist on our team.
We know that formal interviews can be a nerve-wracking experience, so we always welcome Speech Pathologists to connect first, view the space, grab a cuppa and have an informal chat. This can also be a nice way of meeting the whole team without the pressure of a sweat-inducing interview. Of course, we’ll love hearing about your experience, knowledge and passion as a Speech Pathologist but we don't believe you need to feel nervous in order to share this with us.
The next step is a formal offer. This is where you get a clearer sense of the expectations within the role as well as specifics about what we offer and the salary.
Following this includes a formal induction period. This means you'll never feel like you're being thrown in the deep end as you'll have a clear idea of what is expected and clear guidelines for learning how we do things, where to find things and who to ask for help if you need.