Hello Rainbow

19/08/2025

The things you discover during rambling phone calls…
This beautiful book written and illustrated by a Hello Rainbow family dropped into the office today
“Some things can be counted. Others aren’t so easy to measure”.
Encouraging consideration of the big things, the things we can’t measure but that mean so much, is no easy task. We love love love this book and the thoughtfulness within.
We wish we were this talented.
How Big is the Sky is available to buy now 💕🌈

15/08/2025

A new face for the Hello Rainbow team means we're supporting more wonderful little people in our part of the world.
And check out those earrings!

06/08/2025

12 months (and a bit more) of this absolute gem. Our OT Kit never fails to raise a laugh in the office and we know families love her to bits (as do we).
Thank you Kit - you’ve brought so much to Hello Rainbow and we wouldn’t be the same without you. 🌈💜

17/07/2025

30/06/2025

🌈Therapy at home or school isn’t about convenience — it’s about access and equity.

🌈It’s about giving children the consistent, quality therapy they need and deserve.

Under the NDIS Pricing Arrangements due to come into effect on July 1st, allied health providers (like us) are facing serious viability issues.

A 50% cut in travel rates (as well as a price freeze for the 6th year in a row) means that we simply won’t be able to reach as many families.
It means that in some cases, we'll be forced to rethink how we continue to support the beautiful families that place their trust in the Hello Rainbow team.

We love what we do and we value our relationships with families & communities so highly. But we’re being asked to do more, for less, and it’s not sustainable.

23/06/2025

When we met Jo, we knew she had to be a part of the Hello Rainbow team. Having grown up with a large family, she still prefers to be at the kid's table. We look forward to introducing her to Hello Rainbow families and learning more about her obsession with UNO.

16/06/2025

We've been hearing wonderful things about Zoe for a couple of years, and have been quietly encouraging her over to the rainbow side...
We're so excited that she's taken the leap to join us!🌈

11/06/2025

Introducing Chonk, the newest part time member of the Hello Rainbow family
Forget it. We’re not getting any work done from here on out.

02/06/2025

Play-based speech therapy is more than ‘just playing!’

It’s backed by research as a way to effectively support children to develop their communication skills, especially neurodivergent learners.

Children need to play to connect, communicate and learn – it’s basically their main job! Implementing specific therapy strategies into a child’s favourite game or play activity creates a wonderful opportunity to combine fun with learning, and help them achieve their communication goals.

By playing a simple game like Pop Up Pirate (an absolute classic - and a hit with kids of all different ages) we can target skills like turn-taking, requesting, following directions, building functional vocabulary and even navigating big emotions like anticipation, surprise or disappointment. It’s natural, so much fun and a powerful way to learn new skills.

This is a hugely important aspect of the role of your child’s speech therapist - we'd love to chat to you about it at your next appointment!

02/06/2025

The Hello Rainbow office will be temporarily changing our administration hours while we look after some family logistics. We’ll be available between 10am and 4pm on the phones. If you need us outside these hours, please send us an email admin@hellorainbow.com.au or leave us a voicemail. Both will be checked regularly for any urgent enquiries. Thanks for your patience and understanding and we’ll be back to regular hours soon!

28/05/2025

So the Hello Rainbow office needed some more colour!
Our very own Em came up with the goods, all while entertaining us with her musical selections.
Thanks for such a fun day, on to the next wall!

23/05/2025

🌈AAC will NOT stop your child from speaking 🌈

This is a common worry from families when AAC makes an appearance in speech therapy. And it is a totally logical conclusion to draw when all you know is there is a device or board or cards being suggested by a professional which seem like they are there to replace spoken words for your child.

Research indicates that AAC can actually encourage speech (𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳, 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, & 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘳, 2006; 𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘳. & 𝘞𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘵, 2008).

𝗔𝗔𝗖 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 f𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 & 𝗔𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

That means it is there for 2 basic purposes;
1 is to ADD to the communication used by the person and the other is to provide another way to communicate using a shared language beyond speech. So, if your child’s speech is unclear or they communicate using signals that only their closest people can understand, AAC can:
1. Provide an immediate means of communication
2. Reduce frustration when your child knows what they want to say but cannot
access the speech skills to say it
3. Provides more opportunities to explore language and vocabulary
4. Provides more models of speech for your child to imitate

We have a bunch of resources available around AAC (check out some links in the comments below), so please don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like more information or need support!