About Us
Speech Pathology Services available 7:30 AM - 5 PM Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays
Available at your home, in-person, online, or mixed
Located in North Willoughby / Chatswood area
Phone & Text: 0426808924
Email: contact@barnettsasc.com.au
The Clinic
After over a decade of practice in multiple locations, Laura Barnett founded Barnett Speech & Swallow Clinic, which opened its metaphorical doors in early 2024. We treat people in their homes, online, or in-clinic. We’re based in North Willoughby, NSW, but serve people all over the country.
We strive to provide evidence-based, individualised services with warmth, knowledge, and professionalism in order to positively impact your functional ability and quality of life.
We welcome feedback and suggestions!
Our practice sees all people, adults and children with many different diagnoses and complexities. We take NDIS participants, Medicare patients, and self-funded patients, as well as seeing patients in residential homes.
We even support other Speech Pathologists through supervision and mentorship. Please reach out!
o Laura Barnett, Founder and Principle Speech Pathologist
Laura was born in the USA, a short drive from Disney World in sunny Central Florida (think gators, tennis, and space shuttles). Daughter of a physical therapist and a veterinarian, she was surrounded by their compassion for people and animals throughout her childhood, seeing the beauty of the fruition of time, effort, and care--healing.
In 2019, Laura moved to beautiful Australia with her now-husband and has built a life here with 2 wonderful, silly children. She enjoys soccer, needlework, knitting, going to local markets, and exploring her beloved new country. Although on weekends, you might find her nerding-out with extra professional development courses relevant to her current caseload.
As a child, getting treatment for a stutter exposed Laura to the world of Speech Therapy. Having a combination of ADHD and demanding expectations placed upon her taught her to think flexibly and creatively in order to develop strategies to succeed in her own way. However, it wasn’t until seeing a team of inspiring professionals rehabilitate her cousin after a serious brain injury that she decided to go into healthcare herself.
Laura graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders at University of Central Florida, then went on to graduate with a Master’s Degree in Speech Pathology--rotations throughout increasing her interest in the medical side of the field. Shortly thereafter, she completed a nine-month Speech Pathology Fellowship.
Starting out in hospitals and brain rehabilitation centres under excellent supervision allowed her to have significant experience in swallowing disorders (dysphagia), cognitive-communication (memory, attention, executive functions, etc.), dementia care, and speech disorders (dysarthria), to name a few.
Using her knowledge of the brain and oral function, she expanded into working with children including speech, language, feeding and swallowing disorders.
Her own experience with ADHD gives her special understanding and concern for neurodivergent children, so she incorporates cognitive-communication concepts into all of her therapy, and uses neuro-affirming social skills practices. Being neurodivergent has been both a challenge and a blessing, but she feels that it doesn’t need to stop any child from succeeding.
Her own son had tongue tie, so she feels passionately ensuring feeding, swallowing, and speech disorders clients have thorough oral exams by people who understand the implication of anatomy on function and sensory development.
In addition to being certified to practice in both Australia and the USA, which requires rigorous standards and annual professional development, she has obtained additional training in the following:
- PROMPT: A touch-based speech training system that has excellent research behind it
- NMES Vital-Stim: VitalStim Therapy is an effective treatment modality that is a form on non-invasive Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) for patients suffering from difficulty in feeding and swallowing/dysphagia
- MBSS: A Modified Barium Swallow Study (MBSS) is an objective radiological diagnostic tool that assesses swallow function, considered the Gold Standard in evaluating oropharyngeal dysphagia, evaluates all phases (oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal) of the swallow using various consistencies (liquids, puree, solids) in real-time.
- Cleft-Palate, brain injury, AAC, and more
When it comes to therapy with adults or paediatrics, Laura will ensure the clinic uses evidence-based practices, incorporates fun in the sessions, tailors therapy to meet individual needs, strives always to meet goals, supports our staff and clients, and treats everyone with warmth, honesty, and respect.
Thank you kindly for reading.