A $74.9m MBS expansion boosts access to speech pathology and helps strengthen early identification of children at risk of persistent disorders.
A major expansion of the Medicare Benefits Schedule that takes effect next week will reshape how health professionals manage severe speech and language disorders in children and young people.
Under the new plan, from 1 March, up to 20 rebated treatment sessions and eight assessment sessions will be available with a range of allied health professionals, including speech pathologists, for eligible patients under the age of 25 years.
Backed by a $74.9 million investment from the Australian government, the reform is expected to support more than 385,000 young Australians with conditions including stuttering, speech sound disorders, and cleft lip and palate.
These patients are currently limited to five allied health sessions annually under chronic disease management items.
Referrals for the new MBS items can be made by a GP, specialist or consultant physician, enabling eligible patients to access assessment and therapy from speech pathologists and other allied health professionals.
Federal health minister Mark Butler said the change would ensure more children and young adults could access affordable, life-changing care during critical developmental windows.
“This investment will mean more kids and young adults can get the best start to life with access to affordable speech pathology services,” he said.
“Speech pathology can be life changing. Through this investment we are building brighter futures for Australian kids and young adults.
Kathryn McKinley, national president of Speech Pathology Australia, said the reform would improve equity and reduce financial pressure on families.
Speaking with Mr Butler in the launch of the new items at a press conference in South Australia today, Ms McKinley said the announcement was a “:major step forward in improving early access to evidence-based speech pathology care”.
“Speech pathologists work every day with children and young people experiencing these conditions,” she said.
“We see their strengths, their potential, and at times, their frustration. Now Medicare eligibility focuses on an expanded range of conditions seen in clinical practice.
“This means children will have clearer pathways to care. It also means families will have greater certainty.
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“We know that early and consistent intervention makes a difference. Communication underpins learning, social connection, emotional wellbeing, and opportunity. When children can express themselves, they are better able to engage at school, build friendships, and participate fully in their communities.
“That is the impact of speech pathology, and that is why increased access matters so deeply.”
She said Speech Pathology Australia has worked closely with the department and stakeholders over several years to provide the clinical advice supporting this change.
The expanded items are particularly significant for children born with cleft conditions, who often undergo surgery early in life and require intensive, ongoing speech therapy.
According to the Australasian Cleft Lip and Palate Association, around one in 800 babies in Australia – about 375 each year – is born with a cleft lip or palate. The new MBS services sit alongside existing Commonwealth programs supporting major dental and craniofacial treatment.
For speech pathologists and referrers, the funding boost landed alongside the release of a new tool by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute which has been designed to identify which children are most at risk of persistent speech disorder.
In a large observational study led by the MCRI and published this month in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, researchers assessed 1179 children aged two to 12 years across Victoria and NSW using a picture-naming task administered by trained speech and language therapists.
The findings confirmed that developmental speech errors are common and highly variable up to six years of age. By age seven, 90% of children could correctly produce all speech sounds, with only minor differences observed between eight and 12 years.
Crucially, while some sounds were being acquired more slowly than 20 years ago, and some common errors are taking longer to resolve, there was no evidence that children’s speech has become more disordered.
Instead, the study identified specific red flags for disordered speech errors occurring in fewer than 10% of children, including vowel distortions, sound transpositions such as “efelant” for elephant, and cluster substitutions such as “glack” for black.
Lead researcher Professor Angela Morgan said that despite speech disorders being an increasing challenge for paediatricians, there was limited evidence to guide detection and referrals for those at risk of persistent problems.
“The lack of research forces a trial-and-error approach, which can result in critical resources being wrongly directed,” she said.
“This is compounded by the absence of any official English speech data being published for over two decades. New data is also needed to find out how new technologies, like phones and devices, are changing children’s speech.”
The newly developed assessment tool benchmarks children against age peers and identifies those performing at the lowest end of the distribution, supporting more targeted referrals.
MCRI postdoctoral research fellow and co-researcher Dr Daisy Shepherd said the tool aimed to help reduce unnecessary treatment for speech patterns likely to resolve naturally, while fast-tracking children with true red flags for early intervention.
“We found lots of young children can struggle to pick up speech correctly, which may explain why so many families seek support for speech development in the preschool years,” she said.
“Furthermore, our data suggests speech is mastered more slowly and common errors are taking longer to outgrow compared with previous generations.
“Our tool identifies the children experiencing the most difficulty within their age group using speech tasks and will support healthcare professionals to improve detection and referral for disordered speech errors.”
