Spelfabet

The Speech Pathologists at Spelfabet in North Fitzroy work with school-aged children, teenagers and adults with language-based learning difficulties. Many of our clients have additional diagnoses, and we can work with self-managed or agency-managed NDIS clients.

Most clients attend individual sessions, but we try to pair up or group clients with similar ages, skills and needs when this can make sessions more fun, and more affordable for parents.

At our first, 75 minute appointment, we usually assess phonological processing, word-level reading and spelling with standardised tests, provide feedback, answer questions, then send a report with recommendations after the session. We can also assess speech sounds, oral language and other communication skills, and provide hearing screening.

We have a large range of phonemic awareness, reading and spelling/writing intervention resources, as well as more generalist speech, language and pragmatics resources. We tackle decoding/spelling difficulties using a linguistic/synthetic phonics approach, introducing work on word-building with prefixes and suffixes early. All staff are trained in the Sounds-Write phonics program, and training in the evidence-based SRSD writing approach in 2025. Intervention is tailored to individual clients.

Our therapy sessions can be 40, 50 or 60 minutes long, depending on the age, ability and needs of the client. Parents/carers are asked to usually attend sessions, so they can support regular (10-20 minutes 4 or 5 times a week) therapy practice at home. We provide all necessary homework resources, including specialist decodable and/or hi-lo books.

Appointments with us must be booked in advance. You can use our Make A Referral form to request an appointment, or ring (03) 8528 0138 or 0434 902 249. Leave us a message if we’re not able to answer straight away. Sessions outside school hours have longer wait times due to high demand. New clients are usually offered appointments during school hours, and then shift to higher-demand time-slots as these become available.

You don’t need a doctor’s referral to work with us, but GP team care (EPC/CDM) referrals and Paediatricians’ Complex Neurodevelopmental disorders and eligible disabilities referrals attract Medicare rebates for individual (but not group) sessions. Private health insurance rebates may also be available.

Address: Suite 3, 430 Rae St, North Fitzroy, 3068, Victoria, Australia.

Rae St runs parallel to and between Brunswick St/St Georges Rd and Nicholson Sts. Our office is between Scotchmer and Park Sts, not far from North Fitzroy Village/Piedimonte’s supermarket. Our building is large and terracotta/pink in colour, and we’re in the left rear office if arriving from the building front.

Opening hours: Therapists offer appointments between 8.00am and 7.00pm weekdays and 9.00am and 5.00pm on Saturdays, and our reception is staffed Monday to Thursday.

Accessibility: Our office is on the ground floor with no steps. There is a wheelchair-accessible toilet in the foyer.

Transport: One hour parking is usually available in Rae St. during the day.

Our office is 300m or 4 minutes’ walk from the number 96 tram line (Nicholson St), and 400m or 6 minutes’ walk from the number 11 tram line (St Georges Rd). It is 1.3km or 16 minutes’ walk from Rushall railway station.

The 504 Clifton Hill to Moonee Ponds bus stops 300m or 5 minutes’ walk to the south, and the 250 CBD to La Trobe University and 251 CBD to Northland SC buses both stop 550m or 7 minutes’ walk to the north-east.

The building is also 200m south of the Capital City Trail, which makes it highly accessible by bike. We have installed three bike hoops at the Rae St entrance of our building.

ABN 35 651 652 229