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About Us

Our Commitment to Professional Development and Empowering Children to Communicate with Confidence and Clarity

Outside The Box Therapy Services is a mobile speech therapy service that provides expert and high-quality speech therapy in a child’s home, childcare, pre-school, primary school or any other community setting across Canberra.

Janet Manning, is the owner and founder of Outside The Box Therapy Services, ACT. She graduated from Charles Sturt University, Albury-Wodonga in 2006 and has primarily worked in paediatrics throughout her career in both the public sector and private practice clinics and education settings in NSW, the UK and ACT.

Janet loves working with children and enjoys working across a range of areas such as communication, play, feeding and with children on the Autism Spectrum and with developmental disabilities.

Janet is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) and Member of Speech Pathology Australia.

Helping children Think Outside The Box and unlock their potential

Janet finds working with children, their families and educators so rewarding as she is able to work alongside and empower parents and educators to support children’s progress towards developing important communication, play and feeding skills whilst having fun!

Why choose a mobile therapy service?

Research suggests that therapy in an everyday environment such as home, childcare, pre-school or school can help with generalisation of a child’s goals as they can practice developing their skills in a naturalistic setting.

  • Therapy in a child’s preferred setting (e.g. home, school) ensures that the child is comfortable and can spend less time having to adapt to a new environment.
  • We are able to learn more about how your child engages in their home, childcare/pre-school and/or school setting which enables us to provide more accurate therapeutic recommendations to assist them in developing functional communication, play and/or feeding skills, relationships with family members and peers and independence within these environments.
  • We can show parents and educators, how to utilise toys or resources they already have at home or educational setting to assist with the child with their speech, language, play and/or feeding skills development. This will enable and empower people around the child to continue working with them after the session has ended and the therapist has left.
  • We are focused on creating a team-based approach to therapy, involving family, educators, teachers and other healthcare professionals such as Occupational Therapists, Paediatricians, on a regular basis to provide the best outcome for our clients. This team-based approach allows teachers, educators and support to participate in your child’s therapy by learning techniques to help your child progress faster.
  • There’s no travel time for families! Our therapists do it for you, so you don’t have worry about rearranging your schedule if you work, leaving on time to get to an appointment, or juggling care for your other children.

Skills and Qualifications

Communication and play skills

  • AAC Evidenced based practice: Communication for the 21st Century (Jane Farrell, 2021)
  • Introduction to comprehensive literacy instruction for children with complex communication needs (Jane Farrell, 2021)
  • Key Worker Course (Noah’s Ark, 2020)
  • Learn To Play Workshop (Dr. Karen Stagnitti, 2018)
  • Group Delivery of the Lidcombe Therapy (Simone Arnott, 2017)
  • Introduction to DIR Floortime 101- short course (2015)
  • Emergent Literacy: What can Speech Pathologists do to help preschool-aged children, their families and their preschools? (Dr Roslyn Neilson, 2013)
  • There’s A Traffic Jam In My Brain (Gen Jereb, 2013)
  • Basic Key Word Sign Workshop (Key Word Sign Australia, 2012)
  • The Hanen Program® - It Takes Two To Talk™ (2011)
  • The Hanen Program® - More Than Words™ (2011)

Feeding

  • Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) Approach to Feeding (Dr. Kay Toomey, 2018)
  • Paediatric Feeding and Swallowing Education (PFASE) online course (2018)
  • Effectively Managing Feeding Difficulties in Infants and Children: A practical approach (Sarah Starr, 2007)