Tessa Barnett
B Sp Thy, CPSP
About Tessa
Tessa has over 25 years of experience as a speech pathologist, working and advocating for children with speech, language, and literacy challenges. She rejoined Speechcare in 2025, having worked at the old clinic from 2009-2016.
Tessa has a bachelor of speech therapy and was also a research scholar at the University of Queensland. Her research focused on literacy intervention, giving her an in-depth understanding of how literacy is taught in schools and how to help children who experience challenges in learning to read, spell, and use their language to comprehend and compose written work.
Tessa is passionate about sharing her knowledge and approach with undergraduate students. She has provided professional education in schools, preschools, and telehealth. Tessa offers a warm, supportive space and validates a child’s experiences of learning in busy, fast-paced classrooms, and how that impacts the child, and the family.
Tessa is committed to providing evidence- based intervention plans with therapy sessions that accommodate a child’s sensory needs and interests. She loves to have fun in her sessions and involve parents.
Special Interest Areas & Training
- Pre-literacy and literacy development for primary school students
- Oral language development
- Reading comprehension and written expression for primary and high school students
- Speech sound development and motor speech disorders
- Play based therapy for young children
Professional Skills & Training:
- Researcher (Ph. D.) into literacy screening, detection and intervention for the early years of school
- Literacy program developer and publisher – University of Queensland Phonological Awareness for Literacy (PAL) and Early Literacy Fundamentals (ELF).
- Teaching assistant Speech Sound Disorder (University of Queensland)
- Research coordinator ‘Collaboration between speech pathologists and classroom teachers to support children with communication needs’
- InitialLit Certificate (P-2 Literacy instruction)
- MiniLit Sage Certificate (small group literacy intervention)
- LanguageLift Certificate (small group language intervention)
- Lidcombe stuttering program
Recent Conference Attendance:
- Yellow Ladybug Conference (Neurodiversity and girls)
- Workshops: Neurodiversity and Anxiety, Neurodiversity and Positive Identity, and Neurodiversity and Executive Functioning.
- DSF (Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation) Language, Literacy & Learning Conference
- International Developmental Language Disorder Research Conference
- Learning Difficulties Australia Conference
- Preschool Autism Summitt
Tessa has a long history of working collaboratively with Occupational Therapists to support children with their communication and literacy development. She is always aware of a child’s sensory needs and executive functioning in her therapy sessions and is passionate about using a strengths and interest- based approach. Tessa is a mother of two teenage children, and she brings her experience of modern family life and schooling to listen, support and collaborate with parents.
