Hello Friend

Alana Frederick

Founder & Speech Pathologist

Alana is a qualified Speech Pathologist and a practicing member of Speech Pathology Australia, completing her Bachelor of Speech Pathology through the University of Queensland in 2013. She has worked as a Speech Pathologist in Private Practice for 10 years, with the past 8 of those being based in Ipswich and its surrounds.

Alana loves working with paediatric clients and has participated in many workshops and seminars to broaden her knowledge to best support early speech, language and literacy development. Alana completed a Masters of Autism Studies through Griffith University in 2018 to gain a better understanding of how to support children with an Autism diagnosis. She also completed Intermediate level training with Key Word Sign Australia in 2024, to allow her to teach sign as an additional resource for communication development.

In 2022, Alana was given the opportunity to complete a Certificate IV in Entrepreneurship and New Business through Ipswich City Council, to provide her with the business skills needed to create Hello Friend Speech Pathology. She is a member of many local business networks including My Local Health and the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce, to stay informed of local growth and need.

Hello Friend's Story

Hello Friend Speech Pathology was founded in 2022, with the aim to provide group sessions and workshops in the community to make speech pathology support more accessible.

As a Mum to 2 beautiful children, Lucy (4) & Liam (2), Alana has had the opportunity to get out into the community and participate in many of the activities on offer in Ipswich, Springfield and their surrounds. Whilst attending these activities, Alana met many families who reported a lack of information about communication milestones and development which sparked the idea for Hello Friend Speech Pathology.

With long waiting lists for speech pathology services, an opportunity arose to bring speech pathology knowledge into the community, to help families to feel reassured and confident in supporting their child's communication development. Hello Friend Speech Pathology is currently running speech pathology group sessions in Ipswich to support early speech, language and literacy development as well as baby sign. Hello Friend Speech Pathology also offers screening and comprehensive assessment sessions to those seeking more information and parent workshops and staff training to provide information to the community. With future expansion set to create resources to support development at home, Hello Friend Speech Pathology is striving to ensure speech pathology support is available to the children in our community.