Meg Engel's work has evolved dramatically since she completed her degree in 1998, and adaptability has served the speech pathologist well during COVID-19.
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Telehealth, something that Ms Engel only used occasionally prior to this year, is now the platform through which she sees 50 per cent of clients.
"Telehealth is really working for people who were travelling to me from Bright or Yarrawonga - they continued with it when they had the option to do face-to-face, because it reduced travel time," she said.
"I've been really lucky, because my clients are predominantly in Victoria.
"The border closure hasn't had a big impact, but I have had a few families in Wodonga who have decided that coming to see me is more important than going to Albury for the next little while, and it's tricky for them to have to choose."
Reflecting on Speechy Pathology Week, which runs until Saturday, Ms Engel said she loved the diversity of her job most.
"With the NDIS, I get to work with families on a longer-term basis," she said.
"I mostly work with kids on the autism spectrum.
"It's thinking about how their brains tick and how can I find their strengths and help them develop their skills through their strengths."
Just in the last week, Ms Engel has acted out play scripts from a Bluey episode, taught the social rules around giving high-fives, and helped build awareness of body signals of tightening and loosening hands, so a child could identify when they are angry.
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"I do some of that straight language work; I have a little person I work with who 18 months ago had two sounds he was able to say in eight words, and now he's speaking in 12-word sentences," she said.
"Yes it's about language, but it's also about interactions and relationships, which is really lovely.
"I really like being able to help parents and teachers understand how a child thinks and understands the world and what they need to do so they can support that person better."
Ms Engel, who runs her business from her Yackandandah home, said COVID-19 brought with it new challenges for young people.
"A lot of the work I do is helping kids make connections and interact," she said.
"At the moment, I've been doing quite a bit of work around reading facial expressions in people's eyes alone."
