EdLiveWire
Speech Pathology Report
Reflecting Connections
A report from the joint Speech Pathology Australia and NZSTA conference.
Shane Thompson, ACER’s WA education consultant recently attended the Reflecting Connections Conference, a joint conference organised by Speech Pathology Australia and NZSTA in Auckland. Over four days, from 25th-29th May, 400 Speech Pathologists from Australia and New Zealand came together to reflect on current practice whilst listening to keynote presentations and stimulating papers on latest research.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Pamela Snow, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Psychological Medicine at Monash University. Her research interests cover various aspects of risk in childhood and adolescence, in particular the oral language skills of juvenile offenders. Dr. Snow also works in the area of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation and she has been involved in many studies investigating communication skills post-traumatic brain injury.
Dr. Snow presented two keynote addresses, and one workshop. In her first keynote, Child Abuse and Neglect: is Speech-Language Pathology missing in action?, Dr Snow highlighted the significant connection between a consistent presence of adults who are trusting and caring in a child’s early years and the development of oral language competence. She also referred to the research linking child abuse and neglect to impoverished language development, thereby contributing later in life to a range of devastating and chronic negative outcomes. In light of this research she strongly advocated that Speech-Language Pathologists “have a strong role to play in promoting protective factors in lives of children who are at risk of abuse and /or neglect”.
The second plenary session by Dr Pamela Snow was entitled Oral language Competence in Childhood and Adolescence: The Missing link in Mental Health Promotion? This presentation focused on connections between education and health across the lifespan. A challenge was put forward to primary schools to:
(1) focus more on oral language competence in the early years, as a precursor to the transition to literacy; and
(2) to be more creative and resourceful in the management of boys with both learning and behaviour difficulties.
An assessment referred to by many guest presenters as being useful in the early assessment of oral language skills was the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL), available from ACER. This test is easily administered (30-45 minutes) and can be given to children as young as three years of age. ACER is also able to provide a wide range of practical resources to support the development of Oral Language in those vital early years. Take a look at http://www.acer.edu.au/speech for more resources.
The feedback from delegates visiting the ACER exhibition stand was that this conference addressed, in both a research based and practical way, strategies and practices that could be easily employed by Speech-Language Pathologists to make the connection between oral language competence and the promotion of health and well-being in children and adolescence.
Remember: Speech Pathology Week 24-30 August 2008 'Communication: More than just words’