Speech Pathology Australia National Conference

The Speech Pathology Australia National Conference was held in Melbourne this year.

Mr Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services opened the conference, and suggested that speech pathologists are "civil rights actors" (I completely agree!). I was invited by SPA to discuss our research into the prevalence and impact of childhood communication impairment with Mr Shorten at the end of the conference.

During the conference I co-presented the following studies:

• The Sound Effects Study: A four-phased study examining speech impairment in a community-based sample of 4- to 5-year olds
• The Sound Effects Study: Speech impairment in early childhood ascertained by direct assessment, speech pathologist, teacher, parent, and child report
• The Sound Effects Study: Speech impairment in Indigenous and non Indigenous Australian children and co-occurrence with difficulties with language, hearing, oro-motor, and pre-literacy. 
• The Sound Effects Study: The experience and impact of speech impairment in early childhood
• The Sound Effects Study: Access to and participation in speech pathology services for children with speech impairment
• Evidence-based intervention for children with speech sound disorders (Baker & McLeod)
• Nonword repetition: A systematic review of purposes, populations, languages and variables (Crowe, McLeod & Ching)

Speech Pathology Australia and Charles Sturt University promoted the Sound Effects Study through their media releases. We were interviewed on a number of radio stations and our work was reported in online newspapers as a result.

 Dr. Gregg Lof from MIH, Boston was a keynote speaker. It was a great honour to have Gregg in Australia and for Australian speech pathologists to hear his dynamic presentations.