This week over 1000 participants from 53 countries met in
Dublin for the 30th World Congress of IALP. The congress opened with a
fantastic session
including a presentation from Declan Murphy, a lecturer at NUI Galway who has
Down Syndrome. He explained “speech is my Everest” and stated that “I believe
that communication is a human right”. His speech was inspiring and received a
standing ovation. Declan’s speech was followed by Move4 Parkinson’s, a choir
made up of people with Parkinson’s disease, their friends and family. Their
rendition of
Roar again had people cheering on their feet.
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Declan Murphy presenting his inspiring opening address |
There has been an emphasis on the World Health Organization’s
initiatives, and I was invited to present the first of eight 30 minute papers
on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.
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Presenters in the WHO sessions on the ICF sponsored by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association |
Over the week, my students, colleagues and I have presented
the following papers:
McLeod, S. - Description of the ICF Framework. Invited
presentation.
McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & International Expert Panel on
Multilingual Children’s Speech - Recommendations for the assessment of
multilingual children’s speech.
McLeod, S., Baker, E., McCormack, J., Wren, Y., Roulstone,
S., Crowe, K. & Masso, S. - Sound Start Study: A community-based randomized
controlled trial of Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter.
Crowe, K., Cumming, T., McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Masso,
S., Baker, E., Wren, Y., Roulstone, S. - Sound Start Study: Early childhood
educators' experiences of implementing Phoneme Factory Sound Sorter.
Verdon, S., McLeod, S. & Wong, S. - Six Principles of
Culturally Competent Practice: Enhancing families’ engagement in speech and
language therapy.
Wylie , K., Hopf, S. C., McAllister, L., Marshall, J., Davidson,
B., McLeod, S., McDonagh, S., Amponsah, C., & Ohenewa Bampoe, J. - An
exploration of the diversity of self‐ help and help‐seeking practices for
communication disability in Ghana and Fiji.
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Sound Start Study team members, Yvonne Wren, Jane McCormack and Sharynne with Debbie Sell (UK) |