Wonderful chat with SP2B

This morning I met Lucy Cannon, a "speech pathologist to be" (SP2B), while shopping in Ethik (my favourite store in Jervis Bay - https://ethik.com.au/). We had a great chat about the reason why she chose the course and her aspirations for the future. I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with Lucy.

Sharynne and Lucy

Meeting speech pathologists and students at the Aphasia Camp

One of the joys of attending the Aphasia Camp was meeting the students and speech pathologists who volunteered their time to support the people with aphasia. At the end of the camp each student was presented with a certificate by one of the participants. One participant's partner was so appreciative that they asked if they could "take the student home with them". 

Here are a few of the great people I met during the camp who have given permission for their photos to be on my blog.

Wanwan and May volunteered at the Aphasia Camp
and also gave me a tour of Griffith University

Naomi is a speech pathologist and also Erin Holliday's sister.
Erin was my honours student at CSU - so I am waving to Erin in this photo!

SLP2B 2020: Communicating with Confidence - 1,020 video views

This afternoon I received the following email. It was a priviledge to be invited as a keynote speaker.

As the SLP2B 2020: Communicating with Confidence comes to a close on the 17 September, the SPA Student Reps would like to thank you again for sharing your knowledge and expertise with all our members. The uptake of the inaugural online version of this event has exceeded our expectations. The valuable resources you contributed to have been well received by students and clinicians within Victoria as well as across Australia and the globe. The website has had over 1,143 visits and over 1,020 video views. Without your valuable contribution, this event would not have been possible. Thank you. 

Kindest regards Bridget, Bronte, Danielle, Kathleen, Maddison, Nicole, Wendy 

SPA Victorian Branch Student Representatives

The details of the conference are here: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2020/08/invited-presentations-at-slp2b-2020.html

Invited presentations at the SLP2B 2020 conference

This week the SLP2B 2020 Conference  is being run by the Speech Pathology Australia Student Association at LaTrobe University, Australian Catholic University, and Melbourne University. 

I was invited to be a keynote speaker (here.). First I was invited to prepare at 10 minute presentation. My topic was "Speaking up for communication rights at the United Nations" and the presentation is here.

Additionally, I was interviewed by Bridgett James and Danielle Vidoni who asked some fabulous questions on behalf of speech pathology students. Our interview is here. 

The students also invited other researchers (including A/Prof Jane McCormack, Prof Pamela Snow), speech pathologists and a consumer to provide their insights. It was great to see their initiative in transitioning from a face-to-face conference to an online conference. As a result it was available for many more speech pathology students than they had originally planned to reach. Congratulations to the organisers and best wishes to all of the SLP2Bs as they navigate an extremely unusual year of their studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that they will be more resiliant, creative and responsive as a result.

Bridgett James, Sharynne McLeod and Danielle Vidoni

Here is the description of the conference by Speech Pathology Australia

SLP2B 2020
SLP2B is back for another year but this year with a twist - we are going online! The Victorian Branch Student Reps have outdone themselves and thought innovatively to organise SLP2B 2020. Speech-Language Pathologist 2 Be is a student seminar organised by students, for students. The Victoria Branch SPA reps have been working hard to bring this event back against the odds (thanks a bunch 2020) and managed to organise a star lineup of speakers to share their wealth of knowledge with you. What’s even better is that you can access their expertise at your leisure! Speech Pathologists from different sectors will talk about their career pathways, and a consumer will share their personal SP therapy experiences. Because it's online this year, participants can access the event at their leisure from 17 August until 17 September. Please find details online.