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2015 ANNUAL REPORT Speech Pathology Australia
Speech Pathology Week
Speech Pathology Week seeks to promote the speech
pathology profession and the work done by speech
pathologists for people with communication and swallowing
disorders. The theme for Speech Pathology Week in 2015 was
Talk With Me
.
The
Talk With Me
theme in 2015 was to allow Association
members and the State Branches the opportunity to promote
all the different aspects of the speech pathology profession,
the work that the profession does, and the various settings in
which the work is undertaken.
For the first time, the Association conducted a national
postcard campaign to specifically promote awareness of
Speech Pathology Week and the speech pathology profession
more generally. The nationwide campaign involved the
distribution of around 140,000 postcards across 1500 venues
in all states and territories. The postcards were on display
throughout the month of August, which included the formal
Speech Pathology Week.
Speech Pathology
Australia National
President Gaenor
Dixon, Kylie Webb
(speech pathologist,
SLQ), authors Nicki
Greenberg, Stephen
Michael King, Lisa
Shanahan, Ross
Duncan (SLQ), Gregg
Dreise (at back),
Speech Pathology
Australia CEO Gail
Mulcair, and Dan
Georgeson (SLQ).
Book of the Year
The Book of the Year Awards were an outstanding success in
2015, with the awards ceremony hosted for the first time by
the State Library of Queensland. In its twelfth year, the awards
were proudly supported by Let’s Read, a national early literacy
initiative that promotes reading with children from birth. Let’s
Read was developed by the Centre for Community Child Health
at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and The
Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.
Five deserving books were awarded for their contribution to
language and literacy development.
Birth to 3 years:
Snail and Turtle and Friends
by Stephen
Michael King
Three to 5 years:
Teddy Took the Train
by Nicki Greenberg
Five to 8 years:
Big Pet Day
by Lisa Shanahan (Illustrations by
Gus Gordon)
Eight to 10 years:
Plenty – A Place to Call Home
by Ananda
Braxton-Smith
Indigenous children
:
Silly Birds
by Gregg Dreise (Illustrations
by Gregg Dreise).
Best Start with the State Library of Queensland
‘Best Start’ is a universal early intervention family literacy
program led by the State Library of Queensland, aimed at
supporting stronger language and literacy environments for
young children in Queensland from 0-5 years. The program is
delivered in partnership with public libraries to directly support
parents and primary caregivers as the child’s first and most
important teacher.
Kylie Webb, speech pathologist and Association member, was
seconded by the State Library of Queensland to consult on the
‘Best Start’ initiative.
Arising from this initiative was the development and release
of the ‘First 5 Forever’ toolkit for parents, which included the
Association’s Book of the Year 2014 winner in the Birth to 3
Years category –
I am a Dirty Dinosaur
. The Association has
endorsed the toolkit and related resources. As part of this, the
Association’s logo appears on the collateral in the toolkit.