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Diversity in practice
54 JCPSLP Volume 17, Number 1 2015 Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology
Top ten resources for
clinicians on the move or in
resource-poor settings
Lydelle Joseph
accessed app, however, is definitely Lego Juniors Create &
Cruise. Children choose parts to build vehicles to drive (or
fly, run, or jump) along a track to the finish line. During the
drive, they collect tokens that unlock more pieces for their
vehicles. When the race ends, they build an object
consisting of three to six pieces. For a number of the
children I see with autism spectrum disorder and for many
other children, Lego is highly motivating. For others,
accessing the iPad is the reward in itself. I consider this app
to be an excellent reward or motivator because it has a
clear beginning and end point, has stimulating content and
is simple to use. However, the app can also be used for
language development activities including requesting,
labelling, describing, and sequencing. Available on the
iTunes app store and free at the time of writing.
4 Laminator
My love of the laminator probably began in my childhood
when my dad took the well-worn, slightly torn money and
playing cards from some of my favourite board games into
his office and gave them a new lease on life by laminating
them. Game cards became easier to deal, easier to clean,
and much more durable. In my professional life, having
some of my assessment and therapy resources laminated
has saved them from flood damage, mould, hungry
rodents, and even the odd infuriated child. Laminating
pouches ranked right alongside Cadbury chocolates as
priorities for family and friends to bring over when visiting
me in Fiji or Vanuatu, where even photocopy paper and
toner for my host organisation typically came out of my
volunteer allowance. Here in Australia, I recommend to
many families using visuals to support communication that
they invest in their own laminator for home as well as a high
quality printer and digital camera.
From going door to door in a village, hours from the
nearest road to find children with disabilities, to
presenting the latest apps and accessibility features
of iOS8, my career has been an exercise in diversity. I’ve
worked with adults with complex communication needs,
in Early Intervention, private practice, schools for the Deaf
and children with hearing impairments, a specialist autism
service, and in several volunteer roles in Fiji and Vanuatu.
This Top Ten represents a wide range of the resources that
I have kept going back to. One thing that they all have in
common is that I have used them in many ways to achieve
goals that I am sure were never even dreamed of by the
original developers.
1 Listening Room resources
“Hearing Journey” is a forum for families and professionals
to discuss hearing loss and cochlear implants. “The
Listening Room” is an online resource full of language and
listening activities for people of all ages. Materials range
from songs to sing to infants during routines such as
dressing, mealtimes and getting ready for bed, to verbal
discrimination activities for adults. Though designed for the
context of deafness and hearing loss, I have used many of
the toddler resources as parent handouts for children with a
range of needs. The easy- to-understand language and
practical activities can be implemented by parents with
even the most limited resources. .
2 Guess Who?
The original form of this board game has been around for
years. More recently, simplified versions as well as themed
spinoffs such as Pixar-animated characters and “Ben 10”
have appeared on the market. Hasbro has even produced
a range of downloadable sheets for its most recent
evolution. I use several different versions for developing
deductive reasoning, asking and answering questions, turn
taking, picture description, and many other skills. The game
has even featured in work on pronouns. Like many of the
resources here, applications for Guess Who? are really only
limited by your imagination.
3 Lego Juniors Create & Cruise App
I use a wide range of apps in my intervention with children.
Some of them are very specialised and well designed by
experienced speech pathologists. My most frequently
Lydelle Joseph