Speak Out August 2016 Low Res

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August 2016 Speak Out 37
Victoria
VIC 1812
Members
as at June 2016
Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to attend the Speech Pathology Australia
National Conference in Perth, WA. It may seem unlikely that sitting in a room listening to
people speak for three days could be enjoyable, but therein lies the incredible power of
communication. The Conference was nothing short of inspiring as I heard about cutting
edge research from internationally renowned researchers and participated in workshops that
showed me new ways of thinking and practising. The keynote speakers were particularly
engaging. Pam Enderby provided an entertaining, yet logical, approach to speech pathology
delivery, using the analogy of Masterchef to illustrate the importance of getting all the
‘ingredients’ just right. Andrew Whitehouse urged us to challenge the status quo regarding
the way we classify and treat autism. His explanation of the potential for screening tools,
such as eye gaze monitors and facial analysis, to identify children who are at risk of autism
at 12 months of age, and the implications for significantly decreasing the burden of disability
associated with the disorder is simply mind blowing. On the last day of the conference,
Susan Ebbels planted the seed for continuing research as she showed us the benefits and
relative ease of conducting research within our own clinical sphere. Through her presentation
she addressed many of the daunting knowledge gaps that clinicians often find deterring
when considering conducting their own research.
The need to be connected with society and the difficulties often faced in the quest to
communicate was a consistent theme throughout the conference. Encouragingly, this was
always followed by the challenge of how we as speech pathologists can ‘make waves’ of
difference by continually looking for new and innovative ways to deliver the best service. As a
student, I was in the privileged position of being free to imagine what it would be like working
in any of the clinical areas that I heard about, without concern that it was outside my practice
domain. The conference also provided an opportunity to strengthen my connections with
students from La Trobe University and ACU. We enjoyed sharing what we learned during the
different conference sessions and it was fascinating to compare the (quite different) structures
of our respective courses.
I would like to extend an enormous thank you to the Department of Speech Pathology
and Audiology, in particular to Elaina Kefalianos, Matthew Poole, and Angela Morgan, for
giving me the opportunity to attend the conference. My enthusiasm for speech pathology
has continued to grow and I am excited to transition into the world of clinical practice and
further research, which I now know are by no means mutually exclusive. The conference itself
certainly lived up to its theme of ‘making waves’ and I hope that I am also able to make some
waves of my own in the future.
Sarah Draper
Master of Speech Pathology
University of Melbourne
National Conference inspires