Speak Out August 2017 low res

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Branch News
August 2017 Speak Out 37
Tasmania
TAS 121
members
as at July 2017
In Launceston in June the Tasmanian Speech Pathology Australia Branch welcomed Dr Julie Cichero
to present her workshop Cervical Auscultation for Infants, Children and Adults with Dysphagia. This
workshop was well supported. Around 36 speech pathologists and speech pathology students from all
over Australia attended. There were participants from regional and rural locations including the Torres
Strait and Western Australia who added diversity of experience to the group. Throughout the day, Julie
introduced the participants to cervical auscultation (CA) of swallowing sounds and swallow-related
respiratory sounds for infants, children and adults. At the conclusion, the buzz of new knowledge was
evident in the room. Feedback from participants indicated they were keen to bring increased confidence
to their clinical practice in use of CA when completing a dysphagia assessment. I would like to thank
Sharon Crane for her support in organising the event and for always encouraging such inspiring speakers
to present. Thank you also to Kate Bridgman for her support as an additional Continuing Professional
Development Representative on the day.
Nicole Hatch
CPD Leader Tasmanian Speech Pathology Australia Branch
Decodable texts and LINC
Some members of the Tasmanian Branch have been working
with the Tasmanian Library service (LINC) to develop a list of
decodable readers and novels that are available for families to
borrow from libraries across the state. Decodable readers are
those that have carefully controlled vocabulary where the majority
of words can be “sounded out” as they have phonetically regular
spelling. As speech pathologists we know that the research
tells us children should be taught to read using a phonological
approach. Most classrooms however rely heavily on levelled
readers that focus on predictability or context for children to work
out unknown words.
If any Tasmanian speech pathologist would like a copy of the list
of LINC’s decodable readers please email the branch and we can
send it to you. A special thank you to speech pathologist Kate
Day who originally approached the branch with this idea and to
Jane McCulloch in LINC for all her efforts collating the information.
Speech Pathology Week
Speech Pathology Week is fast approaching (20–27 August)
and so there are a few save the dates for your diary! In Hobart,
the Salamanca Market stall event is booked for Saturday, 19
August. Calls for volunteers to help run the stall will be coming
out shortly. We will also be having a breakfast during that week in
each region so keep an eye out for details through your workplace
and e-news. There will hopefully be some media coverage in the
newspapers and local radio too. We do have some promotional
materials that we can send out of you would like to do a
workplace display so please email the branch for details.
Speech Pathology Week is a wonderful time to celebrate all the
things we love about our profession and to connect with your
colleagues so we hope to see you at a local event soon!
Workshop provides new knowledge